THIS year's exhibition in the Kidderminster Library by members of the Kidderminster Art Society is well worth a visit.

mq The variety of subjects and techniques is fascinating and one can vote for one's favourite.

Mine was an acrylic picture of late spring in Belbroughton by Shirley Bonas. This portrayed a glorious scene of sun and dappled shade along a path through a bluebell wood just as if one was walking along it.

Another striking painting was of the chaos of Trafalgar seen through the rigging and spars of a damaged ship of war.

On Saturday evening the local singers in the Kidderminster Valentines put on their excellent charity concert in aid of Kemp Hospice. Their guests were the Abertillery Orpheus Male Choir with the gorgeous sound typical of the best male voice choirs and the splendid soloist Kiera Lyness, who is going far on the professional soprano road. She charmed the audience and impressed with her coloratura agility in the Queen of the Night's aria.

At the electric blanket checking day last month 137 blankets were tested. A total of 70 passed, five were repaired and 62 failed as unsafe. Our thanks are due to all who made this vital scheme possible.

I met Wendy Taylor, the designate head for Birchen Coppice Primary School and Nick Parker, of the local Pathfinder project.

I was very impressed with their plans for the school as an extended school and hope we can obtain the support from the Children's Services Directorate for the ambitious plans that are necessary to provide great benefit for the local community in and out of school hours.

I will support their wishes for a sports hall and meeting and conference facilities as these are vital in this part of the town and could raise money.

I was interested to hear about the Mentor Link volunteers who provide valuable support on a one-to-one basis with some of our young people.

We now have a new Head of Children's Services and I plan to meet him as soon as possible.

At a Health Committee meeting, we explored with the Secretary of State for Health the deficits in the NHS and I hope that, following this meeting, we will get a more open admission from the Government of the size of the overall deficit.

They admit to a projected deficit for the current financial year of £620 millions but I suspect the total figure is higher.

The savings that our own acute trust and that in Shropshire have to make in 2006/07 total about £50 million and that is likely to be reflected across the country.

Although the Government have put in £6.5 billion to the NHS this year the committee's figures show that almost all of this is already committed, leaving uncertain efficiency savings to fund extra activity and staff to meet targets.