A LIKELY U-turn on allowing lollipop men and women to work until they are 70 makes good sense.

Patrol staff are hard to find and the shortage has prompted Council chiefs to look again at the retirement age after extensive advertising failed to fill vacant posts.

Fit and able pensioners can make excellent patrols around schools, often adding the dimension of kindly grandparents to the work. It is foolish to scrap their experience and willingness to do an important job simply because of a date on the calendar.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.