MY daily newspaper informed me that the December retail price index which is used to calculate the state pensions has risen by 2.2 per cent.

Minutes of the Broadway Parish Council October meeting state that the parish precept for the year 2006/7 will rise from £65,000 to £72,600, a rise of 31 per cent (I make it 32 per cent) due to under funding in the past. This seems a strange statement when it was increased by £8,000, an increase of 17 per cent for last year.

Now the good news £28,000 is to be spent on the High Street pavements and £20,000 on the upper High Street, where has yet to be decided. The pot hole inspectors van was parked in the village recently.

REG STOKES, Station Road, Broadway.