Escort spring rubber spacers

[Mercdan68]

After lowering our escort mk6 estate the rear hasn't settled as low as the front,there are rubber spacers at the top about 1" thick, do they have to be there or can I simply take them out??

[theheap]

I believe they are to prevent the spring wearing it's way through the metal and probably to stop noise. So they can be removed but after a few weeks I'd check them to see how they're coping.