I’M desperately trying to avoid becoming a grumpy old man who is constantly living in the past.

I like modern things.

Smart phones are great; I love my HD television; my car is much more efficient and comfortable and I don’t know what I would do without the internet.

But is everything modern, by definition, better than the things they replace? Is progress always good?

Somehow, I think not.

I remember watching a documentary on television a couple of years ago about the Labour Government’s new homes scheme which essentially involved demolishing rows and rows of terraced houses that were deemed to have come to the end of their useful working life.

The plan, of course, was to replace them with new, modern, architect-designed homes.

Sounds great, doesn’t it?

The scheme, sadly, missed a couple of vital points.

The first was those rows and rows of terraced houses were actually homes to families, many of whom had lived there for generations and it wasn’t just houses that were bulldozed but communities.

And the cost of knocking down houses and building new ones was eye-wateringly expensive.

Without wishing to get all political, when the Conservatives came into power, they rapidly put a stop to the scheme.

Interestingly, architects Urban Splash proved that a much better (and cheaper) way to deal with those end-of-life terraced houses was not to knock them down but to refurbish them.

At a fraction of the cost of new build, Urban Splash was able to bring those homes back to 21st century standards of comfort and efficiency, leaving intact an area’s heritage and community.

What a pity, I can’t help thinking, that lesson hasn’t been learned by the men in grey suits at the extravagantly named Cheshire West and Chester Council.

I refer, of course, to the much-loved Northwich Memorial Hall.

It may be that I’m just suffering from an overdose of nostalgia but I can’t help thinking that perhaps we could have stood back and taken a bit of a longer look at the memorial hall before sending in the bulldozers.

No, I wasn’t there when the Beatles played in Northwich but back in the day, Northern Soul was my music of choice and The Morg was one of the venues able to pander to my needs.

In later life, I have very fond memories of getting slightly tipsy (as my wife would say) at the annual charity beer festival at the memorial hall.

And here’s my problem, could a company such as Urban Splash have taken the memorial hall, as we knew and loved it, and turned it into a venue fit for the modern generation?

Could we have spared the building from the wrecking ball and still had the facilities the town needs and deserves?

I get the feeling – and I could be way off the mark here – that knocking down the memorial hall and replacing it with a shiny new bauble of a building was the line of least resistance.

It was easy option for County Hall to prove to the people of Northwich that it does love them really.

I hope for all our sakes that Northwich Memorial Court (sounds like a rest home for retired gentlefolk) really is progress otherwise our heritage has been swept away for nothing.

I would be genuinely interested to know what Guardian readers think.