The Society of Merchant Venturers has hit back at critics who want them to give up their half of the Downs and their role in managing the public common.
Campaigners, backed by a Green councillor, are demanding the ancient trading organisation give Clifton Down to the city of Bristol and be removed from the statutory committee set up by a Victorian act of Parliament to manage it and Durdham Down.
They say the Merchant Venturers have been “exercising power without responsibility for too long”, having a 50 per cent say in how the Downs are run but no obligation to pay for any of it.
