A 'DANGEROUS' illegal campsite was discovered on the Malvern Hills including a fire that has caused a 'scar on the land.'

A Malvern Hills Trust warden responded to reports of the campsite in Castlemorton Common at around 11.30am on Tuesday.

It is believed wood was cut from nearby land to start the fire. 

Warden Mike Price found litter, a barbecue made of bricks and the remnants of a fire that had badly damaged part of the grass, but the campsite was completely deserted. 

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Mr Price said the last thing wardens wanted to do was become police officers and enforce rules on people but stressed how dangerous this kind of behaviour could potentially be. 

He added it was a very regular occurrence to find people camping on different parts of the hills, particularly during the summer months. 

He warned people no overnight camping was permitted on any part of the trust's land and said there were bylaws in place to tackle this issue, should this be needed, although the trust tried to avoid that at all costs. 

He told the Gazette: “We get this quite a lot, the majority of people sleep over the night then move on and you don’t know they've been there. 

"There are areas of the hills where people can hide out and a lot of the time they won't be detected. 

“A lot of the time I can have a chat with people and they apologise and go on their way, it’s sometimes a case of people not knowing they can’t camp here.

“But with a fire in this weather, you only need one spark and the whole thing goes up.”

Items found at the abandoned campsite include a burnt-out fire, a barbecue made of bricks, empty coffee cups, Red Bull cans, a pressure washer and several logs and rocks. 

The barbecue had burnt some of the grass and the area around the fire was full of ash. 

Gazette reporter Ryan Smith helped Mr Price with the clean-up of the campsite. 

Mr Price added: “From the looks of things, the barbecue was on bricks and the campers then cut the wood off someone’s land and used what was on the barbecue to start a separate fire. 

“Sometimes these things can still be alight when you come to clear them up.

"This is such a dangerous thing to be doing, and it has caused a scar on the land."