A PETITION has been launched by nature volunteers over fears that a council may axe staff who manage its countryside sites.

The volunteers have voiced “concern and alarm” at proposals in a budget measures report which will go to Gateshead Council’s cabinet in February.

The “Save the Countryside Management Team” e-petition has been placed on the council’s website.

“It goes without saying that the removal of the current countryside management team would have a devastating effect on the maintenance of the countryside parks, sites of special scientific interest, nature reserves and local wildlife sites, in addition to the work done in supporting the public in providing information and access to visitor centres, running events and providing school services,” said volunteer countryside ranger and petition organiser Harold Dobson.

The proposals relate to a savings target of £1.6m from the council’s leisure facilities and outdoor leisure functions.

One of the proposals in the report to go to cabinet includes: “Withdraw direct staff support for countryside management and develop the involvement of a major trust in the future management of the service, or close if this is not possible.”

Mr Dobson is a volunteer at Thornley Woodlands Centre, near Rowlands Gill in the Derwent Walk Country Park.

He said that it is believed that the National Trust, which owns the Gibside estate next to the country park, has been approached. The trust declined to comment.

The council runs more than 20 nature sites, including the Derwent Walk Country Park, Watergate Forest Park near Whickham, Whickham Thorns Outdoor Activity Centre, Wardley Manor Country Park, nature reserves at Ryton Willows, Blaydon Burn, Shibdon Pond and Windy Nook, and Norwood Nature Park which is one of the last surviving sites from the 1990 Gateshead National Garden Festival.

Mr Dobson said that the jobs of the council’s six full time countryside rangers and education officers are at risk.

“We fear the that the National Trust or other organisations would not be able to cope with the tasks and if that is the case and the council withdraws its countryside management team, how will the sites be maintained?

“They would become littered, vandalised and overgrown and people would not want to walk there or visit,” he said. “We are absolutely disgusted at these proposals and the e-petition has been set up to alert people because this has been hidden away in a 104-page report.

“If the countryside management is withdrawn, they will be losing all of the knowledge of the staff and the sites will become run down,

“Volunteers are also very concerned over who will manage them if there are no full-time staff.”