Promising 'the world's largest collection of British road transport', this museum has much to live up to.
It also has to answer the question: can motor transport be made interesting and exciting for the younger visitor?

Many six-year-old children have moved on from pushing and parking toy cars in garages, so what happens next to inspire them about old cars and buses, and world record-breaking vehicles?

Somehow it’s much easier with vintage trains – you can touch them, ride on them and even use them as part of a scheduled journey. York’s railway museum is fantastic.

At Coventry, those options don’t apply so you mainly walk round and, er, look at them (except for the Thrust simulator which young children are not tall enough to qualify for).

The publicity blurb for this free museum (yippee! Why aren’t they all free?) boasts thrills, nostalgia, education and inspiration. From a morning’s visit, I would say there is plenty of nostalgia, but it’s a little short on the rest.

The interactive area had a car to build, a computer game, and some crayons – that was about it, plus a large empty space and some stacked chairs.

Museums need to learn that children want to do things – press buttons, pull levers, wind things up, turn steering wheels and so on. There’s a wonderful room in the Science Museum devoted to just this.

Coventry has the potential to do the same, but is the will there? John Howes

Verdict: Lacking thrills.

From my arrival in Leamington this morning, it was clear that a significant disaster was unfolding.

The road into Leamington from Cubbington was totally blocked, with dozens of drivers doing U-turns in the middle of the road to escape the flood water.
When I arrived at the office, readers were already sending their accounts of the dramatic night in. There was a video from Radford Semele (a dramatic one - look at our website), and loads of pictures from Lillington and Cubbington showing water which, in some cases, was waist-deep.

What is clear is that Leamington is very susceptible to flooding. Yes, it was a bad storm but there have been worse. My sympathies go to those residents whose houses have been flooded, possessions damaged, and summers wrecked.

I was around at Easter 1998 when the really big flood hit. Have we learned enough lessons from that disaster? Let me know your thoughts.

Sex, football, beauty queens

Last week, the Courier re-launched its website, www.leamingtoncourier.co.uk

And there's a new feature. We can now tell exactly how many people are reading each story we post on the site.

For the first time, we know what you are really interested in - and we can tell how successful we have been in making a difficult or complicated subject accessible to readers.

The results from the first few days were enlightening, if not toally surprising. In Leamington, one of the top stories featured a sex case up before the courts. Reports from our sports department about the future of Leamington FC were next best rated. And over at our Warwick website, a feature about a beauty queen, including a picture gallery, was the most popular story.

Rather predictable you might think, but then there's the odd surprise. This morning (Monday), one of the best playing stories is simply a list of election candidates for Warwick District Council. So no one's interested in politics then?

You can see what's most popular yourselves by scrolling down the front page and looking at the list. Who knows, there might be another surprise soon.

Several readers have contacted us about a UFO seen in Warwick.
Last week, we published this picture which appeared to show an alien spaceship over Warwick.
Reader Steve Adams, an education consultant, sent us this picture taken at about 8pm last November at St John’s, Warwick.
He said: “I had just been to buy a Domino’s pizza when I saw this. It certainly looks like a UFO to me. What do you think?,” he added.
This week, three more readers contacted us with their pictures of the unusual occurrence.
Peter Gogerly of Hampton-on-the-Hill snapped the picture from his back garden. He is convinced it is an unusual cloud phenomenon.
Geraint Williams of Thickthorn Close, Kenilworth took his picture from his back garden. He said: “Could we be in line for another Roswell Incident?”
Photographer Elaine Mercer of Bishops Itchington took her picture for her studio when the sky got dark.

Readers’ views are welcome. Just go to our website and click on Comment Now. www.leamingtontoday.co.uk