THE next meeting of the West Malvern Garden & Nature Club will be on the Tuesday, April 19 when the speaker will be Roger Umpelby, who will be talking about Pest and Disease Control without Chemicals. As usual the meeting will be at Village Hall and will start at 7.30pm. The club has also organised a walk through the West Malvern countryside led by Eric and Rita Hollands. This will start from the Dingle at 10am on Tuesday, April 26 and, according to Eric, is a reasonably easy four mile walk with a few stiles. Afterwards it will be back to the Brewer's Arms where liquid refreshments and a snack lunch can be purchased – all are welcome.

There are several services on at the Church over Easter; but if you find it difficult to get there and would like to receive Holy Communion at home over Eastertide, please get in touch with one of the clergy, who are always glad to help. Also, if any parishioners would like to have a loved one remembered in prayer at the Easter Sunday service, they should put names on the sheet of paper on the table by the pulpit or speak to Rosemary Herbert.

It was the West Malvern Annual Parish Meeting on Monday evening and the guest speaker was Rod Reynolds from the Safer Roads Partnership. A speeding issue had been brought forward by the Parish Council and he was reporting back on the data that had been collected from two locations on Croft Bank and West Malvern Road (hence the black boxes), during a period from February 1-18. I don’t have the space to provide all the details, but suffice to say that it was found that there was not a speeding issue on these roads. It was suggested by Councillor Raine that perhaps the speed limit should be lowered to make things safer, but sadly Mr Reynolds did not think this a viable option. He did, however, pick up on the point made about the speed of traffic down Old Hollow and will organise the collection of data for consideration. The other main issue, for drivers in the village, is the parking. Examples of gross disregard for double yellows, and other points on the West Malvern Road where difficulties were frequently encountered, were discussed at some length with Kevin Youds the Police Community Support Office – again, no solution, but these roads were originally cart tracks, no thought then of all these cars! Joyce Roberts presented the annual report and thanked all those who play a part in Parish business, and reports were given by other officers – I never realised that there were 143 footpaths in the village!. One issue was raised that needs your consideration; there were only five nominations for the coming Parish Council elections – so, no need to vote. However, two volunteers are now needed to be co-opted on to the Council; please think about it; the commitment is only for one evening a month. It’s an impossible task to cover everything discussed at the meeting, but lastly, as a point of information, it should be mentioned that the process of transferring ownership of the Village Hall from the Worcester Diocese to the Parish Council is proceeding, albeit slowly, Finally, a last reminder about the St George's Day Dinner on Saturday, April 23 at The Brewers Arms and advance notice of another event being organised by the Malvern Hills Community Foundation on May 21; a coach trip to Oxford – full details will be available at a later date.