WE have recently returned to live in Malvern after many years away, apart from brief visits.

Three things we have noticed with pleasure: the friendliness and helpfulness of local shops and businesses; the excellence of the new theatre complex but above all the improvement in the care of the hills, with the reappearance of livestock and the good management of undergrowth, sycamores, birches and gorse on the higher slopes. The Malvern Hills Conservators should be warmly congratulated.

Indeed, the only problems with Malvern arises when one wants to leave it! Perhaps one day the trains will work reliably too.

DAVID BRYER, Eaton Road, Malvern Wells.