Dear Glastonbury and Street Nub News,

I am writing to you as a highly concerned local resident of Glastonbury.

My name is Amanda Gazidis and 6 weeks ago I started a petition to Stop World Heritage Status for Glastonbury which now has over 900 signatures. There has been much support for my campaign and it has been gathering momentum.

Despite the concerted effort to bring attention to the very real dangers of the impact of World Heritage Status to our Town Council such as parking, roads, over-tourism and all that brings, our concerns have been largely overlooked by them. We have been told that we are 'uninformed, misinformed and our online group erroneous' by some of our Town Councillors.

Back in Dec 2023, 2 UNESCO Consultants were hired to start the scoping process and now a working group had been proposed by Jon Cousins.

Despite our tireless research and meetings and debates our fears, based on other World Heritage Status places have been overlooked.

Why continue to spend our taxpayers money on the exercise to see if we can qualify onto the tentative list if this is something the general consensus of the population of 9000 do not want? So far £10,533 has bed spent and there is £30,000 in the pot for this. Our argument is why not spend this money on more pressing issues such as homelessness or a children's centre?

We are not happy that despite expressing our views there has been no reliable survey or consultation with the people of Glastonbury and there has been no engagement by the Council with us the residents, apart from one presentation by the Consultants in October 2024 and the open discussion in the Town Hall at the Frost Fayre.

We, the residents have called 4 public meetings and a debate off our own back over the past 7 weeks. This shows how near to our hearts this issue is.

My question is when will they start listening to our very real concerns?

I run a Facebook group entitled ' World Heritage Status for Glastonbury?' which you are welcome to come and debate this very important topic.

All the best, Amanda Gazidis