VARIETY SHOW: In aid of the village hall appeal fund on Sunday evening, October 16 and organised by Phil Bawn, this brings together both professional and amateur entertainers in an evening of jazz, popular songs, folk music, comedy and community singing. This promises to be an entertaining evening at £6 per head (£5 concessions).

PARISH COUNCIL: The monthly meeting of the parish council was held last Wednesday evening, with no members of the public present and, therefore, no public forum. The first important item on the agenda concerned the putting together of a parish plan. The time is rapidly approaching when, if the village wants its views to be heard in discussions about future development, it must have ready a village design statement, a comprehensive document covering not only the possible physical development of the area but looking at all its resources, potential as well as actual. Councillors concluded that, given the size of the task, a special committee of villagers should be formed, independent of the parish council and with an independent chairman. To this end, an explanatory flier will be designed and distributed round the village in the hope that a person of suitable calibre can be found to take on this important task.

Flood alleviation was again under discussion, but satisfactory solutions seem to be as far away as ever. The long-delayed meeting between the various interested bodies had taken place but one fact which had emerged was that it would cost £2.8 million to solve all the flood problems in Wychavon district alone and the actual budget was counted in thousands, so, clearly, there are many faults which will not be rectified, one of them being the problem in Station Road, Harvington.

Following the recent problem which had arisen over the failure of Wychavon planning department to advertise the application to build affordable housing in Leys Road, this matter was due to be re-examined at Wychavon on the day following this council meeting, but the chairman warned that it was unrealistic to expect the planning committee to withdraw the permission to build which had already been granted. Drainage and the possibility of flooding were high on the list of questions about this development, especially when it was known that the engineer's alleviation plans were to protect the new houses, not the existing properties, and the chairman assured the meeting that he would do everything in his power to get additional protection for the existing houses written into the final agreement. A big question would be whether the county council would give assurance that the present system could take floodwater.