A mother duck and her ten ducklings have taken up residence in the rooftop garden of the Standard Life building in Canonmills, Edinburgh, which recently underwent a £20 million refurbishment. It sounds like a quacking location.

Margate would probably not feature on most people's list of contenders to become the UK's capital of popular culture.

Fending off competition from the likes of Bristol, Liverpool, London and Manchester, the Kent resort finally got the recognition it deserves in an announcement last month from the Prince's Regeneration Trust on proposals to upgrade the town's 90-year-old Dreamland complex.

Plans for an "amusement park of thrilling historic rides" also include a refurbished cinema that will celebrate Margate's "pedigree as the capital of popular culture", epitomised by its rich legacy in the fields of fashion, graphic design, music and photography.

"This is a real vote of confidence in Margate," says trust commercial director Rosie Fraser. "Dreamland shows how you can achieve a regeneration effect by taking the heritage of a place seriously." Why didn't they think of that on The Apprentice?

Wise men choose not to get between a Scotsman and his pint, as a publican in Aberdeenshire has found to his cost.

In 2007, David Cooper shut down the Midmar Inn, maintaining that he could no longer make it pay. He lodged an application with Aberdeenshire Council to turn it into a home. It refused the proposal, as did reporter Michael Shiel on appeal.

Now Friends of Midmar Inn Community Company wants to take the pub into communal ownership should it go up for sale. The ongoing row has proved a huge headache for Cooper - and it's not even hangover-related.

Broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby has raised neighbours' hackles after South Hams District Council approved a 15m wind turbine in his garden.

It represents something of a U-turn for the presenter of BBC's Any Questions? and On The Record. The former Campaign to Protect Rural England president used to be less than enthusiastic about turbines' impact on the landscape.

Now Dimbleby says he wants to do his bit for the environment. But other residents are more bothered about vistas they claim have remained unchanged for years, variously describing the turbine as an "eyesore" and a "monstrosity" in letters to the council. No-one said it's easy being green.

Consultation fatigue has been with us for some time, but ministers have gone over the top with some recent legislative proposals.

The RTPI, for one, has had enough. "While the institute recognises that there is a need to be comprehensive, we suggest that 188 individual questions may perhaps be excessive," says its official response to the draft Flood and Water Management Bill. Hear, hear.

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