WE were pleased to see councillors had 'called-in' the decision taken by the executive board of Malvern Hills District Council to close four public toilets.

This power has been used all too rarely since the introduction of the executive board and it would be no bad thing if councillors were to flex their muscles a little more often to remind board members that all councillors have a part to play in decision-making.

The decision will now be debated by the full council next Tuesday and we hope it will decide to think again.

While any responsible local authority should always be looking for savings and the council is spending considerable sums on refurbishing some of its public toilets, the loss of the two facilities in Malvern town centre and the one in Upton High Street does seem to be at odds with its role as a service provider.

It would be short-sighted to lose the Edith Walk toilet block, which is an attractive building, when any future improvements to the street scene in Church Street would be likely to result in increased use of Edith Walk.

The benefits of toilets based in car parks like Victoria Road are obvious. It would be unfortunate to diminish the facilities available to visitors at a time when the council is supposed to be working on ways of attracting more tourists.

Planners had little choice but to approve the Lidl store in Malvern Link this week.

In the slightly surprising absence of any concerns from the Highways Authority in regard to traffic, there really were no grounds on which to refuse the plan.

It will be interesting to see how the roads in this particularly busy part of Malvern Link cope with the extra traffic.