"KNOCK it down" was the advice of a top flood campaigner who urged people attending a public meeting to support demolition of a "stump" bandstand on the Bewdley riverside.

The bandstand base - set to go as part of a flood defence project on Severnside South - was only of minor historical interest and showed up the nearby Telford bridge said Gill Holland, operations director for the Bewdley Residents Flood Committee.

She was speaking at a public meeting called by flood bosses to explain why the bandstand had to go after more than 80 years in the town.

"We haven't got a beautiful, elegant Victorian bandstand," she said.

"From my point of view, living opposite it, it is of slight historical interest. I loved watching it for 40 years but I don't regard it with any particular affection.

"It makes a nonsense of the medieval bridge. You have a bandstand plonked in the middle of the road which doesn't make historical sense.

"It is more important to keep Severnside South defended from flooding than keeping a stump of a bandstand."

Mrs Holland's views were in stark contrast to many others who attended the meeting on Tuesday last week.

Bewdley town councillor Max Keen said: "I do feel that it is part of the history of Bewdley. I would hate to be in a situation where we wished we had saved the bandstand."

One woman said: "It is part of my life; I was born and bred in Bewdley; it has always been there and it would be terrible if it went."

Environment Agency project manager Roger Prestwood said the concrete structure had to go to make way for flood barriers that would be fitted to the ground when a warning was received.

He unveiled a model of what Severnside South would look like when the project was completed in 2005/06, with a more pedestrian-friendly look for the street.

He added the Environment Agency could look at providing a new moveable or permanent bandstand, which Bewdley Civic Society chairman Ken Hobson said could be ideally located at land near Sabrina Drive.

Suggestions the bandstand be moved to Jubilee Gardens, to the rear of Severnside South, were short of the mark, Mr Hobson said, as it would be too big.

But it was "up for someone in the town to come up with an idea" said Mr Prestwood.

After the meeting, Max Keen said he was left with mixed feelings but fellow town councillor Louise Edginton remained defiant towards the final decision of the Environment Agency.

"I hate to see it go, it's a part of Bewdley, it's part of our history" she said.