Local News

Conservative Shadow Secretary of State for Defence, Dr Liam Fox MP, took time out of the Conservative Party Conference on Tuesday to visit Kidderminster. Dr Fox was accompanied by Wyre Forest's Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman Mark Garnier and the trip took in the rocket motor manufacturer Roxel, based in Summerfield.

Wyre Forest council tax payers face a bill of £1,500 to stage a pointless council meeting this week. The meeting has been called by Health Concern leader Howard Martin in order to table two resolutions. The first concerns the post office closures announced recently for Wyre Forest.

It is just one week since Wyre Forest learnt that four of its local post offices were to be closed. Now that the initial dust has settled, Mark Garnier is leading the campaign to reduce the number of closures from four, to just two, and has spoken with all the post offices concerned. Mark Garnier has been leading the campaign against Labour's post office cuts since the 17^th May 2007, when he first brought the issue to the attention of residents of Wyre Forest with a press release, followed up by his subsequent newsletters and further press releases.

The UK's annual rate of inflation has hit an annual 4.4% rise - the highest since the new CPI index was introduced in 1997. But looking deeper into the figures, food inflation is running at a massive 13.7%. Meanwhile, the older measure of inflation, the RPI (more commonly used in pay negotiations) hit 5%.