Herefordshire Council rejects 'Rotherwas Ribbon' cover-up claim

Allegations that Herefordshire council officers concealed the discovery of an important Bronze Age monument for more than two months have been rejected.

Campaigners claimed that senior officers at Herefordshire Council received an email about the international significance of the Rotherwas Ribbon two months before the information was made public.

The Ribbon - also known as the Dinedor Serpent - is a 4,000-year-old pathway of fire-cracked stones which was discovered during work to build a relief road to an industrial estate near Hereford.

Earlier this month the council decided to go ahead with building the road over the Ribbon, after covering it with a protective membrane so it could be dug up in future.

Activists from the Save the Dinedor Serpent campaign used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain an email to senior council officers, dated May 11, from the project's construction manager Mairead Lane discussing advice she had been given by an archaeologist on the Ribbon's potential significance.

"The structure appears to be unique: no known parallels in Britain or NW Europe," she wrote.

"Due to its undoubted national and potential international significance, we need to explore and very possibly enact a preservation in situ strategy."

Gerald Dawe, the councillor whose ward covers the site of the Ribbon, said he was unaware of the significance of the find until July, when it was featured on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"They knew about its significance for two months, and the public was not informed. It's a disgrace."

But Robert Blower, head of communications at Herefordshire County Council, said the discovery of the Ribbon was announced in a newsletter circulated to councillors on May 14 and to all county residents on May 21.

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