CONTROVERSY was stirring in the Gazette 25 years ago, with plans to spend more than £2 million of taxpayers' money on a new headquarters for Malvern Hills District Council.
The plans were being laid against the background of a public outcry over Hereford and Worcester County Council's new headquarters at Nunnery Wood and the proposed new Wychavon Civic Centre in Pershore. The paper reported that officers at MHDC has prepared a report on a similarly ambitious project for Malvern.
The project, said the Gazette, could mean an increase in the rates of up to 35 per cent - a prospect immediately denounced by Tory and liberal group leaders as totally unacceptable.
The proposal was for a combined council headquarters and depot on "Tomatoland", a derelict site off Pickersleigh Road.
The rationale was that many of the council's office buildings were said to be totally unsuitable.
Highlea was described as being wrapped in "Stygian gloom", Brunel House was "inadequate" and provided "sub-standard working conditions" and Priory Lodge hall in a "poor state of repair".
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