My 'last' Crow report

Badlad

Administrator
Staff member
Report to BCA AGM June 2018

This should be my last report as BCA CRoW Liason Officer as I pass on the baton after three difficult years in the job.  The co-opted position is a significant role in BCA, effectively running the BCA campaign to ensure the Countryside and Rights of Way Act applies to caving.  There can be no doubt this is the direction the membership want BCA to take after both a poll and ballot on constitutional change were in favour by a large majority.

Looking back over the last three years we [the BCA] have achieved much with just a small group of contacts and confidents.  We have gained considerable support for the BCA position with other organisations and influential individuals who find it in their nature to recognise the freedoms we seek and are keen to offer help.  We have made our case clearly, beyond our own caving bubble, through mainstream media channels and elsewhere which has put the entrenched authorities under pressure. 

We have now arrived at a stalemate where the CRoW Act can easily be argued that it already applies to caving, we just need the will from the authorities to accept that position.  There is certainly no need at present to seek a change in the law.  However with an entrenched view prevailing at DEFRA/NE we must look for opportunities where change can be made and continue to lobby for that change.  There are opportunities ahead which are sure to come from the BREXIT fiasco and a Natural England in its death throws which surely indicates the establishment of a new statutory body.  I?m sure my successor will be well placed to take those opportunities.

I am pleased to see that democracy has prevailed at the BCA although it has taken a rather long time.  If we look back to the position taken by the BCA before the CRoW ?debate? gathered momentum we can see what a stark contrast it is compared to the position which has been democratically arrived at and before this AGM.  I include them both in my report.

The first was drawn up by the then BCA Legal Officer and although never approved by council it was publicised in Descent magazine and on the BCA?s website.  Dressed up as such, it was taken by some to be official BCA policy and used by landowners in at least one major access dispute. 

wl


This unfortunate set of events was probably the catalyst to the deep divisions of the CRoW debate.  To some extent BCA must accept responsibility as the architect of at least some of the problems which have arisen with CRoW over the last five years.  BCA largely ignored the CRoW Act during the noughties which were the major years of discussion and implementation and allowed a minority voice to set the scene for years. 

At this AGM we have before us a very different policy on CRoW.  This policy has followed due process.  Beginning with a poll of the membership over the CRoW campaign and later a ballet vote on constitutional changes.  BCA council then passed the following motion in January, ?C&A committee to prepare a draft policy statement, kept as brief and meaningful as possible, that BCA believes with good reason that the CRoW Act, as-is, applies to caving.?  This was duly done and passed by the C&A committee and handed back to the April council meeting and is now before the AGM for final ratification. 

wl


Finally I shall voice the same concerns I have voiced several times over the last three years.  Namely the abuse, and efforts to undermine my position, by the anti-crow brigade.  This should be an important issue for BCA and it is one where I feel BCA has made a poor account of itself.  I was pleased to see the retiring chairman finally mention the subject in his newsletter report but he will remember that some of the on-line abuse I suffered was fuelled by one of his own executive colleagues.  I hope that this will not be allowed to continue under our new chairman and that my successor will be much better supported in his endeavours to fulfil the expectations of our membership.

Speaking of my successor, David Rose has put himself forward to take on the role.  David has a good understanding of the task in hand with excellent contacts in government and is well positioned geographically to further our policy.  I wholeheartedly support his appointment and hope council will co-opt him into the role following our AGM.  I have established the basics of a CRoW working group for my successor to take over and I am happy to participate myself where required. 

For those who had hoped to see the back of me at council meetings I am sorry to disappoint as for the foreseeable future I shall be acting as CNCC rep to BCA.  See you there.
Tim Allen
June 2018




 

IanWalker

Active member
Badlad said:
The first was drawn up by the then BCA Legal Officer and although never approved by council....
Free access to caves under CRoW would be "quite inoperable"?! Really?? FFS.

I'm glad this issue has been exposed as the irrational shambles it truly was.

Well done for your hard-won successes on behalf of the voting membership.
 

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David Rose

Active member
I think the whole caving community needs to  thank Tim for an incredible effort not just in creating and filling the post of BCA CROW liaison officer, but for beginning and seeing through the establishment of our campaign. I for one would never have got involved if he had not begun this process with a seminal article in Descent magazine, which first highlighted the absurdity of officialdom's position - that cavers can have free access to entrances on CROW access land, and indeed enter them, but only as far as the daylight limit. Without that article, I would never have asked my sister, the public law expert and occasional caver Dinah Rose QC, to provide the legal opinion that condemned this approach.

The current official policy was, is and always will be bonkers, and in no way representative of Parliament's will when it passed the Act. This is the absurdity I will focus on when (if the BCA council agrees) I inherit the mantle from Tim.

Well done mate. You done good.
 

Badlad

Administrator
Staff member
FYI

The BCA policy statement on CRoW (above) was ratified by the AGM on Sunday.  This means that, as a body, our national association believes that the CRoW act already applies to caving and obviously supports its own campaign to have that more widely recognised.

BCA council had already sanctioned the establishment of a CRoW campaign (working) group.  As I have stood down from the role as Crow liaison officer my successor will be David Rose.  However, as we now have the group David's official title is Convener of the group.  Very best of luck mate.  I'm here to help where needed.
 

Jenny P

Active member
Tim has done an amazing job in progressing this topic and had to stand for some really rather unpleasant flak from a few benighted souls.  It's been really heartening to see the support grow once cavers understood what the problem was and how we had been misled for some years by someone who cooked up a totally fake "BCA Policy" to spread around.

Thanks for all your hard work Tim!  You deserve to be able to put your feet up a bit.

Best of luck to David - Tim will be a hard act to follow but a great deal of the spadework has been done now and you know you'll have loads of support.
 
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