I WRITE regarding your item about a supposed need for an even more direct link from Malvern to the M5 (Malvern Gazette, May 3).

Apparently the bosses of English Braids and QinetiQ think it would be nice to save their suppliers five minutes on their journey by blasting a road through the exceptionally attractive countryside - and communities - in the immediate east of the highest peaks of the Malvern Hills.

It may be that bosses of commercial enterprises are far too busy to lift their eyes unto the hills and so can be excused for failing to see any larger picture. But even given their one-eyed view they should surely not be allowed to argue the old excuse for environmental destruction, that it will 'bring jobs' to the area - well, I suppose the bolt-on dreariness of the lookalike Roman Way retail park, with its attendant car parks, must have brought some jobs, one or two of them possibly above the minimum wage. Of course, it has also brought more traffic along the A449 from Worcester, which then becomes part of a spurious claim for the need for another road.

A more sinister explanation for this apparently barmy proposal is that it is a stalking horse behind which the real objective is to open up a large area immediately east of Malvern for more sprawling property development.

Make no mistake. There are huge financial interests at work here and they can afford to play a waiting game, while politicians and protest groups come and go.

I'd hazard a guess that they have their eye on the 2011 Local Plan.

I have now lived in Malvern over 30 years and though I know that I am still privileged to live here, I have seen some woeful developments that have impaired - I don't yet say wrecked - the appearance and 'feel' of large parts of the town including the Hills themselves. Once you have spoilt it there does not seem much reason not to spoil it further.

I first came here on a bike in my early teens and the 'blue remembered Hills' stayed with me till I was able to come here to live and work.

Malvern's dominant identity is still a lovely town in a beautiful setting which draws visitors from many parts. These visitors need to be accommodated, fed and looked after.

Proposals like the one reported upon will kill the town's uniqueness and make the Hills an irrelevant backdrop to a could-be-anywhere town.

CHARLES EDEN, Rectory Lane, Madresfield.