Well, I thought my suggestion might be controversial. Whilst I read this thread in it's entirity, I have never looked at the e-bay site. I have my suspisions as to what sort of person is responsible for the current wave of damage. Beer, joints, a few quid to be made for beer money, young people, probably cavers with a little bit of experience. It seems to me there can only be 1 group of people who fit these criteria. The poor student. I can hear the screams of indignation now. I'm not castigating all students, of course not. But a few undiserable elements of the college fraternity would fit the bill as the most likely suspects. If one were to investigate all college clubs in the south of the uk, I expect one would find the 'Andy' and 'Ian' we would all like to meet. Is it not possible this problem of stall removal has escalated because of this thread. Afterall, if computers were around in my college days, I'm sure I would have browsed sites such as this one. Some of the responses to my previous comments surprise me. When I was a student, it makes me cringe now to think how poor I was. If I thought I could have got a fiver for a bit of stall, which surely nobody would notice anyway, I hate to think I may have been tempted myself. £5 is only 'pointless' if you've money in your pocket to start with And there are many 'poor' students out there.
Locking of all caves would solve a problem, but in the real world, looks unlikely to happen. The answer has to be making the removal of stall underground illegal, as a result of by-law legislation. It is illegal to remove moss from the Dartmoor National Park. One is not allowed to remove boulders, gravel or sand from a beach. I think I'm right in saying removal of Limestone Pavement is now forbidden. I have written to my local MP urging him to look at this problem, using such emotive phrases as, 'In my great, great, great, great grandchilds lifetime, this damage will not repair itself'. I urge all cavers to take 20 minutes and do the same. However, the real weight would come from the National Caving body, (sorry, can't remember how the recent name change went) to lobby the National Parks to introduce such legislation. Once the removal of stall becomes illegal, the problem will surely dissappear.