The Clearance of Observatory Hill
The Council wants to start clearing the woodland from around Observatory Hill with a view, eventually, to exposing the ramparts of the iron age fort and returning the whole area to grassland.
A synopsis of the BCC plans can be seen here. However we fear that this is a prelude to drastic clearance in the Avon Gorge, maybe to make the view look like that in the 1852 Samuel Jackson picture (See 'photo of part of the information panel on Observatory Hill).
The archeological lobby wants to expose the historic ramparts, and the Council wants to exploit the potential of features of the Downs and Gorge as visitor attractions.
There are a number of objections to this scheme. It will open the peaceful, enclosed meadow around the Camera Obscura to views of road traffic and buildings. It will remove the sense of green enclosure from Clifton Green. As the clearance proceeds, individual trees will become more vulnerable to wind, and are certain to fall and damage the ramparts when their roots are torn up. Mountain bikers will exploit the terrain as they have done where trees were cleared from Stokeleigh Camp (an Iron Age Hill Fort) on the other side of the Gorge in Leigh Woods. Human erosion will present a real problem.
These problems were not forseen on Stokeleigh Camp where an ugly "firebreak" has been cut out of Leigh Woods in order to present a view of the fort. Now, the National Trust are pleading with bikers and the walking public to keep off the monument. See some current 'photos of Stokeleigh Camp.
In Ashton Court, which, like Leigh Woods, is in the advanced stages of the general makeover to Bristol's green spaces (coming soon to the Downs and Gorge), woodland removal to "improve the view" has merely raised the visibility of the car part in front of the Manor. Plans to open up views beyond the Downs by cutting gaps in the Gorge woods on the Bristol side will similarly reveal cars on the Downs side from view points in Leigh Woods.
Proposals to produce a new Council and Government approved landscape for Bristol Downs and Avon Gorge are not acceptable in our view. Apart from anything else there does not appear to be a coherent policy for landscape as a whole under discussion.
What is certain is that there will be change, and the trees will be cut down. The Council is initiating a process of muddling through and allowing the most vocal lobby and interest groups (i.e. The Zoo, archeologists, Health'n Safety, and those keen to restore 19th century views), to have their piece of the action. It is open season on the Downs, and is no way to conduct a long term management plan.