THINK it’s fair to say I am not a politician. I may harbour a secret desire to be one at some time in the future but that’s for another day.

I also think it’s fair to say I’m not a customer care expert or a digital marketer.

But I do have a passing interest in all those topics.

From time to time, I have to interact with the public – as do local poli- ticians – and if there’s one lesson I have learned it is you can never win an argument with a customer (or voter).

And you most certainly will never, ever win an argument with a custom- er (or voter) on Twitter or Facebook.

I mention this after the Mayor of Warrington Les Morgan (the titular head of a town that has aspirations to be a city) came face to face with protesters/campaigners on Monday night.

People turned up at the Town Hall to join the protest against the contro- versial local plan preferred development option as well as the proposed £195 million Western Link scheme.

After collecting more than 4,000 signatures on the ‘Scrap the Pre- ferred Development Option’ petition, Jill Osborne and her son Joey, four, were tasked with delivering the documents to the council in the shape of the mayor.

It didn’t go well and social media exchanges later in the evening made sure the world and his wife knew about it.

I think the word brusque rather than churlish best sums up the Mayor’s performance.

It wasn’t an edifying sight and Cllr Morgan has since apologised for any offence caused when he accepted the petition from little Joey.

Cllr Morgan later said: “I didn’t intend to cause offence but I acknowl- edge that I could and should have handled the situation better.

“For that I apologise unreservedly.

“I understand the level of feeling that exists within local communities and I would like to assure people that the council will continue to listen carefully to public feedback before any final decisions are made.”

I know everyone has perfect vision in hindsight and well done to Cllr Morgan for apologising and mitigating the effects of his gaffe but given that feelings are running high about both the Local Plan and the Western Link, surely a polite smile and a neutral greeting would have been much better than having to apologise.

  •  Local democracy was in action last week but if you blinked you might have missed it when Paul Warburton for Labour had a thumping victory in the by-election for Chapelford and Old Hall.

The election was called after Warrington South MP Faisal Rashid stood down following his General Election win in June.

The council has some big decisions to make over the course of its tenure so I have no problem with them filling Mr Rashid’s old seat.

But there were also two other elections.

Labour’s Kenneth Halliday won the seat for the south ward of Great Sankey Parish Council after winning 595 votes, with Conservative Mike Foxall coming second with 380 votes. Turnout was 15 per cent.

Joseph Doherty (no party) and Tory Phil Marshall won seats on Stretton Parish Council.

Mr Doherty got 110 votes, Mr Marshall 97 and the Green Party’s Lyndsay McAteer lost out with 50 votes. Turnout was 18 per cent.

Did we really have to go to the expense of having these parish council elections?

The poor turnout indicates a staggering lack of interest from the voters of Warrington and in these times of austerity, the money spent in running these polls could have been put to better use.

Parish councils can co-opt members if they have a casual vacancy and only have to run a poll if 10 electors for the parish submit a request in writing to the council’s Returning Officer.

I wonder then which electors thought it was a good idea to waste our money on these meaningless elections?