NEW plans to remove parish boundaries from Ordnance Survey maps are being seen as a snub to Worcestershire parish councils.

Parish, civil and national park boundaries will be removed from the maps to make way for additional information about publicly accessible land.

But many parish councils feel increasingly under siege, following the introduction of a new code of conduct, the imposition of Best Value and Quality Parish Council standards and a Countryside Agency report grading a third of parishes as "sleeping" or "barely active".

Joy Clee, chairman of the County Association of Local Councils, said she would resist anything that reduced the identity of communities, because they could so easily be destroyed and diminished.

"There is lip service paid by Government to the need for parishes to be enhanced as the base roots of democracy, but many of these actions are diminishing," she said.

"If this is a nail in the coffin of parish boundaries it is very disturbing."

Upton-upon-Severn Mayor Eric White said he felt the Government was trying to wipe away the individuality of parishes.

"Everyone is under siege with paper and demands for things they want doing yesterday. Papers come from on high requiring attention without giving time for consultation or discussion," he said.

"Do they really want parishes, or are they a thorn in the Government's flesh?"

Mr White said there would be problems with local planning applications on parish boundaries if there were no clear lines of demarcation.

Leominster MP Bill Wiggins said it was the latest in a line of attempts to undermine parishes, wiping them off the map to make way for regional assemblies.

"This is yet another snub to Worcestershire's parishes," he said.

"I value the work of Worcestershire parish councillors. Yet I fear that erasing parishes from local maps is further evidence of a Labour agenda to regulate and streamline parish councils out of existence."

John Baker, of The Map Shop, Upton-upon-Severn, said people interested in parish boundaries would normally turn to the Ordnance Survey 1:25000 Explorer series of walkers' maps.

"It shows parish boundaries as a very fine dotted line and it is the most economic way of finding them.

"The alternative is to buy an OS large scale plan, which would be more expensive, so this is a negative step," he said.

However, he felt there was some logic in the decision as there was a greater interest in the right to roam than in parish boundaries.

Adding another layer of information about public access land would make the maps cluttered, unless some other information was removed.

"So that may be the thinking behind it, rather than something more sinister," he said.