AND so we wave a fond farewell to mayor Les Morgan who finally did the decent thing and resigned on Tuesday.

Frankly, it’s not before time – he should have gone long before now.

How many public apologies does one man have to make before the message gets home?

The list of gaffes and faux pas was just getting longer and longer until it reached the point where ‘the mayor that cares’ (yes those were his words) found himself in an untenable position.

The manner of his departure is completely academic, the reason for him having to give up the red robes and gold chain are much more serious.

Strike One: Calling for Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans to donate part of his salary to the town’s ‘more needy’.

That didn’t go down well and sort of set the tone for his term of office.

Strike Two: His somewhat churlish actions while accepting a petition from a four-year-old boy. It didn’t help that the whole sorry incident took place in front of a crowd of protesters, was filmed and went online for all to see.

Strike Three: As one comment on the Guardian’s website put it: “Rudely interrupting and harassing concerned members of the public doing their lay person best to express their concerns to council via the democratic/constitutional process.”

Strike Four: And finally, posting on a Warrington Wolves Facebook forum about players Toby and George King: ‘it’s a pity that their parents ever met’ and ‘they remind me of their Chinese counterparts FU and WAN’. (Yep, that’s the First Citizen of Warrington talking).

Yes, I know you’re only supposed to have three strikes before you’re out but the hitherto Teflon-coated Mayor somehow managed to avoid letting anything stick.

This sorry state of affairs provides an interesting insight into the way things work these days.

Members of the public can ask a question at an ordinary meeting of the council if they give written notice. There’s no opportunity for discussion on the matter but a supplementary question can be asked.

The council states: “No more than three questions shall be put at any one meeting and a time limit of five minutes shall apply per question to cover the asking of the question, the response and any supplementary question and response.”

So that’s quite clear then. Under controlled circumstances, members of the public have the right to speak and ask questions.

But I refer you to Strike Three: As Mayor, one of Cllr Morgan’s jobs was to act as an (impartial) chairman, not to ‘rudely interrupt and harass concerned members of the public doing their person best to express their concerns.

If nothing else, that should have provided what was euphemistically known in my organisation as a ‘training opportunity’.

I say euphemistically because we all know that ‘training opportunity’ is HR code for disciplinary action.

But if that was bad, the absolute PR disaster of Cllr Morgan’s reaction when he was presented with a petition by a four-year-old boy on behalf of Local Plan and road protesters had to be seen to be believed.

In both of these examples, this was Cllr Morgan interacting (badly) with real people in the real world.

And yet it is a social media gaffe that has finally brought about his demise as Mayor. So it’s the cyber world, Twitter stormers and Facebook warriors who have seen him off in a way that real people in the real world couldn’t.

In a way, I’m sad for Cllr Morgan. I’m told he is a good ward councillor for Latchford and he has also worked hard for his mayor’s fund that raises money for his good causes.

But I think it is now patently obvious that being Mayor was not the role for him.

And this is yet another example of how people just don’t realise that when they are on social media they are effectively broadcasting to the world.

It may feel like you are talking to your mate down the pub when you are posting your risque comment on Facebook or Twitter but there are millions of people ready and willing to be #outraged as your comments is re-tweeted and re-tweeted again.

And once that self-righteous #outraged indignation takes hold, there’s just no stopping it.

Lessons for us all, I think.

Written by our columnist The Fly in the Ointment.