点评:I was shocked when I visited Winkworth Arboretum today. A much loved and cherished area of natural beauty which I have enjoyed visiting all my long life.
What the National Trust is doing there typifies everything that has gone wrong with the Trust.
Natural woodland paths have been replaced with tarmac. Acres of virgin land given over to parking and driving areas, electric vehicle charging points and a disproportionately colossal visitor centre at a cost of millions creating the environment more akin to a new Tesco Supermarket than an area of quiet woodland beauty.
The Trust has become a corporation more interested in generating income than preserving the natural environment - now despoiled by coloured signs with crass instructions to “hop like a Frog” or “walk like a crab”. There are ways of attracting families without despoiling the environment they come to visit
The scale of the despoliation beggars belief and the Trust should be ashamed of itself.
The cost of a glossy new visitor centre can only be affordable if visitors are attracted in such numbers that acres of land must be developed to accommodate the scale of the anticipated footfall.
Management of the National Trust has lost its way. First Chandon House and now this. Sorry days indeed.
翻译:今天参观温克沃斯植物园时,我震惊不已。这片我珍爱已久的自然美景,是我毕生挚爱的去处。
国民信托在那里所做的一切,恰恰体现了该信托机构所有问题的症结所在。
天然的林间小径被沥青路面取代。大片原始土地被改造成停车场、车道、电动汽车充电桩,以及耗资数百万英镑建造的规模庞大的游客中心,其环境更像是新建的特易购超市,而非一片静谧美丽的林地。
国民信托已经沦为一家只顾赚钱而不顾保护自然环境的公司——如今,这里到处都是色彩斑斓的标牌,上面写着粗俗的指示,比如“像青蛙一样跳”或“像螃蟹一样走”。明明有很多方法可以吸引家庭游客,而无需破坏他们前来游览的环境。
这种破坏的程度令人难以置信,国民信托应该感到羞耻。
只有当游客数量激增,需要开发大片土地来容纳预期的客流量时,建造一座崭新华丽的游客中心的成本才有可能负担得起。
国民信托的管理已经迷失了方向。先是香槟庄园,现在又是这个。真是令人惋惜。