WE'VE all heard about the north/south divide.

Eastenders versus Coronation Street, Manchester United versus Arsenal, Blur versus Oasis.

Posh southerners drinking Pimms and looking down their noses at people living north of Birmingham, with our whippets, flat caps and meat and potato pies.

But could a different and potentially more serious north/south divide be emerging here in Warrington.

Because according to new statistics, it is people living in districts north of the Mersey in the town that are less likely to be able read and add up properly than those living in the south.

More than one third of adults living in Bewsey, Hulme, Longford and Westy have poor numeracy and literacy skills according to fresh national figures, with a further one in 10 adults in these areas having "very low skills" - some of the worst levels in the country.

And it is areas in the south of the town, such as Lymm, Appleton and Grappenhall, that have the lowest number of adults in the poor performing category, that are helping to keep Warrington's overall results better than many other UK towns.

The evidence shows that new initiatives are needed to encourage adults to seek help, according to Julia Dowd, executive director of the Cheshire and Warrington Learning and Skills Council.

And Clr David Keane, the council's executive member for education and lifelong learning, said it was important that all the agencies within the town work together to improve standards.

He added that the inner wards in the town, such as Bewsey and Longford, needed the most attention.

"It is a case of not just the council but us working in partnership with other agencies in the town and trying to get employers to train staff as well," he said.

"This is something that the council, in partnership with the Learning and Skills Council, has been looking at for a while and something we have got to do an awful lot more work on.

"The library service has been running bite size courses to get people back into training and come back to education," he added.

But at school level, success seems to come across the borough. Fairfield CE Primary has been named among the top schools in the country by Ofsted while Twiss Green Primary in Culcheth and St Joseph's Primary School in Penketh were top of last year's primary school tables.

So is the south of Warrington cleverer than the north? Do the boffins lurk in Bewsey or are geniuses living in Grappenhall? E-mail your views to gdunning@guardiangrp.co.uk or write to the newsdesk, Warrington Guardian, The Academy, 138, Bridge Street, Warrington, WA5 3EQ.