A PLAN for a new teaching block at the former Malvern Hills College was described as looking like a farm building at a planning meeting this week.

Members of Malvern Hills District Council's southern area planning committee deferred a decision on the application, saying they needed to know more about what the building will look like when finished.

Coun Beryl Hickling said: "This plan looks more like a farm building than an educational establishment."

Coun Whinray Coates said: "I've seen better-looking chicken sheds. I think this would be a disgrace in the conservation area.

"I don't want to see some sort of pastiche building but surely someone should be able to come up with a suitably modern building with a bit of flair."

Coun Roger Hall-Jones said: "This building could never be described as a thing of beauty. But bearing in mind that looking around you have the youth centre, the 19th Century drill hall, the indoor bowling hall and tennis hall at Manor Park, this seems to be a little corner of Malvern which has been developed with utilitarian buildings.

"It will be very difficult to build anything here which will reflect the character of the conservation area and, taking particular note of the very significant and important community use of this building, this is an acceptable design."

n A new chapter opened in the life of the Albert Road North college last week when it was formally merged with Evesham College. It has now been renamed the Evesham and Malvern College.