By Steve Stratford, News Editor

NEW Year, new problems. Regular readers might recall the difficulties we faced late last year when illness struck the newsdesk with a vengeance.
Well, Hogmanay sniffles have struck back, and at one point last Friday the Weekly News had just one reporter in work to do the job of five. And STILL the paper came out! You can't get rid of reporters that easily - they come vacuum-packed - and although we weren't back up to full quota by deadline day, we were certainly looking a lot healthier!

We have had a good response to our front page exclusive last week about the number of convicted police officers still in jobs at North Wales Police. We will be presenting a cross-section of readers' views in our January 18 edition, but I'll react to one correspondent in particular who has taken great umbrage at the story.
He felt our story was unfair in that it punished the convicted police staff for a third time, after being punished once by the legal system and again by their superior in the force.
What the angered correspondent fails to recognise is that newspapers have a responsibility to inform the public. Journalists act as messengers of public information, and most importantly information the public would never know if it weren't for some determined digging.
Yes it is true the convicted officers had been punished already, but seeing as not one single person was named or even remotely identified by our story, it's hard to see how they are being demonized again.
I maintain it is the general public's right to know that North Wales Police has convicted criminals on its staff. After all, the police are the defenders of the law, laws which some have been convicted of breaking themselves. But it was also a positive that the force was seen to deal with these cases in a professional manner.
Having said that, the tenacity the North Wales force uses catching speeding motorists probably means most private businesses, as well as public bodies, have criminals on staff somewhere!

Although not known at the time of writing, we should also have the outcome of the planning application to site a needle vending machine at the back of Colwyn Bay police station. Councillors were being recommended to approve it, but we shall see what wisdom they impart during the debate.

Other things that made me smile this week include the anonymous caller who rang in to ask if we would sign the Save Colwyn Bay Pier online petition on her behalf, as she did not want to give her name; and the petty squabbling at the heart of a story on page 9 this week about the location of a mobile phone mast in Llanfairfechan. Sometimes the story behind the story you see in print is much more amusing... !

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