THERE are good things and bad things about the summer holidays.

One of the major benefits for me is that the roads are much quieter in the morning and evening rush hours, making my usually painful journey through the town and over Bridge Foot much more bearable.

But every silver lining has a cloud (yes, I really am a glass half empty kind of guy) and the downside is being exposed to hordes of teenagers when I nip into town for my lunchtime sandwich.

I’m not necessarily opposed to young people but I am starting to despair about the standards of behaviour of some.

And I have a particular problem with a couple of things – spitting in the street and swearing very loudly.

Last week, I witnessed incidences of both perpetrated by teenagers.

I am no shrinking violet and my tolerance level is pretty high but spitting just makes me cringe.

I am old enough to remember the days when it was commonplace to see ‘Spitting Prohibited’ signs on buses.

That was a hangover from the 1940s and 50s when tuberculosis was widespread.

Back in the day, perhaps when people’s sensibilities were a little less delicate and knowledge of how diseases spread was a little more sketchy, spitting in public was perfectly acceptable.

But that’s not the case today. In fact, until 1990, spitting was an offence carrying a £5 fine and a YouGov poll carried out a few years ago revealed almost three-quarters of the British public would welcome legislation to ban spitting in public, making it punishable with an on-the-spot fine.

You can count me in on that.

If spitting in public is one of my pet hates, it has an evil twin in swearing in public.

Now I’m no stranger to a little bit of ‘industrial language’ but it seems our young people are taking it to a whole new level.

Last week, I witnessed an exchange of ‘banter’ at Market Gate between what I suspect was two groups of friends.

It was loud and liberally sprinkled with fairly extreme four-letter words.

Given it is school holidays, there was a significant number of parents/grandparents with small children in the vicinity who were treated to a fairly disgusting verbal barrage.

Perhaps it’s time for a little social education in homes and schools about what is acceptable in public.

Or maybe I’m stuck in the ‘good old days’.

I’m certainly not posh. My working class credentials stack up with the best of them but my upbringing instilled a certain moral code.

My late mother would have been appalled to hear me swearing in public.

Which brings me to another little vignette from last week.

A young mum was loudly ranting at her little girl in a pushchair. The rant also contained several choice four letter words.

The child’s ‘crime’ was to have dropped her sausage roll on the floor.

Really? I despair.

  •  I SEE Warrington South MP Faisal Rashid is keeping up the pressure over the proposed Western Link road which will bypass the town centre and link Walton with Penketh or Sankey if it goes ahead.

He says it could become a ‘rat run’ for drivers trying to avoid the tolls on Halton’s Mersey Gateway Bridge.

The Mersey Gateways Crossings Board disagrees with Mr Rashid and a spokesman said: “The board’s initial feeling is that the [Western Link’s] potential to attract traffic from the Mersey Gateway Bridge is very limited.

“This is based upon information available to date and the board’s knowledge of the traffic modelling.”

Given the link hasn’t been built, I would ask exactly what information is available, how do they know it is correct information and do you trust ‘traffic modelling? I know I don’t. The response seems a little disingenuous to say the least.

I’m with Mr Rashid on this one. Please don’t give up the fight.

At the very least, residents of Warrington and Cheshire West and Chester should be exempt from tolls on the two Halton Mersey crossings as our previous MP and Chancellor of the Exchequer promised us.