MPs, the Progressive Labour Party's 1998 platform promised elected parish councils.

This was a promise which offered greater involvement in parochial affairs by more people and would do away with the do-nothing, appointed parish councils.

It would give Bermudians who wished to contribute the chance to do so, without the time demands that a seat in the House or the Cabinet requires. At the same time, it would be a good training ground for aspiring politicians.

Since Government is also intent on doing away with parish boundaries as a method of dividing constituencies, the elected councils would also provide some of the glue to bind these communities together.

And if the number of seats in the House is reduced, then elected councils would offset the reduction in representation.

That all makes sense, and for those people who are unhappy with the abolition of the existing parliamentary election system, it would go some way to easing their concerns.

The only problem is that it has not happened.

Soon after the 1998 General Election, Health and Social Services Minister Nelson Bascome discussed some of his ideas for the councils, including giving them some say over development issues in their parishes.

It is not clear now if the whole plan has been dropped or if more pressing business -- and Mr. Bascome has a big and demanding portfolio -- means that it has been put on the back burner.

But Government would be wrong now if it failed to introduce elected parish councils, either as an essential precursor to the other changes Government proposes, or as a much needed reform on its own.

DOING A FIND JOB EDT Doing a fine job Before becoming Senior Magistrate, Archie Warner was one of the Island's leading defence lawyers.

That caused fears among some people that he would be biased towards the accused when he went to the bench.

There has not been any evidence of that -- he seems to have been very fair so far in his judgments -- and more importantly, Mr. Warner has shown that he keeps his promises.

He said he would cut down the massive arrears on unpaid fines and he has done so. According to yesterday's Royal Gazette story, the arrears have been cut in half and as much as $1 million in fines has been collected.

There has been some concern that Mr. Warner and his fellow Magistrates' immediate jailing of people who fail to pay has led to some overcrowding in the prison.

This is likely to be a short-term problem as many of those jailed miraculously come up with the fines after a couple of days behind bars while people who previously believed they could ignore the fines will now pay because they know they will be jailed otherwise.

Mr. Warner and his colleagues can now turn to the final area where contempt of court is rampant; accused people who fail to appear for trial because they know they will not be made to forfeit their bail. People should either be required to deposit their bail in advance or have it taken from them when they are finally brought before the courts.