Only weeks after health minister Dr Gerard Vaughan opened Bromsgrove's prestigious high technology operating theatre a cash crisis was threatening its future. Hill Top Hospital, which specialised in hip operations, needed at least £150,000 a year to keep the "bug- excluding" theatre in existence. So far 55 operations had been carried out in the theatre, where the ultra sterility was achieved by a rapid downflow of air displacing airborne and personal bacteria and sweeping it away. Area health authority chairman Ted Meredith said he didn't know where the money would come from and three years ago it was anticipated considerably more would be available than there actually was.

Bayer UK Ltd, a company that owned a 30-acre site in Stoke Works, had just bought three adjacent sites totalling 50 acres at a cost of almost £800,000. The company was likely to use part of it for warehousing.

Wychbold had come up with a unique way to crackdown on vandalism. Youngsters who complained they had nothing to do were being encouraged to build themselves an adventure playground. The ambitious plans were for the wasteland near the village hall and included a swing, climbing frame and concrete tunnel. The village had been plagued by problems of minor vandalism so two parish councillors had put their heads together and decided to help the youngsters help themselves.

Members of Catshill Gospel Union were building a rocket, but not planning to launch it into orbit. It was its entry for the village carnival on June 7. The union had built a half scale replica of George Stephenson's Rocket, which was more than 12 feet long and six feet high. Another feature was a miniature railway and a seven-and-a-half-inch gauge track which would carry children and adults on a carnival ride.