WHILE we do believe Malvern needs to change and modernise if the town is to thrive in a new century, one should always question whether change should be at the expense of those things which make it unique.

Last week we highlighted the fact that parish councils may not be able to afford to look after Malvern's famous gas lamps after the district council's decision to privatise their maintenance.

This week concern focuses on the future of the 'Byson' radar dish, part of the skyline at South Site for decades.

Now both the gas lamps and the radar dish have past their useful lives but the two, in their different ways, are symbols of Malvern over the past two centuries.

It may not be reasonable to expect Malvern Hills District Council or QinetiQ to pay for their upkeep, but we hope some way can be found to preserve these icons of Malvern's past.

This year we are once again putting on a free Christmas film show at Malvern Cinema for all our senior citizen readers of the Malvern Gazette & Ledbury Reporter.

We are delighted to announce the film will be the highly-acclaimed Chocolat. One of the hit films of this year, it stars Judy Dench, Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp.

The film will be shown on Friday, December 14, with a glass of sherry and a mince pie at the interval.

To apply for your free ticket, all you need to do is fill in the coupon on Page 20 of today's newspaper and we'll see you there.