Avebury (England) parish councillors have criticised the National Trust for the “disgraceful” state of their village, which is a World Heritage Site, and have agreed to write National Trust Director General Fiona Reynolds to seek her help in getting Avebury cleaned up for their hundreds of thousands of annual tourists.
     As much of Avebury and its stone circles are under the control of the National Trust, the councillors state that the organisation is not doing enough to keep the place tidy, citing, for example, grass on the High Street being “as high as an elephant’s eye”. Chairman Jenny Baldrey said, “When you live in a World Heritage Site this is quite appalling.”
     A lot of National Trust land in the village contains the tall, uncut grass, which is said to be prohibiting some residents from seeing out of their cottage windows, and to be encouraging people to throw their rubbish into it.
     As talks with local National Trust managers have achieved little, councillors hope they will have better luck with the Trust’s “top brass”.

Source: This is Wiltshire.co.uk (26 June 2003)