The BCA Countryside and Rights Of Way (CRoW) Working Group (WG) is seeking volunteers to help push forward its work to get legal recognition that CRoW Act applies to caving. This work is now focused on getting political action assuming a change in government in 2024 or ‘25. A recent debate in Parliament indicates that the Labour Party would be receptive towards such a change. The work will involve monitoring output from various bodies, drafting arguments, meetings with other organisations and lobbying. If you would like to help us or get more detail, then please PM me.
The next National Access Forum for Wales (NAFW) meeting is in Cardiff on Thurs 6th July (see pdf for agenda). There is an online option for which details have not yet been circulated. Anyone can attend these meetings, but not participate in the discussion there unless invited by the chair. Public attendees don't get the free lunch that is provided to invitees.
- The July meeting will be attended by the minister who may answer written questions sent in advance. The minister will provide an update on what remains of the Access Reform Programme (i.e. the one that caving was excluded from in 2020 that led to the judicial review case)
- I understand that the new Agriculture Bill Wales, which also gets an airing in this meeting, posits public access to farm land as a quid quo pro for future farming support schemes as part of 'sustainable farming'.
- A new Recreation Strategy is being developed by NRW and this is an opportunity for the Forum to hear more about its aims, objectives, process, work to date and opportunities for involvement in its development. I wonder, has it got an old strategy, and how was that flawed?
I'm not planning to attend it myself as Cambrian have been around the block enough already with questions put to previous ministers attending NAFW, and NRW has since largely walked away from caving in general, and NRW terminated the successful mines access scheme in particular, as did the Welsh Government at its behest; and the pair of them have generally been hostile and unhelpful from my viewpoint.
NAFW is not a 'forum' in the normal meaning of that word, where meaningful discussion takes place in an attempt to find agreed ways forward, and instead it functions mainly as a platform for NRW to talk about itself to such of the 100+ people on its mailing list representing the bulk of outdoors interests in Wales who attend.
It will be interesting, however, to see what the long-established Labour government does in Wales in due course if a future Labour government in England adopts more of a Scottish recreational access model.