COMMUNITY Wardens – are they modern day angels patrolling our streets?

Or are they North East Lincolnshire's answer to Dad's Army's Capt Mainwaring – jobsworth to the point of the ridiculous?

Since their arrival on our streets, these men and women certainly seem to have made their mark, but not always for the right reasons.

Stories like today's only serve to add to that controversy.

In fact, rarely has this paper known such a response to a subject. Every time we publish a story about them, positive or negative, we are met with a flurry of emails, webviews and letters on the perceived worth of the wardens.

The overwhelming view seems to be that they are an ineffective waste of public money.

But, on the other hand, we have received a smattering of views praising their efforts – letters backed recently by leading councillors.

And, of course, we have to remember how people will also highlight and remember the bad, and rarely praise a good deed publicly.

This paper knows that more than most – the good news stories we run are plentiful and our efforts to help the community actually led us to win a major national award this year.

However, we are still criticised for being a paper which only publishes bad news!

It may be a similar scenario with our wardens – they may well carry out important and positive tasks that we actually never get to hear about.

However, it is important, surely, that every warden understands that they are in the public eye and open for criticism and therefore common sense and a degree of diplomacy should be an essential part of their job description.