AN investigation into a little-known Government outpost, tucked away on Daresbury Park, has made for some fascinating reading this week.

Only a handful of people were ever involved with Just Solutions International (JSI), an arms-length company established to market British justice know-how across the globe, at any one time.

But the tentacles of that tiny office on the outskirts of Warrington spread internationally, whether that was for supplying and training drugs dogs for the Seychelles or conducting drills for the Royal Oman Police.

If you think this is Through The Looking Glass time – just down the road from Charles Lutwidge Dodgson’s childhood home – you might not be far wrong.

Unfortunately for JSI, ambition overshadowed its moral compass, and plans to train up Saudi prison officers proved to be their ultimate undoing.

One swift legal challenge from the Gulf Centre for Human Rights followed, and justice secretary Michael Gove collapsed the whole enterprise last September.

Quite aside from shaking hands with prison governors whose regime includes a fairly liberal smattering of public beheadings and amputations, it now emerges, via the National Audit Office, that JSI was a staggering waste of cash.

While officials may have secured tens of thousands of pounds from other sterling upholders of human rights, such as Nigeria and Libya, its existence ended with the books showing a £1.1 million loss to the taxpayer.

This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t capitalise on some good old-fashioned British common sense when it comes to everything from imposing martial law to digging sewers.

But it’s another illuminating yet cautionary tale, as Whitehall looks to flog off everything, from air traffic control to the nation’s ‘green’ investment bank, and force town and county halls to get into bed with private industry.

JSI isn’t the only quango or government function to call 'Greater Warrington', and its business parks, home, so watch this space.

  •  LIKE many I’ll be slightly saddened if the old water tower off Barbauld Street is pulled down. If it means bits of it not landing on the heads of passing shoppers, it’s looking like an inevitability.

Principally it must be the owners who carry the can on this occasion, so we’re not talking about another old Boteler Grammar situation, which saw the demolition of the School Brow landmark after years of council inactivity.

Lee Birchall, a friend of Podium’s, forwarded the masterplan he drafted for the old cabinet works, dating back to 2014, which pointed the way towards a brighter future for the location.

It should be a matter of regret that this didn’t kickstart a wider redevelopment of this hidden corner of the town centre, though it’s not a brickbat I could lob in WBC’s direction on this occasion.

As progress is made on Bank Street, the university technical college is taking shape and there might even be movement on the spare land opposite Boultings on Winwick Street, there’s plenty to cheer at the moment.

But that doesn’t mean smaller battles can’t be fought and won and hopefully Warrington Civic Society will be our watchdogs in that regard.

  •  IN the spirit of a more positive 2016, let’s finish on a high note though, with the imminent launch of the new Victoria Park Stadium, home to Latchford Albion.

Major kudos to the club, including director of rugby Michael Byron, the aforementioned Mr Birchall and a certain Mike Cooper, of Warrington RLFC and St George Illawara fame.

This Saturday will see Warrington Wolves reserves take on their Wigan counterparts, before Albion clash with Bank Quay Bulls. Fun starts from 11am and I hope to be somewhere in the vicinity.