IT USED to be you’d need a couple of boys in blue as a deterrent to potential trouble-makers, but things ain’t what they used to be with comes to bobbies on the beat.

But Poole Town Centre Management isn’t letting staffing issues get in the way of ensuring residents and visitors alike have a couple of friendly faces to help them out around the town centre.

David Kerley and Gary Antell, the street wardens patrolling the town centre, look like a strapping couple of lads to me and this can only go some way to dealing with part of the problem the town centre needs to address.

While a deterrent is always better than a reaction, it’s important the lads, employed by a security firm, have the wherewithal to deal with those problems and it certainly appears to be working.

That they happen to be putting a friendly face on it and helping everyone from lost children to injured shoppers is a real bonus.

l THE first thing to strike me on my only trip to Torquay years ago was its palm trees.

To be honest, there wasn’t much else to impress when you compare it to Bournemouth, but I’m a big fan of the boulevard of palm trees that’s sprouted up on Holdenhurst Road and sincerely hope the council helps the idea grow across the borough.

Perhaps a few hundred very tall ones on the Pier Approach might help matters...