ITS image has come to symbolise Ledbury, but will the town's famous Market House ever be the same with a metal staircase, even a sympathetically designed one, stuck on the side of it?

In order for the building, a venue for weddings and public meetings, to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act, Ledbury Town Council has proposed to replace the existing staircase with a lift and add a new steel-framed stairway to one side of the town's most wellknown landmark.

While is is understandable the proposals should have generated considerable concern, some of the criticism aimed at the town council is a little unfair.

Unless the council at least investigates the implications of this new legislation, which comes into force in October, 2004, it risks putting the building out of public use. It's a difficult decision, but that's what councillors are there for, and, to be fair, they have tried to go about it in the right way.

The council has put options before the public and is pursuing that which was most popular at a public meeting.

So we can understand how councillors might now find it a little bit galling when people start criticising the proposals.

Around a 1,000 have so far signed a petition against the plan - where were they at the public meeting?

But the fact people have caught onto this proposal late in the day, does not mean they are wrong to be concerned.

While it's important the Market House should continue to be a working public building at the heart of Ledbury life, it is hard to see how a steel-framed staircase would be an asset to its appearance.