Angus and Rosemary's Miscellany

of Malvern - Other Resources

The Friends of the Commons of Malvern

Readers' letters

Letter from Stuart Brown

Letter from Katharine Harris

Letter from Anne Ridley

Letter from Rosemary McCulloch

Letter from Stuart Brown

Photocopy of letter published in the Malvern Gazette on 5th October 2018.

This letter is in response to an application to the Malvern Hills Trust, by the Rose Farm Partnership, for Easements across the Common from Chance Lane, and across Jackpit Lane into Hall Green Close into the 25 acre field opposite the Green Dragon pub on the Guarlford Road.

An Anniversary

In Malvern we have a little known, but important Anniversary coming up the same weekend as Remembrance Sunday.

11th November 1882 was the first meeting of interested parties in a proposed Act of Parliament, to appoint a body of people to look after and protect the Malvern Hills and its Commons from encroachment and quarrying.

The Act was passed in 1884, forming the Malvern Hills Conservators, now called the Malvern Hills Trust. We have always considered ourselves fortunate in having such custodians of our wonderful landscape. However, recently this seems all to have changed. Messrs Ballard, Cheese, Lakin and Raper, founder members of the original Conservators, would be turning in their graves at the latest proposals being considered by the Trust.

After rumours had been circulating since Spring 2017, in July 2018 this year, local residents became aware of plans, approval of which by the Trust would be a negation of their original aims and duties. They are considering granting rights over their land to allow an access road to be built into a land locked field, outside the Settlement Boundary, for an exorbitant financial return.

Their remuneration could run into millions of pounds if the rumour of potentially up to 500 houses is true, but Malvern has already exceeded its building quota for the foreseeable future and has brownfield sites readily available.

The area affected is the eastern approach to Malvern, one that many visitors have often commented upon as being the most rural and fantastic views to any town; from a tree lined road with wide grass verges on either side to the Hills rising up in front, as one gets closer to the town.

If the Trust were to approve this easement, their willingness effectively to sell for profit other tracts of Common land could be exploited to the full by other developers and we could lose forever this ‘rural and fantastic view’ along the Guarlford road.

We fear that the current view from Worcestershire Beacon, instead of open fields beyond the present town boundary, will become a mass of buildings, to Guarlford village and possibly beyond. In the area affected is a medieval pathway, an old packhorse trail and drover’s road. There was too an ancient manor of Baldenhall from the year c.1080 to c.1550. As precept payers, we consider that the seeming inclination to allow these Easements is a betrayal of our trust. This proposal runs contrary to everything the Trust professes to believe in i.e. Conservation and Preservation.

Panorama of Guarlford Road

View along Guarlford Road towards the Malvern Hills

This is the view under serious threat by the Trust and yet categorised as an ‘exceptional’ view by Malvern Town Council in their Neighbourhood Plan and a ‘key gateway’ into Malvern.

Katharine Harris, Friends of the Commons of Malvern

Letter from Anne Ridley

Letter to the Malvern Gazette published 31st August 2018.

Should we pay?

How is representation linked to taxation at Malvern Hills Trust?

Malvern Hills Trustees told residents at a meeting last week held to consult about access to a field along the Guarlford Straight that (a) their first priority is not public amenity but financial. And (b) that councillors also appointed as trustees, may not vote if their ward is involved in the issue.

So how does that work?

The precept we pay is not a charitable gift but a sum added to each council tax bill. Councillors who also hold office at the Trust should surely represent Malvern residents in it's decision making? Or not hold dual office? Does this loophole not give the Malvern hills Trustees disproportionate powers?

Malvern people must decide if they should pay (60% of) the income of a body that is not primarily answerable to them and wake up to the future development proposals of the lower reaches of the Malvern Hills, which may happen quickly, at the expense of the people living there. Whichever way the decision goes in relation to rights of easement over land along the Guarlford Staright, we must protect not only a beautiful and unspoilt entry to our town, but our democratic representation.

Anne Ridley

Malvern

Letter from Rosemary and Angus McCulloch

Letter to the Malvern Gazette published 31st August 2018.

Not logical

There is a certain illogicality in the approach of the Malvern Hills Trust (Conservators) to the easements requested into the Rose Farm field.

The Trust insists that it is not concerned with planning matters and will not take into account residents’ comments on such. However, merely by considering these easements, which are for the sole purpose of building an estate of houses in a field not designated for development, the Trust is inevitably involved in the planning process. On the MHT website it says that they have been looking at “some limitations on the way in which the site might be developed in order to minimise the impact on MHT land.” Is not this a planning matter?

Were the members of the Trust Board to grant easements for a wide tarmac road and pavements across the Common and an emergency access road in Jackpit Lane, it would be the same as saying that they approve of such an estate. They cannot ignore their responsibility, especially when there is no detailed information available to the public of what the developers have in mind - and its potential impact on the whole area.

Rosemary and Angus McCulloch

Malvern

If you would like to help the Friends to lobby the Malvern Hills Trust on this matter, please do get in touch.