The CNCC are pleased to announce the launch of the next major initiative to improve cave access in our region; the Online Booking System.

This is essentially an online replacement for permits. It has been developed by our Access Officer and Webmaster to achieve a compromise between the ease and flexibility of access that cavers desire, and the management of cave access that landowners have requested.

You can learn more and see a short demo below (click CC at the bottom for subtitles):

https://youtu.be/sCdLrx88Z5o


The Online Booking System replaces all previous permit arrangements for the caves of Ingleborough Estate (and hopefully in due course, other regions too including Leck and Casterton; discussions are ongoing in these areas). Anybody can use it to book landowner-consented cave access for themselves, their group, or their club.

Website: www.cncc.org.uk/booking

Getting started with the online booking system is simple:
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[*] Register as a user. You?ll need to enter a few simple details and you?ll receive an automated email with your temporary password to allow you to log into the system.
[*] Log in using your email address and password. You can then change your password to something more memorable.
[*] Search for the cave entrance you wish to visit, pick an available date from the calendar, and click to book it!
[*] OR search availability of all cave entrances by a chosen date, pick a cave and click to book it!
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Most people should find the system intuitive and simple.

Once your booking is made, that?s it! There?s no need to wait for it to be approved, and no need to print any permit documents. The system works on allowing one booking per entrance per day. Therefore, that date/cave will now appear as unavailable to other users.

You should receive an automated email to confirm your booking is in place.

Bookings can be made right up until last minute. We imagine a lot of people making bookings in the days (or hours) ahead of their trip, taking advantage of the enhanced flexibility this system allows versus the previous permit approach.

The system is fully integrated with the CNCC website and is compatible with mobile devices.

Booking is a requirement for achieving landowner consented access to caves within the system. Please book responsibly and only what you need. We also encourage you to use the system out of courtesy to your fellow cavers, to help spread underground traffic and allow us to all enjoy caving without encountering congestion particularly on vertical potholes.

This is the culmination of an enormous effort, including our Access Officer, Tim, who created the original concept and got Ingleborough Estate on board (and hopefully also Leck and Casterton Fell landowners too in due course). Our webmaster, Gary, developed the system, and Geoff Whittaker, who most of you will know as the Leck and Ingleborough permit secretary, is the Online Booking Secretary, providing a human contact if you need any help or encounter any problems or have any bespoke requirements that you need to discuss.

We hope you will support us in making this work.

That is supercool

Having used a test version of this to book a trip a while back I can say its simple to use and really quick.

Excellent work by the CNCC. Thank you.

Cool.

But is it possible to drag the Wharfedale area in to the 21st century and use email rather than snail mail.

No wonder people don't bother applying and just pirate trips

Wharfedale will no doubt be a future agenda, although the initial focus is the Three Counties/Peaks area.

I assume that by 'snail mail' you mean Yockenthwaite Pot and Strans Gill, for which you are advised to write in advance to the National Trust warden? Obviously this is somewhere that we'd love to see a more flexible arrangement reached in the future.

For most other major caves in Langstrothdale a courtesy call at the farm on the day is usually sufficient (check details on CNCC website). Revisiting this with these various landowners in due course would be good, and assistance from those with greater local knowledge will be extremely useful in helping us to achieve this.

For Birks Fell (where there remains a CNCC permit system despite several efforts over recent years), Ric deals with all permit applications by email now; we haven't got any CNCC-facilitated permit systems in place where snail mail is the only option.

Which specific caves/areas of Wharfedale were you referring to?

Cheers for the update

Anyone else disturbed by MEs' face on the front page...

I am!!! 

ME

I'm more into the way he says 'booookings' 

Well done  and a big thank you 

That's all that's left of my geordie upbringing. It's a good job I wasn't talking about coooookboooooks.  :blink:

Fantastic work, well done to all those involved.

The only detail that might prove interesting is if people make a booking but don't turn up, thus blocking it for others. I guess discipline is required.

Chris.

ChrisJC said:

Fantastic work, well done to all those involved.

The only detail that might prove interesting is if people make a booking but don't turn up, thus blocking it for others. I guess discipline is required.

Chris.

Click to expand...

People could do the same with the old system I spose!

CNCC said:

The Online Booking System replaces all previous permit arrangements for the caves of Ingleborough Estate (and hopefully in due course, other regions too including Leck and Casterton; discussions are ongoing in these areas).

Click to expand...

Seems to work - we went down Bar Pot today without being challenged by the Cave Police.

Hmmmmm . . . . I've never been challenged by the cave police (whoever they may be) on a trip to the GG area in god knows how many years of caving (always with a permit, of course  :halo.

I know the 'cave police' are mentioned in jest and we used to have great fun dodging them in the old days - whoever they were.  Not even sure they existed.  The CNCC of today are firmly in the business of representing cavers.  As access officer I continually point out to landowners and land managers that we can not 'control' access to caves and we don't  'police' access to caves even if we had the resources.  I've just about finished negotiating on another access arrangement and that is written into the document.  News on that to come next month hopefully.  I think we like to see ourselves more in the role of facilitating access these days and have ditched the term of 'access controlling body' favoured by others.

Cheers
Tim

Agreed.

If the CNCC 'Cave Police' ever existed, they were bloody useless. No match for Penzance CC

Badlad said:

I know the 'cave police' are mentioned in jest and we used to have great fun dodging them in the old days - whoever they were.  Not even sure they existed.  The CNCC of today are firmly in the business of representing cavers.  As access officer I continually point out to landowners and land managers that we can not 'control' access to caves and we don't  'police' access to caves even if we had the resources.  I've just about finished negotiating on another access arrangement and that is written into the document.  News on that to come next month hopefully.  I think we like to see ourselves more in the role of facilitating access these days and have ditched the term of 'access controlling body' favoured by others.

Click to expand...

That was the point I was making, albeit somewhat obliquely...