IT was entirely predictable that when Bournemouth Borough Council suspended (or in the town hall jargon, placed on management leave) around 20 staff because of emails they had sent or had stored on their system, someone would leak the story.

Equally, it was very predictable that the council should come in for criticism for overreacting.

Part of the reason for that is the staff whose services are currently unavailable to the public who pay for them.

They include social workers and occupational therapists, and let no-one claim that these employees aren’t badly needed out there in the field.

To do so would be laughable.

The investigation (and I wonder how many people are working on this) was sparked after some staff received an email about Viagra and circulated it as a joke.

Once the staff have been interviewed and the necessary procedures gone through, most of them, no doubt, will be allowed back to work.

Why on earth someone in authority did not apply a little bit of common sense and give those involved a stiff talking to is beyond me. The mass suspension is unlikely to have done an awful lot of good for the council’s already overstretched services.

The human resources boss spoke yesterday about breaches of equality and diversity policies. To which the simple retort surely is: get a life Mr Griffiths.

The offending Viagra image has been passed around the Daily Echo newsroom and frankly it’s hard to see why anyone would take offence.

However, we haven’t emailed it to each other. Just in case.