MALVERN Hills Trust has moved to improve its hotly debated private bill to ease the concerns of campaigners. 

The mooted private bill has been the source of much concern for campaigners who submitted a 2,500-signature-strong petition against the bill in October. 

One of the most contentious points was the trust's proposal to give itself general power, with many fearing this would mean the organisation would then have the ability to do anything it wanted, such as build solar farms on the hills. 

However, after considering the results of the consultation held earlier this year, the trust has confirmed it will improve the drafting of the mooted general power before the draft bill is sent to Parliament on November 27. 

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This step, according to the trust, is to address some of the specific concerns about when and how the general power could be used.

At a special board meeting last month, Cllr Paul Bennett, who is also an appointed trust board member, raised concerns after hearing responses to the consultation had been omitted. 

Market research consultancy 56 Degree Insight, which produced the consultation findings, has revealed around 160 of the 570 responses received were identified as duplicates from the same IP address. 

Of these, 67 were deemed valid, however, there were concerns over 93 responses from six IP addresses, which were either identical or 95 per cent identical.

To address this, 56 Degree Insight kept the first completed response from the multiple IP address completions but removed the other 87 from the analysis. 

Other changes to the trust's proposals for a draft bill include having a 
trustee as a named point of contact with each local area and removing the idea of allowing fencing for animal health reasons. 

Trust Chair John Michael said: "I would like to stress that the Trust has a duty to keep its land unenclosed and unbuilt on except as specifically provided for in the Acts, and that obligation will be re-enacted in the Bill.

“I note that there had been a concerted local campaign to instil in people a sense of concern about what might happen in the future as a result of new legislation."

He added there was no chance the hills could be used for developing solar and wind farms as its charitable objects would not allow them.

Visit www.malvernhills.org.uk/governance-changes/consultation/ for the full details of the changes made by the trust.