Business, advertising and the emergency services have provided the topics in recent meetings.

Alan Knight is commercial manager with Walton & Hipkiss, and chair of the Hagley Business Association. He showed members plans and explained the likely housing developments over the next five years.

The main one is for 230 houses proposed by Carla Homes, south of the roundabout in West Hagley. The original plan is being revised slightly to alter access arrangements.

The next site is in Western Road where approval has been given for 37 new houses. A proposal for12 houses on the site of the Prince of Wales pub has not yet been approved.

Rob Muir is MD of The Bottom Line, a local, full-service, digital advertising agency. His dramatic visual aids covered his career in consumer brand advertising.

The market is rapidly moving away from TV onto new media, ie. internet/ web-based sites for e-commerce, so his company specialises in developing new and maintaining web sites for many well-known brands.

Keith Chance is North Division Commander of Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Services. They have 27 stations covering an area of 1,514 square miles and 737,000 people.

With an annual budget of £30million, they employ 865 people, and last year had more than 14,000 calls resulting in 8,140 incidents attended.

Thankfully their performance is steadily improving with the least number of primary fires, the highest number of home safety checks carried out and the smallest number of false alarms calls.

Ken Peck, the club’s longest serving member, also gave a nostalgic talk and amused his audience greatly with a variety of jokes and anecdotes about each of the club members.

To find out more about the club, please call David Dewhirst on 07966 116612.