I WRITE to register my disapproval of High Street Malvern’s proposal for the cable car project, which aims to build a cable car system from the town to near Worcester Beacon on the Malvern Hills, together with associated cafés and toilets.

I do not wish to see a proposal, one of the reasons for which is to rejuvenate the town’s business community, which would damage Malvern’s main asset, the Malvern Hills.

Will those with access problems feel frustrated by the cable car at being left some distance from the summit of Worcester Beacon?

Will the cable car move up the slopes between pylons above the trees, or will a path be cut through the existing scenically important woodland fringe?

Do we really want a cable car system which would have an adverse impact on views to and from the hills, destroy their rural feel and have an impact on the tranquillity that exists there at the present time?

Do we want the built environment extended up the hills from Malvern and do we want mechanised transport to change the nature of our experiences on the hills?

What impact will hundreds of visitors being disgorged from a terminus have on the Malvern Hills and its wildlife?

The proposers of the scheme, furthermore, do not appear to have read Section 10 of the 1884 Malvern Hills Act or listened to the views of Stephen Bound, the director of the Malvern Hills Conservators, when he spoke to the town council.

The Act clearly states that the deed and consequences of building on Conservators’ land are prohibited.

Stephen Bound has said that the building of a cable car system on the hills would require changes in the Malvern Hills Acts (in other words a new, sixth, Act), which would possibly cost hundreds of thousands of pounds and might not necessarily achieve what High Street Malvern wishes.

The last Act of 1995 failed to allow the Conservators to re-build the café on the Beacon, as they so wished.

What chance a cable car, cafés and toilets?

Dr Peter Alma

Malvern