THERE will be some traders who will not be happy with this week's front page of the Malvern Gazette. We will be accused of "talking down" the town centre. That, of course, is not our purpose.

There is no question there are already some very good specialist shops in Great Malvern. You can, fitness permitting, walk up Church Street and find virtually anything you can get at Waitrose.

But, for whatever reason, the town centre is rarely as busy as others in the area and most agree that there are too many charity shops.

Malvern Hills District Council certainly believes there is a problem and it has a strategy to deal with it.

There is much talk of attracting more specialist shops, but you can't get the shops without more tourists.

Big strides were made as a result of the 1996 Town Centre Strategy. Its big misses were the failure to develop a major indoor attraction for tourists or to properly link up Waitrose with the rest of the town centre.

If the council does decide to move to new offices at Pickersleigh Road it would present a huge opportunity to develop some of the buildings it vacates for ideas like a Malvern Heritage Centre.

Of course Great Malvern town centre has a future. Our aim is to generate a debate and some ideas on which prompt action can be taken.