A REQUEST to install lifebelts at a Malvern Hills quarry has met a mixed response from the Malvern Hills Conservators.

Worcestershire coroner Victor Round made the plea at an inquest last Thursday into the drowning of Yunus Moolla at Gullet Quarry in 2001.

He said he was going to request that prominent warning signs and lifebelts be installed at the site.

However, Conservators' director Ian Rowat said lifebelts had been used at the quarry 10 years ago but had suffered so much vandalism they were removed.

"I'm pretty sure they gave up on it because the lifebelts were vandalised so much," he said.

Mr Rowat said making lifebelts vandal-proof was very difficult, as they have to be easily removable from their mountings to be of any use. However, constantly buying new ones could prove costly.

"How often do you replace them?" he asked.

Despite his misgivings, Mr Rowat said the Conservators would be "silly" to ignore the coroner's advice.

During the inquest, Mr Round said he knew lifebelts were repeatedly vandalised and taken away in Redditch, but that would not stop him requesting them.

"I'm going to write to the Conservators suggesting that they consider putting in, ugly as they are, orange, brightly-coloured life-saving equipment and to do something more prominently visible about those notices," he said.

"I have got to bring it to their attention. The advice if you come across somebody in difficulties in water is not to go and help them. It is to throw a life belt. One does owe potential rescuers the chance to save themselves.

"Something is going to be done to try and stop it happening (people drowning) but we will probably all be distressed to see it happening again in Worcestershire this summer."