A DECISION on the future of Malvern Priory's ailing pipe organ is expected to be taken at a meeting later this month.

The instrument is in dire need of repairs as many of its components have reached the end of their lives.

The urgency of taking action was pointed out in December last year when the organ suffered a major breakdown during the main carol service.

Only emergency repairs kept it playable for crucial Christmas and Millennium services.

Church officials have been warned that the bill for repairing the organ or buying a new one is unlikely to be less than £250,000 and may well be double that. A working group of the parochial church council has been looking at the problem for well over a year. Its conclusions will be unveiled at a PCC meeting on Saturday, September 23.