THE Shuttle article about the possible refurbishment of Kidderminster Town Hall is welcome news, but I suspect that the excellent Steinway grand piano, currently downgraded to a pub piano in the bar, will not last until them, owing to the deplorable and wretched conditions it is kept in. I will give it another five years before it deteriorates beyond repair.

Bought by the county council in 1997 for £55,000, this magnificent piano was kept and well maintained in the Kidderminster Library Gallery until its enforced and ill-advised closure in November 2012.

Now under the control of the district council, who have no understanding of what they possess, this piano has been ill-maintained and is already showing signs of deterioration, despite an excellent piano recital by Mark Babbington on March 28 which was very well attended.

However, I heard that the Steinway piano tuner had to spend a considerable time before this recital trying to get it into tune at all – a warning sign – and however fine the performance, my musical ear told me that the piano is not going to get any better under current storage conditions.

Councils, of whichever kind, are ill-suited to looking after such investments – wastage of resources and neglect of assets is their speciality. Such an outlook will, sadly, never change until the council system is done away with for good.

If the Town Hall is due to close for refurbishment, might I suggest that the piano be moved away entirely and transferred to a much better venue? A local church would be ideal, but bizarre as it may seem, the piano could sound good in Wyre Forest Crematorium – if used as a concert room during the evening.

I believe the acoustics are good and the building itself is very modern and attractive and presumably not in use during the evenings.

Of course, I can understand that to some people such a suggestion may sound preposterous, but throughout history public trade buildings have made excellent concert halls, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig was a cloth-traders hall until it was changed in the 19th century when Felix Mendelssohn made the Gewandhaus Orchestra famous.

Therefore I maintain that such an idea be seriously considered. Any better suggestions?

MICHAEL JONES, pianist/organist/private teacher, Mount Road, Stourbridge