Mr. Alan Todd:

As a newly promoted inspector some years ago, on most Monday mornings when I came into the police station, there would have been one or two dogs tied up in the back yard, having been fed all weekend. When I asked what the dogs were doing there, I was told that it was because the dog warden did not work at the weekend. The dog warden worked for the council and finished work at 5 p.m. on a Friday and did not start again until the Monday. The police were looking after the dogs in the back yard because that was what we did. It extended to a conversation about how there had been noisy parties at the weekend, yet the council noise enforcement officer had not been out because he or she did not work at the weekend. We are in a changing society, in which there are issues with substance and domestic abuse which peak at the weekend when most of the support structures are not working, just the police.