THE Severn has certainly made its presence felt this summer but maybe some good will come of it. A thought occurred as I walked down Deansway one day during the recent floods wouldn't it be nice if this area could remain perpetually free of traffic?

There was I, sitting on a bench in St Andrew's gardens when I suddenly had this vision of what could be, if a little imagination and no small degree of municipal bravery were displayed.

Perhaps it's a sign of getting older, but having daydreams is no bad thing.

So how about a pedestrianised area from the Cathedral island, linking up with the Glover's Needle grounds, and stretching down to the river?

Ideally, the Tech building would be bulldozed, but that would merely kill two birds with one stone - an ugly building and the sight of even uglier students would be erased in one fell swoop.

Once this eyesore had been razed to the ground, an entrepreneur with vision and pluck might be found, and a swanky riverside restaurant could well be the result.

Worcester is hardly blessed with hotels and a really good one would not go amiss. Meanwhile, existing green areas could be landscaped, trees planted in aesthetically-sound positions, and the rest of the space laid with herringbone paving.

That's the easy part - the hard bit is actually putting it into practice.

Any takers?

* WORCESTER early on a Saturday night not always a pretty picture.

Yet it is one that would probably have been recognisable to Hogarth, the great 18th century cartoonist.

His speciality was grotesquely overweight individuals with florid faces, blubber lips, bulging eyes and brutish demeanours.

He always created scenes of aimless chaos, a world of casual vulgarity, mindless cruelties, excess and overweening stupidity.

Sounds familiar?