Further to Irene Mackenzie and Brian George's letter in the Journal January 10, regarding my comments on the Regal Cinema, I would like to make an open reply on the letters page, I could nip across the road and speak to them in person but they are probably not the only ones who have been incensed by the white elephant comment I made and I want people to understand why I made it.

Believe me I hate to see old buildings knocked down and replaced by modern structures and I am all for saving historical items. What's more I believe Evesham wants a cinema and I am happy to live and work opposite it, my argument is that getting the building listed was a big mistake. The owner is faced with ever increasing repair bills and dwindling customers, he has wages, heating, rates etc to pay he is not a charity, hard as a decision may be a business cannot exist on nostalgia, it has to make a profit. Now the building is listed repairs will be even more expensive and the very nature of the place now cannot be changed so how can it be made profitable enough to continue trading or attract a buyer? If the Save The Regal campaigners had managed to buy the building have they any idea how they were going to finance the necessary repairs and running costs and what would they have done when they found they couldn't? Unless the building is bought by a charitable institution, or financed by the council, it's probable future is to be shut down. This is what worries me and many other traders and residents of Port Street.

I am sure the staff are friendly and polite and multiplex cinemas are not a patch on the old style cinema for atmosphere. If all the cinema needed was a coat of paint why don't the campaigners oblige? I, for one, would be happy to supply a tin of paint and a brush. Yes you expect cracks and lines at 70 but this building needs help to grow old gracefully, who, now it has been listed, is going to do that?

SUSAN EARNSHAW, The Glassroom, Port Street, Evesham.