A SIGN accusing the Malvern Hills Trust of creating a "death zone" on the hills has been described as "fraudulent."

The sign bears the logos of Malvern Hills Trust and Natural England, and accuses the trust of adding to global warning by burning wood, and releasing about 1,900g worth of carbon dioxide for each 1,000g of wood burned.

However, the trust has said the sign is completely unauthorised, and its erection is also a breach of the relevant bye-laws.

The sign appeared at Happy Valley, above St Ann's Road, where the trust has been carrying out land management work and was spotted by a Gazette reader.

Trust chief executive Duncan Bridges said: "The sign was an entirely false and unauthorised one that had been erected on land under our care.

"Whoever erected it is in breach of the local bye-laws and may also find themselves liable for deliberate misrepresentation and impersonation of our organisation."

Mr Bridges also defended the trust's burning of wood, undertaken as part of its land management.

He said: "The tree works at Happy Valley were undertaken during the last winter and were part of our five-year land management plan.

"They involved selective thinning and clearance of invasive young sycamore trees in order to both help maintain the Victorian avenue of trees there, as well as restoring open habitats in the valley.

"Genuine notices explaining the work were erected on site by our staff both before and during the work.

"The fraudulent notice in this photograph has been removed."

The trust's land management plan says that, historically, the hills were managed largely by commoners cutting vegetation and grazing livestock, but this ceased in the 1990s.

No further grazing occurred until a scheme was started in 2001, and in this time, large areas of open habitats, grasslands on the hilltops and bracken, grassland and scrub on the hillsides were replaced with woodland.