WEDNESDAY night saw over 700 people pack the Forum to hear speakers express their passionate support for the existing management of Malvern Theatres.

It should make those district councillors who on September 24 will be asked to make a crucial decision about the future the theatres sit up and take notice.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of those councillors didn't take the trouble to attend this week's meeting.

We would urge all of them and all of those people who did come to express their concern this week to please attend the council's public meetings in September.

While the council insists that it has not made up its mind about the bid by the Ambassador Theatre Group, some of the comments made by its representative at this week's meeting, Coun Paul Cumming, suggest to us that at least some members of the executive board have already decided to back this bid and are prepared to defend their position with a vehemence hardly justified by the weakness of their argument.

What came across loud and clear this week is that the financial problem facing the theatres is not insurmountable, there are a number of potential solutions and the council should certainly look at these before it even considers a step which would put at risk our unique theatre, one of the jewels in Malvern's crown