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An Improperly Conducted Consultation

June 2009: BCC and Natural England have completed their public and scientific consultations about management policy for the Avon Gorge. There can be little doubt that they will now claim that they have public and scientific support for their proposals. This claim will not be acceptable, however, because there are serious questions about the conduct of the consultative process.

When the issue of Avon Gorge management was first raised publically in 2006, with headlines in the Evening Post reading "Avon Gorge Trees Face the Axe", Natural England responded by saying that the Avon Gorge was a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) for grassland and therefore necessitated the clearance of trees. In the public consultation on the same management proposals held this year it was also claimed that the Avon Gorge is an SAC for grassland. This is not the case. The relevant conservation document is entitled "Avon Gorge Woodlands". The Avon Gorge is an SAC for woodland. Grassland is "a qualifying feature". Thus in Annex I grassland in the Avon Gorge SAC is described as a "habitat present as a qualifying feature, but not a primary reason for selection of this site". This hardly justifies Natural England and BCC describing the Avon Gorge as an SAC for grassland.

Now an argument can be made for increasing grassland at the expense of woodland in certain parts of the Avon Gorge. But no argument can be made for misleading the public as to the facts of the matter in the course of a publically funded consultation, particularly in the context of wide public unease at the prospect of large scale tree felling. The council's claims are both misleading and manipulative of public opinion.

We have made a formal complaint to them and if necessary will put the matter before the Local Government Ombudsman in the hope that the council will be required to set the record straight on this matter.

But what is perhaps of even greater concern is that it would appear that the scientific consultation was also flawed. When one of the scientific consultees to the council made public an opposition to the use of goats where there are rare whitebeam trees, this person was promptly excluded from the consultative process.

How can any reasonable person have confidence that there has been a free and frank exchange of scientific opinion after this exclusion? At the very least it casts a shadow over the consultative process and puts in doubt any claim for an evidence-based policy. And what is wrong with making the full scientific evidence public? Are we not to be trusted with the facts?

We have put out freedom of information requests to see all the consultation responses, and we will publish them.

We have also asked how much money this inept and manipulative process has cost.

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. 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 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.

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