SWATHES of Malvern residents gathered outside the Offices of the Malvern Hills Trust (MHT) last week to raise awareness of their concerns about proposed new legislation which looks to reshape how the district’s greatest asset is looked after.
The new legislation is currently before the House of Lords and is proposing to reshape how the Malvern Hills are cared for and managed.
Many organisations and individuals have raised concerns about the bill, suggesting its proposals are dangerous for the future of the hills.
Concerned parties believe the bill will give the Trust new and wide-ranging powers whilst replacing the existing five Malvern Hills Act which have served ‘so well’ for over 140 years.
Campaigners garnered 2,500 signatures opposing the bill in October before it went before the House of Lords, with major sticking points focusing on the possibility of the trust being able to install solar farms due to its new general power plans.
Following the campaign last year and a fair amount of consultation responses, trust board members have proposed various changes to alleviate concerns.
The trust has since made changes to the proposals for general power, included plans to have a trustee as a named point of contact with each local area and have removed plans to allow fence installation for animal health reasons.
The MHT website declares only to ‘amalgamate’ all the governing provisions within a single act which has been branded misleading and incorrect by opposers.
Parliament has received over 50 separate submissions of concern, known as Petitions in Parliamentary language.
Parish councils, Malvern Town Council, Malvern Hills District Council and even the County Council have petitioned against this Bill. As well as this, a good number of local residents, councillors and even some of the Conservators or Trustees themselves have echoed concerns.
During the demonstration outside the trust’s offices, one local resident said:“My father was a Conservator for over 20 years, he would be turning in his grave at the sight of these proposals, they are sheer madness, why are they wasting a million pounds of our money on this folly?”
The formally submitted bill is currently on its second reading in the house of lords and is available to view on the parliament website.
Visit https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3897/publications for more information and https://www.malvernhills.org.uk/governance-changes/myth-busters/ for more information.
