SO, in the end no surprise that the decision to close public toilets in Malvern, Upton and Tenbury should have been upheld at this week'smeeting of Malvern Hills District Council.

There could really not have been any other outcome following the leaking of Coun Clive Smith's email to fellow Liberal Democrat members in which he stated: "It is absolutely VITAL that we are at maximum strength in order to bury this once and for all and maintain the confidence of everyone at MHDC that we can deliver, or we will be finished as an administration."

Quite why the Lib Dems are so concerned about 'delivering' cuts in a public service the council ought to be providing is a mystery to us.

The real test in an economic climate in which the private sector is increasingly having to look at restructuring and compulsory redundancies, is surely whether councillors have the courage to make the same kind of decisions about their own organisation.

WHILE QinetiQ's sponsorship of the Cheltenham Science Festival is, of course, to be applauded, we can't help but be slightly disappointed that its embryonic plans for a smaller science event here in Malvern seem, as yet, not to have come to anything.

We were among a number of organisations and individuals who attended an event at QinetiQ a couple of years ago to talk about launching a Malvern-based science festival.

At that event there were many good ideas discussed and a great deal of enthusiasm. It would be a shame if that spirit were lost as QinetiQ focuses on its commercial future.