THE condition of the flagpole which stands at the crossroads in Church Street, Great Malvern, has been raised on more than one occasion in our letters pages and we can't believe that what could be a real asset to the town centre still stands neglected.

While there are moves in hand to bring about the regeneration of Great Malvern Town Centre, the pace of change is too slow. At a recent meeting of The Malverns Experience partnership, the idea of moving the market from outside the Council House to Abbey Road was mooted - it's a good idea, let's do it.

The flagpole stands as a rusting symbol to Malvern's failure to get people to work together to make those small steps that would add up to a big improvement in the town centre environment.

Next Friday is St George's Day and Wednesday at The Talbot Hotel, in Ledbury, will see the launch of a series of events which make up the town's English Festival.

No doubt, thanks to the efforts of traders, festival organisers and Ledbury in Bloom, the town will look spectacular next weekend and will, as it usually is, also be very busy. What will Malvern be doing?

As the result of another idea from the last Malverns Experience meeting, we are aiming to do our bit by helping to organise a Local Pride Week later this year. This will be an opportunity for local people to see, for free, the quality of some of those things we have on our doorstep, like the theatre and Hills.

The idea is that we are all ambassadors, we should all be flying the flag for Malvern, and hopefully by the time of the Elgar Festival there will be some flags flying in Malvern.