THE fate of Malvern town centre was worrying members of Malvern Hills District Council a quarter of a century ago - as indeed it has done many times before and since.
Shoppers may start moving away from the town centre as the building societies move in, was the warning.
Great Malvern was fast becoming the building society centre of the Midlands, said Coun Ralph Storer during a debate on a planning application for another such office.
The Cheltenham and Gloucester had applied to convert premises on Belle Vue Terrace, known as the Malvern Mini Market, into their office.
Although the application was approved, it was described as an "undesirable trend" which might cause the shopping life of the town to move out to Barnards Green and Malvern Link. The real cause was pinpointed by Coun Roger Hall-Jones, who said building societies were the ones who could afford the rates in the town centre and things would not change until that was tackled.
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