BRITAIN was on the verge of "industrial anarchy" the vicar of Stoke Prior, the Rev Harold Goddard, declared in a scathing article in his parish magazine. He was referring to the seemingly never-ending strikes that were disrupting the country. Workers at Longbridge and ambulance men were the latest to join a long list of workers who were either on strike or who had been. Soiled laundry from hospitals in and around Bromsgrove, which was piling up because of a strike by public service employees, was to be destroyed.

THE programme for the annual Catshill Music Festival revealed there would be 86 classes. But with cash tight and the district council refusing to increase its grant, the future of the event looked to be in jeopardy.

A REFUGE for battered wives was to open in Bromsgrove. The Gateway Project had secured suitable premises capable of accommodating three families.

LATE night extensions at pubs in Bromsgrove were not designed to allow drinkers from elsewhere to come to take advantage of them, the town's top cop Chief Inspector Harold Radcliffe told magistrates at the annual Brewster Sessions held at the magistrates court. Extensions were for special occasions, such as dances and musical evenings while drink was ancillary he said.