LAST week my cash card and some money were stolen and I must pass on lessons I have learnt.

• Never use a cash machine alone in a crowded place, or when carrying luggage.
• Always shield your PIN number from prying eyes when keying it in.
• Carry your cash card number and the telephone number for reporting its loss.
• Control your temper. It is useless and risky to chase the imagined robber - the person you have seen is unlikely to have your property.

I received excellent service from my bank on reporting the loss. If you wish to make a claim you will need a crime report number supplied by the police force with responsibility for the area in which the crime took place.

You can report it to your local police station but, helpful as they may be, they cannot give you the all-important number.
At the time of writing I am still waiting for mine from the British Transport Police.

Last Friday I attended a seminar organised by Wyre Forest Business Forum to study the needs of our area to attract industry.
Discussions centred around transport links, development land, car parking and the nationwide perception of Wyre Forest.

As I discovered when I arrived at the House of Commons, no-one knows where Wyre Forest is, let alone what a good place it is in which to live and work.
How do we, its residents, advertise it?

The seminar concluded with an address by Digby Jones, director-general of the CBI. This was stimulating and emphasised some of the problems - for example, the labour costs involved in production of simple items, which means we cannot compete with other parts of the world.
He quoted the motor racing industry as an example of successful restructuring and innovation necessary today.

Care and training of the workforce and industry's duty to youth were other themes, after reminding us of the shocking fact that one in five still cannot read or write in the UK - a far higher proportion than, for example, in India.

The incinerator inquiry has started and I was glad to see objectors outside Kidderminster Town Hall on the first day.

I was able to attend the meeting of League of Friends of Kidderminster Hospital and heard of the success of our rehabilitation ward and of the progress of CHART, the independent academic study into the effects of the downgrading of our hospital.

We await the conclusions of this study with keen interest.