WORCESTERSHIRE MP and Communities Secretary Sajid Javid reckons many councils are in cloud cuckoo land over their own housing plans, firing them an ominous warning to start producing "honest assessments" of actual need.

If this doesn't put the clappers up our own elected leaders, The Source doesn't know what will.

Our own South Worcestershire Development Plan (SWDP) took nearly a decade to complete, cost taxpayers more than £1.3 million and sparked squabbles in every town, village and hamlet around.

And after all that, the final figure of 28,370 homes is only 2,200 fewer than what was contained in a previous, largely-derided blueprint, the Regional Spatial Strategy.

Yet since 2004 Britain's population has exploded by six million, homes are even more expensive, council waiting lists are as bad as they ever were and overcrowding in poor quality properties is a serious issue, that blights even many upmarket areas.

Is it time to start again?

* LAST week we told you how the coffers of councils across Worcestershire had been boosted by £37,000 thanks to the selling of the electoral register - your prized details - to third parties.

It's all very well saying people can 'opt out' of the particular version of this register which is flogged to vulture-like marketing companies, and it's also very well pointing out that our councils are the mere middle men in this rancid practice; they are following laws and orders from up above.

But ask yourself this: why aren't members of the public actually required to opt IN to the edited register?

Answer: because nobody in their right minds would sign up to a delightful avalanche of junkmail, meaning there'd be nothing left to sell.

* LABOUR Councillor Richard Udall has been upping his game in the fashion stakes, appearing at more than one meeting sporting a trendy polo shirt with 'Labour Friends of Ice Cream' emblazoned on it.

If you've never heard of this campaign, I don't blame you - I've tried Googling 'Labour' and 'Ice Cream' and all I get is pregnancy tips.

* BEDWARDINE candidate Dan Walton, trying to get elected for Labour at Worcestershire County Council this May, has taken to publishing links to a list of unflattering news articles about Tory rival Alan Amos on his own campaign website.

And if that wasn't mischievous enough, visitors are also alerted to the ex-city Mayor's Wikipedia page, which is still reassuringly rich in colour and history.

No wonder Councillor Amos cut him an extremely icy look after the two ended up in the same room (awkward) at a planning committee meeting last week.

* WORCESTER MP Robin Walker has been purring along his own catwalk this week, but I'm not talking about the storm-ravaged streets of Stoke-on-Trent.

The Brexit minister has appeared in the unlikely pages of Drapers Online, a magazine for the fashion industry, where he insisted an EU exit won't hamper any fashionistas out there who may be concerned about how they'll flog their wares.  

All our man needs is a little yellow van with the words 'New York, Paris, Worcester' on the side.