In 2003 Downs Watch raised a petition of 1000 signatures calling on Bristol City Council (BCC) Downs Committee to stop clearing vegetation from the Downs. A moratorium was agreed while detailed management proposals were drafted. So far, management proposals have been approved for the plateau (Clifton Down and Dyrdham Down) and a draft Management Plan has been produced for the Avon Gorge (March 2009). However, if these proposals are implemented there will be dramatic changes to the landscape of the Bristol Downs and the Avon Gorge. Read more about the background to Downswatch here. These management proposals amount to a plan fundamentally to redesign the landscape in order to attempt to return the Downs and the Avon Gorge to the open grassland of 150 years ago, when the area was grazed by sheep and was mostly treeless.

Downs Watch opposes any plans to redesign the landscape of the Avon Gorge and Bristol Downs. This beautiful landscape has no need to be redesigned, and the Council are not the people to be entrusted with doing it.

<-- Click on the Map Image to see our concerns about the Bristol Downs and Avon Gorge mapped out using Google Maps

Join the Downswatch Google Group You can help by subscribing to the Downswatch Group and telling us what you see happening on the Downs and in the Gorge. Visit this group

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The background image to this web site shows Bristol Whitebeam trees in Walcombe Slade