Last weekend started with a meeting with the Chair and Chief Executive of our Hospitals Trust to hear about their plans for economies in advance of their release later today.

I then opened the Sure Start Children's Centre at Birchen Coppice. 
The facilities for very young children are superb and as these become better known they will be a tremendous help to more and more families.
The only sadness is that the inspirational Head teacher of the Middle School, Wendy Taylor, is leaving. She told me about her frustrations and I shall take them, with concerns from St Mary's CE First School, to the Director of Children's Services at my next meeting. We owe Wendy a huge debt of gratitude for her love, dedication and care for the children at her school for so long.

I then went to open the Summer Fayre at Sutton Park First School and was amazed to be assisted in the opening by not only Fluffy the Squirrel but Her Majesty Queen Victoria and Her Grace the Duchess of Kiddy. 
I could not stay very long but saw crowds arriving and the stalls available for them. It was good to hear that the Head teacher believes that plans are on stream for its successful development into its new role as a Primary School.

Last Saturday, I went to the 70th Birthday Party at Lickhill Middle School and it was a pleasure to meet some of my ex-patients among the "young" old boys and girls who attended the school, one in 1936 and several during the war. 
It was a joyous reunion for many and took me back to my own early school days in the north. It reminded me that we are looking forward to the publication this autumn of a book of local people's memories of the War years at home.

On Saturday evening I attended the concert in the Town Hall in aid of the Drakelow Tunnels Preservation Trust. 
This was a truly memorable event with Russell Painter, Beth Dunn and Sara Weaver well known, talented local musicians and visitors with equally sparkling talents, Anne Jones and David Stout. 
The highlights to me were The Pearl Fishers Duet and the Flower Duet and in lighter note two Flanders and Swann classics and items requiring three girls when only two lady singers were present. The baritone and then the tenor supplied the extra girl with ravishing aplomb. 
The serious aim of the concert was to raise money for the Trust and the profile of the unique, complex, historical site at Drakelow which comprises the tunnels, the Baxter Memorial, rock cut houses and Iron Age earthworks. 

I look forward to comprehensive plans and funding for the site's preservation to open it for visitors to complement the Severn Valley Railway, the Stourport Docks, the long awaited Carpet Museum and other sites of our rich local heritage.