HOPEFULLY the ceasefire called in the War of the Libraries can prompt some sobre reflections on provisions for the borough.

Abandoning the most ludicrous premise, that the country’s first rates-supported library should be replaced by shopping mall book lockers, was an eminently sensible step by LiveWire.

And perhaps this can kickstart a proper reflective discussion on how the service will look for 2017 and beyond.

If the parish councils of Lymm and Stockton Heath are ready to step in and offer alternative management arrangements, are there polls or surveys demonstrating support for this among villagers who may face increased precepts.

Will Padgate and Culcheth be the next suitable locations for a library to form part of a wider community hub? Penketh appears further down the road for this consideration and Westbrook’s potential offering might take more discussion.

(I’ll confess, as a former Birchwood reporter, to some little disappointment at the apparent lack of interest in the district library there).

And most crucially, does LiveWire’s contention that it would need £3 million to make some of these dreams come true bear scrutiny?

Podium has been clear – it’s one thing for WBC to hive off services to get them ‘off the books’ but clear oversight of their arms-length responsibilities remains essential.

  •  Once you embark on a life-affirming course of action, it only takes a few hours for the fates to conspire and chip away at that steely resolve.

Not that Podium is entertaining New Year’s resolutions, realising long ago that willpower and focus only truly belong to those maniacs who advertise on QVC and gym informercials.

Your correspondent has dropped 2st over the past 18 months through a carefully crafted regime of incessant swimming, a Chinatown moratorium and a microwave steamer (ignore the 2012 headshot).

And if a similar poundage can be shed before 2018, I’ll qualify for being merely ‘out of shape’, according to the British Medical Association.

One afternoon off though, indulging in the kind of social media research which makes this column North Cheshire’s premium weekly read, was enough to derail the Smug Express before it had even started taking tickets.

Culprit number one was those marketing geniuses at Mike and Martha’s on Winwick Street, who launched their Hangover Box to bolster Warringtonians’ vital signs after our festive excesses.

This carbs-laden feast was going free to a lucky punter who shared their Facebook post, which predictably almost melted my timeline.

Hopefully the eventual winner had a few helping hands to demolish all that chicken, ribs and chips.

Swiftly scrolling away from this temptation, a friend pointed out that a new player was signing up for the craft ale revolution.

Newton’s favourite son Rick Astley is looking to refresh those famous pipes with his own signature beer.

Working with a Danish brewery, he is developing a ‘fruity-tasting pilsner’, say reports, which easily trumps the woeful wines and champers tie-ins secured by his fly-by-night rivals.

If only he’d plumped for a stouter beverage then he could have gone with ‘Whenever You Need Some Body’ at the pumps.

Speaking of PR wizardry, the final hammer blow in the triple whammy came when it emerged that Lymm’s Simon Plumb was lending his spin doctoring to Black Death Vodka.

Unlike its Scottish and Irish cousins, sidestepping ‘Wodka from Varrington’ or anywhere more Baltic has never been a difficulty. If Simon’s mastery of the dark arts brings about a successful renaissance for the brand I’ll certainly drink to that.