IN answer to Jennette Davy's question in her letter this week, yes I did mean it when I suggested taxpayers' money should be used to pay for a shopfronts grant scheme in Great Malvern.

Trying to put pressure on shop owners or their absentee landlords has not worked and is not going to work without some financial encouragement.

The reason I picked on the district council's community grant scheme as one example of where the money might come from was merely because it came up at the same town centre meeting at which I asked about introducing a shopfronts grant.

The reply I received from council leader Di Rayner was 'what about Tenbury Wells?' to which I say 'what about it?'.

Tenbury Wells, and Upton for that matter, are very successful small towns, which make the most of the assets they have and promote themselves with a series of well-run events.

Great Malvern, by contrast, remains a shadow of what it ought to be, which is one of the tourist highlights of this country. We don't promote it and we don't look after it well enough.

The other point about the community grant scheme is that it reminds me of the Malvern Millions, which were arguably squandered on a number of small community projects. Each may have been important in its own right, but the town was left with no major project to point to as a result of that opportunity.

If changes in local government were to mean Malvern Hills District Council ceased to exist, what chance then for gaining investment in the town centre?

It is now or never, there is no bigger priority.

Nick Howells