WHOOPS !!!........

We`re having a regime of `traffic calming measures` installed in the main street through our village. These are being provided so that traffic will be encouraged away from the village centre and on to the recently constructed by-pass.

Strikes me as a little odd that traffic has to be encouraged onto a brand spanking new road which avoids going through the middle of the village, but who am I to question the wisdom of officialdom?

Yesterday morning, a wayward pneumatic drill sliced through the water main, sending a spectacular sheet of water soaring into the sky. The village green became flooded and an air of panic and confusion descended on the traffic calming gang.

At a stroke, our water pressure dropped - there was barely a trickle coming from the taps and we resigned ourselves to the prospect of having a dribble rather than a shower. Now, the inconvenience we may have suffered was minimal and temporary, with the water main being repaired and the supply back to normal in a few hours. But it did bring it home just how awful the effects of the recent floods must have had in Yorkshire, Worcester, Gloucester, Cheltenham and especially Tewkesbury. The water supply to Tewkesbury was restored only yesterday after about two weeks.....and they still can`t drink the tap water even if it has been boiled.

We had a brief `taste` of being without yet another service which we take for granted yesterday and it was disconcerting. Thank goodness it`s summertime, so at least some people were able to make the most of it:-

It is indeed an ill wind that blows no good and, as the summer progresses and the work on the traffic calming continues until October, who`s to say we won`t have a repeat performance? Now, where did I leave my pneumatic drill?