>Many of the locals who have lived in the shadow of Silbury all their lives won't come to a meeting if it is outside of Avebury.<

Why not? Are they so locked into their 'local' mentality that all major decisions regarding a World Heritage Site must be made in their little social club over tea and biscuits? I have about as much respect for the (Avebury) locals (past and present) as I do for the policy makers at English Heritage. Frankly, a conservation strategy for Silbury should be just that - a strategy based on accepted standards of conservation - nothing more, nothing less. Reputation building by 'experts' and the petty considerations of those who live in and around Avebury are secondary, and I can do no better than quote Stukeley's opinion of them -

"And this stupendous fabric, which for some thousands of years, had brav'd the continual assaults of weather, and by the nature
of it, when left to itself, like the pyramids of Egypt, would have lasted as long as the globe, hath fallen a sacrifice to the wretched
ignorance and avarice of a little village unluckily plac'd within it."

Having said that, now is the time for those of us who are <i>genuinely</i> concerned about the future of Silbury to put aside our differences and pull together - making sure our arguments are uniform, sound and concise. Nigel pretty much summed it up when he said, "Focus is all." and moss when he said, "Its wellbeing therefore comes under all our guardianship..."

Littlestone