YESTERDAY was the day Cleveland Police had been waiting for - the chance of a fresh start.

We welcome Cleveland's new Chief Constable, Sean Price, to our region and we wish him well in the challenging task ahead.

He is right to insist that the accident-prone force must put the past behind it and concentrate on the future.

The increasingly depressing days, weeks, months, and years of Operation Lancet are not his concern.

He arrives at a time when hatchets have already been buried. Ray Mallon - the man accused by the previous Chief Constable of running an "empire of evil" - has skilfully negotiated a path through the minefield of bitterness left by Lancet.

As a result, sworn enemies are getting on with life on Teesside and Sean Price can add to the momentum Mr Mallon's efforts had brought.

Cleveland Police has many proud, dedicated and talented officers and we particularly welcome the new Chief Constable's battle-cry to come down hard on drug-dealers.

And yet, in the wider context, there remains a need to learn from the lessons of the past five years. An inquiry which lasted five years and cost millions of pounds of public money cannot simply be brushed under the carpet.

Will the public, who paid through the nose for Lancet, ever see an independent report underlining the way ahead as was promised?

When will the clear failings of a system, in which the police profession is expected to be its own watchdog, be laid bare and then fundamentally changed?

Sean Price's arrival on Teesside certainly signals a new start for Cleveland Police. He has our full support in the fight against crime which must always be a partnership between the police and local communities. It is now his force - not Barry Shaw's.

But a new Chief Constable does not provide a reason for Operation Lancet - and the maze of associated inquiries - to be consigned to history without an independent and public analysis of how such a farce can be avoided in future.