Nat has had a reply from EH about the fence (and wishes Goffik a happy 78th BTW), and it says this….
"the fencing at the top of Silbury Hill has been removed since we consider the top of the hill to be safe and the fencing was an eyesore. However, there is no public access to the hill itself and there is still fencing around the base with warning notices which people are apparently ignoring and climbing over for access. There is no public access for the reason that you mention; that damage is caused to the hill by people who scramble up it and also because of the steepness of the hill which makes it a hazard. Shortly we will be erecting a new fence around the hill which will come up to the roadside so that the fence climbers will be visible from the road and we will put up further warning notices on the fence, but it is difficult to stop people who are determined to ignore the notices and climb over the fence to gain access."
I've tried to steer clear of the issue, on the grounds it might detract from the main push, but I'd like to make these points:
1.)People ignore the notices, but STILL there are only 4 notices, all on one side. So heaping all the blame on the fence-climbers alone is hardly valid.
2.)We all know that in a short time, sadly, the fence will be breached. So it won't be rabbit proof. So is digging a deep trench to sink the fence into an unnecessary disruption? They'll end up by controlling the rabbits by other means in the end.
3.)Is bringing the fence up to the road "so that the fence climbers will be visible from the road" logical? They can climb the fence away from the road and anyway, they'll be a bit visible when they go up the hill!
4.)Won't the thing look a real mess aesthetically? How much of the area will it stretch over? And will it be a seemly green? (a fiver says it'll be Quango Silver!)
5.)Isn't the answer the one thing they haven't done - put up an adequate number of notices, which will prevent most people from being able to use the excuse that there were none visible from the place they went up?
