DIVINE providence seems to have struck at Worcester City Council, with a deal agreed to wipe off an annual £300,000 taxpayers' subsidy for sport and leisure under the £10.5 million Perdiswell swimming pool plan.

The Source is wondering just how many bottles of champagne were required to hatch this deal with a mystery operator - if the answer is none, let's chuck 'em a few over.

But more to the point, it wasn't that long ago that the likes of Labour Councillor Roger Berry was calling the Perdiswell project a "white elephant".

As Harry Enfield once said, I don't believe you wanted to do that!

* CARRYING on the minor miracle theme, only an intervention from God himself will surely keep Jeremy Corbyn as Labour's leader for too long, given the exasperated response from so many of his MPs.

Worcester Tory Robin Walker was talking to visitors from the Chinese Communist Party in Parliament on Wednesday alongside Labour's Liam Byrne, he of the famous 'there's no money' note for the old Coalition Government.

Mr Byrne told bemused Chinese politicians "if you see Labour MPs looking discontent, do feel free to put your arm around them", so miserable his colleagues were.

* IN the end being slightly to the right of Margaret Thatcher didn't work for Liz Kendall, who seems to have left an indelible mark on many of Labour's rank-and-file in Worcester.

"She's the English answer to Sarah Palin," says Councillor Simon Cronin.

* CHEEK of the week award goes to Malvern Hills District Council, which blithely ignored a Freedom of Information Request from Councillor Anthony Warburton on the outsourcing of bin collections despite promising a response by August 25.

But Councillor Warburton, who has called the snub a "gross discourtesy" before he did get a two line response on Wednesday, certainly isn't being singled out - they've got form for this.

Remember our story about councils across the county calling out bailiffs 10,000 times in a year, which debt experts hammered?

Only one Worcestershire council couldn't be bothered to respond to the FOI - yep, over at Malvern.