PARLIAMENT is being recalled for one day on September 24 to debate the Iraq issue in a way I am led to believe that will be designed to avoid Government embarrassment.

I hope to report on this next week.

Last week I spent several hours with Insp Alan Baldwin visiting rural parts of our police division.

I have good news from him for all of us. With the Government money Wyre Forest is due to get, we will see 34 new officers in the next three years.

By the end of this year, Insp Baldwin has every hope that his team available to cover Bewdley and Stourport will increase by more than 100 per cent.

This will allow a more visible police presence in the two towns. Plans for the alcohol- free zone in Bewdley may then become enforceable when and if they are approved.

Acceptable behaviour contracts, which are the step before anti-social behaviour orders, may also become easier to supervise.

Because of the stress on staff at Bewdley and Stourport these improvements cannot come soon enough.

The Hagley Police Station is fully staffed because it is seen as the gateway to Wyre Forest and already there are plans afoot to improve the effectiveness of this as a barrier between Birmingham and Kidderminster.

Another exciting day was spent with Mark July and John Bingham of English Nature.

We visited Puxton Marshes and saw the beginnings of their dream of restoring this area to its original wetland status in conjunction with the Kidderminster Flood Defence Scheme.

On the Rifle Range at the Devil's Spittleful I saw what they are trying to do to return it to natural heathland. Plans in both these areas involve the use of livestock like belted galloway cattle that can eat almost anything and thus keep down scrub and allow heath and marshland plants to flourish.

To think that we could have two entirely different nature reserves with public access within a mile of Kidderminster town centre is very exciting.

There are more Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Wyre Forest than in some other entire counties.

This is, of course, a superb asset but maintenance is a drain on limited resources.

Amazingly, animals like the belted galloways are an essential part of the answer.

I have had useful meetings with the chief executives of the West Midlands South Health Authority and the Wyre Forest Primary Care Trust and in London with the president of the Royal College of Physicians and members of a working party on local hospitals at the Nuffield Trust. I shall report on these in due course.