A POINT is being missed regarding the comments of Councillor Gareth Jones about the Northwick theatre.

It is not that the future of the particular building is in doubt - it has been for a long time now.

The point is surely the paucity of the imagination displayed by the councillor about a potential alternative use for it.

Apartments. Yet more apartments to match the ones being build in the old Kays building, the Victoria Institute, the Diglis development, the developments along Friar Street, opposite St George's Church.

The comments made by the councillor reflect the attitude of our current council towards the city. Strikingly reminiscent of the 1960s, heritage, cultural, and historical aspects are consigned to the rubbish bins of "unaffordable" or "not within the strategy" or simply "not for us."

Take the museum of Local Life for instance - originally mothballed but now thrown away for closure - and they are spending how much on St Martins Gate car park by comparison?

Can we trust the Commandery and the Art Gallery to these people, not to mention the Arts Workshop and the good work being done by the centres across the city but outside the centre?

How soon before this falls to the "unaffordable" or "not in the strategy"? The mess over the Swan gave a glancing light on how the current ruling group see culture.

Where is it mentioned in any tourism guide? Is this all we have to offer them now - apartments, shops - that let's be honest simply match elsewhere - and the odd bit of clean pavement.

Well, the High Street but not the places that are not immediately visible.

Our history is important, our culture is important and it is things such as this that improve the quality of our lives in Worcester in many ways.

When I first moved here merely three years ago, the place had a reputation as a lively cultural place. It is, alas, becoming as another correspondent noted "a dormitory town for Birmingham and other places."

For the Mayor - and this is supposedly the First Citizen - to suggest that the Northwick should simply become apartments betrays the level of thought that the current ruling group gives to the quality of life of its citizens.

STEVE QUICK,

Worcester.