BROMSGROVE community leaders wanted detailed information before they would accept that more than half of 117 homes modernised in Catshill suffered from varying degrees of damp. The complaints were raised at Bromsgrove District Council's housing and health committee after Bromsgrove MP Hall Miller and two councillors visited the estate. They found 61 homes had damp and in some mushrooms were growing out of walls. The authority's environmental health expert said condensation and rising damp caused the problems. Councillors called for a detailed study.

UNEMPLOYMENT for men in the district dropped by almost a tenth during February, when compared with January's figures. Labour Exchange boss John Newman said 386 men were out of work, compared with 430 the previous month. There was a slight increase in the number of women seeking jobs with 181 unemployed, ten more than in January.

A LANDSCAPE expert was to visit Wychbold and help Dodderhill Parish Council lay out allotments, a play area and a football pitch in one plot of land. Parish councillors wanted all three amenities on the village playing fields.