Petition to keep wardens

By sforrester

A COST-CUTTING review into the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty could spell the end for two long-serving wardens.

Les Davies has worked for the service for 17 years and Tina Bath for 15, and their efforts have been recognised. Mr Davies has been appointed MBE for his pioneering projects, which include a rural crime reduction scheme and organising volunteer rangers, and in October, Miss Bath was adjudged best woman hedge-layer in England at championships on the royal estate at Sandringham, Norfolk.

Now the partnership which looks after the AONB is looking at ways to save money and shedding the wardens could be an option.

The partnership is made up of Natural England, Somerset County Council, and the councils for Sedgemoor, Mendip, North Somerset and Bath and North East Somerset.

Nigel Taylor has launched a petition to keep the wardens and more than 200 people have already signed it.

He said: "We have had an excellent warden service in the AONB for 25 years. To lose this would be tragic.

"Les Davies and Tina Bath do a marvellous job. They negotiate between farmers and landowners over footpaths, they arrange courses in hedge-laying and drystone walling, they have restored dew ponds, they help people who would otherwise never come out onto the hills to discover them and enjoy them and to learn new skills.

"They work in all weathers and they are warm and friendly. Their reward is to be made redundant.

"I know the country is in a bad way, but this is not the answer."

A county council spokesman said: "At this stage the process is not complete and, as any changes could directly affect staff members, the matter remains confidential."

PETITION forms can be found at Hunters Lodge Inn and the New Inn, at Priddy, and at the Gorge Outdoors, Cheddar.

Nigel Taylor has also started a campaign website at www.sows-on-mendip.com