THE decision by the Conservative group on Malvern Hills District Council not to accept seats on its executive board may not turn out to be a bad thing.

The Conservatives will now be ideally placed to function as a robust opposition group on the council and challenge the ruling group to justify its decisions in public.

The executive board as it has functioned up to now, with opposition parties represented, has not been challenged hard enough to explain the reasoning behind its decisions.

The council's new leader, Tom Wells, regrets not being able to utilise the talents of Conservative councillors on the board and that is understandable.

But, as he rightly points out, the council will be facing some crucial decisions in the months ahead, decisions which will shape Malvern for a long time to come.

A robust, even stroppy, opposition should promote debate within the council, ask difficult questions and force the ruling group to publicly justify its course.

This is a passion which seems to have been missing from Malvern's politics in recent years and will hopefully encourage people from outside the political sphere to enter debate. What talents might then be at the disposal of the council?

At the very least the district council should not be allowed to sleepwalk into decisions which the town may later come to rue.

Although the loss of Malvern Hills District Council must be a matter of great regret to the Conservatives, they have an opportunity to be of very great service to the area.