● WORCESTER opinion seems split over whether the flood protection earthworks in Hylton Road will do the job or even whether they are worth the expense and disruption.

Many people have been dismayed by the loss of trees.

Agreed, the contractors cannot compete with the rate of recent arboreal devastation achieved by our leading supermarkets, yet it was still sad to see the riverside foliage hacked down.

Now, no one feels a greater sense of hurt than me when a tree is cut down.

But we have to ask ourselves what the alternative might be – the householders in Hylton Road would face the permanent threat of inundation.

I’ve even heard people suggest that the houses should have been abandoned to the rising waters – how crazy is that?

I remain convinced that the bund will not fail its first major test if we have a wet autumn and winter.

I’m not usually in the business of eating hats, but would still cautiously venture the prediction that these works will, in years to come, be seen to have provided the protection and security that our suffering citizens have craved for so long.

● THE dark evenings approach and so more of us will be finding ourselves curled up in front of the television rather than grimly sheltering under the clematis with a glass of red and pretending that Britain actually has a summer.

Poirot, Strictly Come Dancing, Corrie… these will probably be the main fare as far as I’m concerned.

But where are the sit-coms that once had the nation glued to its sets, whatever happened to the great sagas that not so long ago held a nation transfixed?

The answer must be that quality telly has been largely replaced by reality TV, cheap watching that has now become the opiate of choice for the masses.

Sadly, the only real reality is the one that confirms television has now basically run out of ideas.

And everything which came before will one day be regarded as representing a golden age.