You reported this week that, as a part of the Boundary Review of Malvern Hills District wards, there is a proposal to change the name of Langland Ward to Pickersleigh Ward.

Indeed, the name Pickersleigh is given to item 18 on Page 18 of the Consultation Document. I thought such a change had to be approved by the Boundary Commissioners and question whether this is meaningful consultation.

The consultation document says that the name Langland is associated with the area around the Pound Bank and Elgar Estates. This is the most ill-informed and offensive statement that I have ever seen to come out of the district council on which I served for over 16 years. Ill-informed because the name Langland isn't about identifying any particular neighbourhood. It is a name that should be used with pride by everyone living in the ward.

"But one May morning in the Malvern Hills I met with a marvel that seemed made by magic".

So wrote the poet (and wandering friar) William Langland (circa 1330 1400) in the Prologue to Worcestershire's greatest literary work, The Vision of Piers Ploughman. We take enormous pride from our links with Elgar and Shaw etc and one of the council's proposals honours an early 20th Century benefactor of the town. Therefore, the proposal to abandon our medieval heritage becomes all the more bewildering.

The council's reasoning is offensive because it more than implies that other neighbourhoods in the ward would wish to disassociate themselves from the "Pound Bank and Elgar Estates", to the extent of expecting that the name will continue in "popular use referring to that part of the ward".

It really doesn't matter now whether the proposals are accepted or not. Quite exceptionally within the council's proposals, particular residents are identified as a main reason for changing the name of a ward. This will do nothing for the self-esteem and self-confidence of the residents living on those estates.

Should this proposal be accepted, I cannot imagine that local organisations would wish to continue to use a name that would continue to identify and perpetuate divisiveness.

Coun Jennette M Davy, Cedar Avenue, Malvern.