I CHANCED my arm on Sunday or rather my legs. It was a lovely summer's day and I persuaded my family to take a walk, or in my case a Motability scooter ride, along the hill from the Wyche Road to St Ann's Well.

The path was as nature intended and very difficult at times. I expected that, but not the state of hills in general.

We did not come across one of the well publicised doggie dumps but we did find all the seats along the way except one were unusable because they were overgrown with fauna, nettles and ferns. My wife suffers from angina and she had to make do with the one seat that was accessible, even though it was dirty, and underneath was inches deep in autumn leaves.

Arrival at St Ann's Well was a great disappointment. It was well attended by tourists and I must admit that due to its disgusting appearance I did not advertise that I was a local, because I would have been embarrassed.

I remember as a young boy when my mother and father took the family for weekend walks, the highlight of which was a cup of tea at the Beacon Caf, now sadly long gone or an ice cream at St Ann's Well, a feature of which was the well-kept garden and neat appearance. The hills then attracted coaches or charabancs and train excursions of Black Country visitors in their hundreds. This brought much-needed funds to Malvern, which in those times was a true tourist attraction.

This was followed by a visit to Priory Park for a relaxing hour listening to the brass band before wending our way home.

The sign just inside the entrance gates to Priory Park read: "Never let it be said and be said to your shame that all was beauty here until you came". Just not appropriate any more I am afraid.

Now I am disgusted by the state of the Hills and ashamed to make known that I am a resident when visiting one of our so-called tourist attractions.

I read many letters from folk giving opinions of Malvern some of praise, others criticism. Some are life residents others having settled here. There is infighting and bickering. It appears there is one authority against another with many differing opinions but the most important thing is that Malvern town itself is no beauty, its main attraction is and always will be the hills. Take away the hills, lay out our township on a flat plain and our two main features would be just the Priory and the Roman Way shopping estate.

I am a lifelong resident and still thrill at the sight of hills in the distance as I approach them from anywhere on the compass but get close up and I am ashamed at the way they are exploited without regard to them or the visitors we truly need to sustain this gift from nature.

If St Ann's Well was a feature in Devon or Cornwall it would be immaculate and catering for large amounts of visitors to help fund the hills that are our legacy, not the drab, overgrown, weed-infested eyesore it is today.

I would like to add that the Victorians made Malvern what it is today, but I feel they would be hard put to express their disbelief at the way we have let Malvern's legacies fall into this state.

"No sense of time, the days are past, with ever swift decline

Take in this gift bestowed to you in memory thought divine

Mans demands upon these hills of beauty, surely will decide

To push back the wave of natures dominance, and finally the tide".

RWB (Still 2001)

RICHARD W BROWN, Ramsons Close, Malvern.