FURTHER disturbing news reaches Podium Towers about the deployment of the thinner blue line this week.

Fifty-three police community support officers have been given training on enforcing littering laws and dog control orders in Orford Park.

The age-old arguments on the establishment of PCSOs and policing ‘on the cheap’ are well-rehearsed and I don’t intend to delve into them again here.

But am I alone in harbouring greater ambitions for our ‘hobby bobbies’ than becoming glorified park wardens?

Is it preferable to feel safe walking the streets of Bewsey and Dallam, Chapelford and Westbrook, or be content in the knowledge that there’s no dogs wandering around off their leads halfway across town?

In a world in which the majority of detected crimes will soon be equal to the ‘offences’ officers can successfully pin on you via Facebook, Twitter or WhatsApp, this is more than slightly concerning.

I’m sure there are people out there who barely step foot outside of the door, who are comforted by the repeated reassurances given out on Cheshire Police’s social media channels, about winning the war on crime/littering/rogue dogs.

Some of us who occasionally wrench themselves away from the monitor or tablet to plod the streets see a slightly different picture.

  •  Twenty years in local newspapers would have turned Mother Theresa into a habitual liar and procrastinator. So when I faithfully pledged to our deputy editor that I wouldn’t venture near The Wire’s misfortunes until the end of the ‘Super’ 8s, that was of course a massive fib.

In certain quarters, Podium’s use of the phrase ‘desire’ in connection with WRLFC’s situation, appeared to rankle (for which I must apologise to my colleague Alex Bysouth, who seems to have got it in the neck by proxy).

But then Tony Smith himself deployed the equally abrasive adjective ‘pride’, ahead of the Wigan Warriors clash, and we’re all still smarting at the capitulation that followed.

Fickle souls have been calling for a change at the helm, with the laughable logic being that Smith has ‘lost the dressing room’, and other ill-informed internet twaddle.

In an injury-ravaged season, we’ve failed to deliver. It’s not a late-Wilderspool style crisis, simply a team in transition.

Certain players have not been up to expectations, and other hopefuls may never make their mark.

Tough decisions lie ahead which could, and perhaps should, shape the careers of squad members, young and old alike, who are no longer ‘Wire calibre’.

If Sandow doesn’t find his feet properly next term, and the likes of Gidley, Linehan and Hughes fail to ignite, and some of our present crop don’t regain their composure, then I’ll start wailing like a wounded keyboard warrior.

  •  Only terminal sad cases get all excited about local government electoral boundary reviews.

However it does provide a fascinating snapshot of the rise and fall of the fortunes of particular parts of the borough.

Minor tinkering is proposed as part of the latest review, which will be interesting to future sociologists and insomniacs alike.

If nothing else it shows the inexorable rise of a thriving patch like Chapelford, which would combine with Old Hall to form its own ward, subject to the consultation being approved.

And the ancient kingdom of Thelwall looks set to be incorporated into a new ward with ‘Lymm North’, also leaving a new southern division for Lymm.

This would represent an intriguing rise in representation for Lymm, in whole or in part, to five councillors from three.

Quite possibly the nicest little ward in the borough, Hatton, Stretton and Walton, would disappear under the recommendations.

Though I’m sure the present encumbment, Tory leader Paul Kennedy, has a grand plan about that ahead of time.