IF the old cottage hospital and St Katherine's Surgery are anything to go by, the sudden announcement the library building is to close could herald an indefinite period of disuse as it stands forlorn, boarded up and at risk from vandals.

The disabled access legislation has been coming for long enough, though there seems to have been very little practical forward planning. Has there been a working party urgently considering the possible options for the cottage hospital, the old surgery premises and the Browning Institute together? Or has it simply been a case of, let's wait and see what happens?

On another aspect, it was understood that Herefordshire Council strenuously resisted any reduction of car parking space at St Kath-erine's for provision of the new public conveniences, only last year, and now it plans to move the library there in the New Year.

With Bridge Street's car park nowadays as full as the others, more cars will be touring helplessly around the town before giving up and going elsewhere.

It is frustrating to think that, given proper foresight, the old surgery could by now have been made ready to house the library - instead of that red herring of proposing to move the TIC there from its ideal position. How can they now spend £40,000 on creating a new library in the car park within three months? Procrastination followed by panic!

THE REV. MICHAEL R WARD, Victoria Road, Ledbury.