Hills guardians (From Malvern Gazette)

Hills guardians

10:32am Friday 31st August 2007 in Letters

AS the schools and the summer return in Malvern, we can look up again and see the hills, so recently shrouded by the rains and mists of July.

Often, at the end of August, the slopes and meadows of Malvern have been scorched brown and blackened by fire.

Whilst we must remember the distress, hardship and deaths that the downpours has meted out to our local riverside neighbours, in this respect we can rejoice in the blessings that the rain has brought us. The summer though, has confirmed that the weather is becoming evermore extreme.

Political parties are now all jumping on the bandwagon urging us to save the environment and stop global warming - motivated, I would suggest, by the short term need for votes.

Yet it is the guardian of our hills, the Hills Conservators, in the past resolutely untouched by political clash who have quietly got on with the job of maintaining our hills and commons. They have done it for over a century - starting by leading the then unpopular call to save the hills from the rape of quarrying.

We should all rejoice that the Malvern Hills Conservators work long term and, yes, continue to sometimes make unpopular decisions for the benefit of the hills.

I, therefore, ask the people of Malvern to be watchful against the encroachment of party politics into the Conservators - it would be a disaster for our beautiful hills and commons.

ANDREW MYATT (Hills Conservator Dyson Perrins Ward), Old Hollow, Malvern.