EARLIER this year I came in for a spot of criticism from the director of the West Midlands Local Government Association for my musings about the WMLGA's links with Africa.

Sid Platt suggested I ought to hone my analytical skills and reminded readers that the WMLGA offered all sorts of training courses - even in journalism - which could be of use to me.

What he didn't add was how people avoid going on these courses in droves.

An appendix to the esteemed association's out-turn accounts for 1999-2000, which were published a few days ago, notes that the income in the training activities account exceeded budget by £32,000.

One reason for that was the cancellation rate for training had been cut - from 47 per cent to a mere 30 per cent.