Having read your article in the Malvern Gazette & Ledbury Reporter (September 26) regarding the plight of Miller's Tyre Centre in Edith Walk, I must add my voice to the argument.

Miller's Tyres is an institution in Malvern and is typical of the type of business the town needs to nurture.

I have dealt with Mark Miller and his father Fred before him for nigh on 30 years. My visits to their 'shed' have resulted in me and my family spending money at other shops in the town which otherwise would not have benefited from our custom.

If Mark Miller wants to tidy up his building, then we should be helping and applauding him, not passing critical comments, evocative of arrogant upper-class Victorians.

It doesn't take much analysis to realise that Miller's Tyres does well exactly because of where it is. To attempt to move it elsewhere would be the death knell for another thriving local enterprise.

The current state of Malvern is not an accident nor is it evolution: it is due to the long-term mis-management of facilities and amenities and excessive rates and rents.

To consider that moving Mark Miller and his team out of Malvern will somehow help to halt the demise of the town is naive in the extreme. The concept simply perpetuates all the woolly thinking that has got the town into its present condition.

Roger Hall-Jones' comment that: "If you want to revitalise the town you've got to have nice things for people to see" is comical! The fact there is hardly anyone visiting the town to see his 'nice things' seems to have been overlooked.

Other than our indigenous population (most of whom shop out of town these days, thanks to the draw of Townsend Way), Malvern desperately needs to promote itself to tourists.

However, such visitors love small, interesting shops and the feedback I get (via the guests at the bed and breakfast establishment run by my wife) is that - other than the scenic nature of the area - Malvern has little to offer to aid the separation of the tourist from his money.

Building societies, banks, estate agents and charity shops abound but we are informed on almost a weekly basis of the demise of independent small shops.

Of course, this is possibly an over-simplification of things but Ledbury and Upton-on-Severn thrive on the interest generated by small traders.

Why can't anyone in control see that diverse and profitable small businesses are the key to the future of Malvern? Why not work to ensure such trade is facilitated by (say) subsidising rent and/or rates for a period?

Whatever happens to the rest of Malvern, Miller's Tyres should be encouraged to stay where it is and be allowed to do its bit for the town.

Ian Thompson, Worcester Road, Hanley Swan.