How sad. So much conflict over something we all love so much.

I've spent nearly 40 years of my life as a conservator - saving this and that for a little while longer while knowing all along that the very things I tend to, beautiful meaningful things, will one day crumble and fall.

I have a particular interest in ancient paints and would have loved to have climbed down into the dark depths of the Altamira and Lascaux caves to see the paintings there on the rock walls - paintings of bison and deer some 14000 years old. To see those paintings just once would have been a dream come true but the very act of one person going there, breathing in and breathing out, increasing the humidity levels, will hasten the end to those lovely works of art. Better then not to go. Better then not to climb Silbury even once if a single footstep will hasten its end.

Does it really matter what our short-term or long-term 'needs' are to climb Silbury? Does it really matter what we think such a climb will satisfy - now or in years to come? Surely the only important consideration is Silbury's conservation; and surely that means appropriate action to see that that is done while meanwhile stopping anyone (other than those directly concerned with Silbury's conservation) access to this truly stunning, sacred and most beautiful of places.