HOW inconsiderate to start tolling the council bell in the Glover's Needle, as the tower and steeple of St Andrews at Worcester was once known.

This is liable to cause councillors to drop everything and hurry to some hastily-convened council meeting.

How many stalwart citizens, I wonder, stand ready to report to the Guildhall to draw leather buckets and form a chain from the river bank to fight fires in the city centre?

Perhaps people forget the purpose for which the bell was installed or the reason why church authorities were unable to dispose of this particular bell when they sold off the other four bells that hung in St Andrew's.

To restore this historical feature is a step in the right direction, though personally I would have preferred the restoration of the lovely old chimes of St Swithun's which were always so characteristic of old Worcester.

JOHN HINTON, Worcester.