Stuart France
Active member
The Welsh Government launched this public consultation on 21 June with the enchanging title of ?Taking Forward Wales? Sustainable Management of Natural Resources? it has a closing date of 30 September for public response letters/emails. So just 25 days left to put your pen to paper. You can download it from here:
https://consultations.gov.wales/sites/default/files/consultation_doc_files/170728-sustainable-management-natural-resources-consultation-document-en.pdf
Cambrian Caving Council have been thinking hard about this complex 98-page document for a while and we held an open meeting in July (thanks to those who attended) and we have written a detailed response similar in size and scope to other sports governing bodies like cycling. You can get our full 20-page response plus a 3-page "quick" summary of it for cavers at the CCC homepage www.cambriancavingcouncil.org.uk
Government says that the number public responses they receive will be important (that means from individual cavers plus club committees etc) and that they will definitely read it all and drill down into the detail of what people have written to them. Cyclists have already submitted 2000+ proforma responses via the cyclinguk website which I have to say is highly organised and slick, and all it takes to support caving futures is a simple short positive letter or email sent from you.
To make our lives easier, if people agree with Cambrian?s logic, we have provided a template letter as a Word file which cavers can cut and paste and send as it is, or in some adapted form, as an email or a paper letter of to the WG before the end of September. Here is our template letter:
www.cambriancavingcouncil.org.uk/pdf/WG31881_Sep_2017/caverlettertemplate.doc
People living in England who also visit Wales to go caving are also encouraged to send in a letter/email too because Wales wants to position itself as a top world destination for outdoors pursuits and to bring income into its countryside areas to make their rural communities sustainable.
The WG sees both access and conservation as big issues, so much of the early part of this government document, while open to a vast range of interpretations which makes it quite hard to comment, is clearly aimed at protecting the natural and heritage environment and well-being of future generations while balancing that need against the need for leisure opportunity provision and economic viability in rural areas.
We expect this to develop into a formal White Paper in a year or two, followed by new legislation further down the line. But your opportunity to comment and request features in any new legislation or a statutory code of conduct for the outdoors is now only 25 days. Remember that the Scottish Code of Conduct says explicitly that "you can exercise access rights ... in caves". Asking for a simple statement like that would end all the NRW semantic nonsense over what legislative terms like "open-air" and "outdoors" mean here in Wales.
On a wider front, an Access Alliance has been formed, currently between cyclists, walkers, climbers, horse riders, disabled countryside users, the Open Spaces Society and cavers, to present a united recreational vision to the WG ? as far as that is possible. So there is a brand new website under development at www.outdooraccesswales.org which will take visitors to the individual sports? campaign websites in a week or two when everyone, myself included, has got round to creating one. The Alliance will also start issuing regular press statements (i.e. "an Alliance spokesman said?") to keep the topic of better access alive.
Apologies for another long post, but it seems to go with the access-conservation territory.
Stuart France
Cambrian Caving Council
https://consultations.gov.wales/sites/default/files/consultation_doc_files/170728-sustainable-management-natural-resources-consultation-document-en.pdf
Cambrian Caving Council have been thinking hard about this complex 98-page document for a while and we held an open meeting in July (thanks to those who attended) and we have written a detailed response similar in size and scope to other sports governing bodies like cycling. You can get our full 20-page response plus a 3-page "quick" summary of it for cavers at the CCC homepage www.cambriancavingcouncil.org.uk
Government says that the number public responses they receive will be important (that means from individual cavers plus club committees etc) and that they will definitely read it all and drill down into the detail of what people have written to them. Cyclists have already submitted 2000+ proforma responses via the cyclinguk website which I have to say is highly organised and slick, and all it takes to support caving futures is a simple short positive letter or email sent from you.
To make our lives easier, if people agree with Cambrian?s logic, we have provided a template letter as a Word file which cavers can cut and paste and send as it is, or in some adapted form, as an email or a paper letter of to the WG before the end of September. Here is our template letter:
www.cambriancavingcouncil.org.uk/pdf/WG31881_Sep_2017/caverlettertemplate.doc
People living in England who also visit Wales to go caving are also encouraged to send in a letter/email too because Wales wants to position itself as a top world destination for outdoors pursuits and to bring income into its countryside areas to make their rural communities sustainable.
The WG sees both access and conservation as big issues, so much of the early part of this government document, while open to a vast range of interpretations which makes it quite hard to comment, is clearly aimed at protecting the natural and heritage environment and well-being of future generations while balancing that need against the need for leisure opportunity provision and economic viability in rural areas.
We expect this to develop into a formal White Paper in a year or two, followed by new legislation further down the line. But your opportunity to comment and request features in any new legislation or a statutory code of conduct for the outdoors is now only 25 days. Remember that the Scottish Code of Conduct says explicitly that "you can exercise access rights ... in caves". Asking for a simple statement like that would end all the NRW semantic nonsense over what legislative terms like "open-air" and "outdoors" mean here in Wales.
On a wider front, an Access Alliance has been formed, currently between cyclists, walkers, climbers, horse riders, disabled countryside users, the Open Spaces Society and cavers, to present a united recreational vision to the WG ? as far as that is possible. So there is a brand new website under development at www.outdooraccesswales.org which will take visitors to the individual sports? campaign websites in a week or two when everyone, myself included, has got round to creating one. The Alliance will also start issuing regular press statements (i.e. "an Alliance spokesman said?") to keep the topic of better access alive.
Apologies for another long post, but it seems to go with the access-conservation territory.
Stuart France
Cambrian Caving Council