FORGINGS manufacturers Garringtons, employers of 1,600 workers, were to be affected by a national strike. The work force was to answer a call for strike action from 18 engineering unions supporting a claim for better pay and shorter hours. But Garringtons workers had an individual agreement with the firm, which guaranteed them wage packets over £80, more than requested by the strike action. Branch secretary of the technical and supervisory arm of the AUEW (Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers), Trevor Porter, said there was nothing he would like better than for the dispute to be called off. He said: "We have nothing to gain by staying at home, only a day's pay to lose." Garringtons management said they knew the position the workers were in so there were no hard feelings.

MOTHERS in Stoke Prior gave the parish council a petition calling for them to improve playing facilities. More than 250 mothers had signed the petition asking for more things to do in the village for children and complaining about the equipment being broken. Thelma Roll of Hanbury Road said: "They let things get in this state and then wonder why youngsters stray on to the school field or risk their neck in the disused Townsend Mill."

A MOPED rider was injured when he was involved in a collision with a Mini Traveller in Windsor Street, Bromsgrove. Ian Williams, aged 39, of Warwick Avenue, was taken to hospital after the incident where he had rode into the council-owned car park.