AS we are in the middle of an election campaign, it would be well to remind those who aspire to political office, both national and local, that an effective politician cannot please all of the people, all of the time.

What they certainly can and should do is to make sure people are informed about the decisions they take and the reasons behind them. The case of Sling Lane is a salutary lesson.

Last year Tom Wells, as leader of Malvern Hills District Council, offered to help Newtown Sports Juniors Football Club, which had outgrown its site at Lower Howsell Road, with a 25-year lease of playing fields at Sling Lane.

That offer was confirmed at a meeting in July last year, news we published in the Malvern Gazette.

What the council clearly failed to do was to adequately explain it and the club's plans to the residents living around the playing fields. When the club put in a planning application for changes at the site, it prompted 150 letters of objection.

Faced with this, and in the middle of an election campaign in which he is the Liberal Democrat candidate for West Worcestershire, Coun Wells withdrew the offer, although that decision still needs to be agreed by the council's executive board.

While residents have a point about the conflict between a public access playing field and a lease held by a sports club, the council ought to have already considered this. Having made the offer, it should have had the courage of its convictions and stuck by the club.

What happens if it now gets a 'mountain of objections' from angry supporters of Newtown Sports? Another U-turn?