From Fred Levett, Chairman, West Brecon Cave Rescue Team.

On 3rd August, Gwent CRT voted to dissolve the team and transfer operational responsibility for their area to WBCRT immediately. Otter Hole is a special case and is still covered by Gloucester CRG.

Our existing callout database holds travel times to that area for each team member and we will be checking these details during a forthcoming exercise to update our list. Already, ex Gwent members are transferring to our list and we welcome any more who wish to do so, helping to build the pool of expertise available. Indeed many were already members of both teams.

Credit is due to the GCRT Executive for taking what was a very difficult decision.

We recognise the special nature of caves in that area and will be discussing the best approach to responding to requests from cavers in trouble in those caves at an open meeting of members, locally, in September. See attached a map of responsibility areas for Cave Rescue in Wales, which reflects these changes.

WBCRT website: http://www.wbcrt.org/

Presumably this is a temporary arrangement until such time as cavers local to the central and eastern areas of the Northern Outcrop are more abundant and capable of organising themselves from a cave rescue point of view once again?

Don't forget that South Wales cave rescue was developed under the South Wales Cave Rescue Organisation with separate area-specific teams being set up to deal with local issues in the two main and very different areas. Such organisation entailed raising support for running the teams: financial support to fund particular requirements for particular caves and experienced caver manpower to carry out the leadership, coordination and implementation of individual rescue callouts.

Agen Allwedd, Daren Cilau, Ogof Craig a Ffynnon, Carno Adit & Cave and Ogof Draenen etc. in the Gwent Cave Rescue Team area are very different caves to Ogof Ffynnon Ddu and Dan yr Ogof in the West Brecon Cave Rescue Team area. The fact that these caves were discovered by very different cavers from different clubs and working under a different ethos speaks volumes. The 40-mile geographical separation from Penwyllt to White Walls is also not an insignificant factor . . .

Here is an example from personal experience . . .

Years ago I put together a project proposal, gained the support of cavers and raised interest from The Sports Council for Wales for funding to the sum of ?10,000 to carry out a project to open a second (diving) entrance to Daren Cilau and provide equipment to G.C.R.T., including an Entanox Analgesic Pack, Spinal Extraction Unit and a Multi-Role Integrated Body Splint Stretcher (including Casualty Bag) etc. When Army support for the engineering side of the project faded away, the entire sum was switched to being used to buy new equipment for G.C.R.T.

Another feature of the proposal was to lay a permanent power/telephone line into the bottom end of the cave via Terminal Sump. If this proposal had been acted upon it would now be possible for cavers working and camping in Daren Cilau to upload digging reports and news from the cave directly to the internet - as well as to have a communications base deep inside the cave.

One of the problems I had to contend with was Bob Hall, South Wales Caving Club's Rescue Officer, writing on W.B.C.R.T.-headed notepaper to Frank Baguley, as secretary of the Cambrian Caving Council, stating (in part): "WBCRT wardens felt that there were serious ethical implications to these proposals as any phone to the surface or alarm that allowed help to be requested directly lowered the standard of the cave by reducing the risk factor."

Frank's opinion to me was in support of the project and he concluded: "I would add that the British Cave Rescue Council has always maintained the view that it is not its place to advise on safety, or the ethics of caving, but only to concern itself with matters of rescue."

So, I do hope this arrangement turns out to be a temporary one. As previously, I would be more than happy to provide advice for assisting with a rescue callout from Daren Cilau (or indeed any of the other Llangattock caves) - when called upon to do so. And it is a fact that up until the present time the handling of rescues from Daren Cilau by G.C.R.T. (with assistance from W.B.C.R.T. when requested) has proved 100% successful.

I don't care who comes to rescue me in the unhappy event that I might need help. I don't care what they might think of me, or how I got into the predicament I might find myself in. I don't care if there are one, two or five teams covering different parts of a region. I am just happy that ANYONE is prepared to go out of their way to drop everything and come to our aid WHATEVER team they might choose to call themselves. This has been the ethos of British cave rescue for as long as it has been around, and should, God willing, remain this way indefinitely. So, if those who provide this service in South Wales feel that the way forward to provide the most effective service to the region is for WBCRT to cover a wider region, let's just be grateful that there are those prepared to do this. I am sure if in the future two teams are seen to be the more efficient way to cover the region, then it will happen, provided there are the people to make it happen. With communications, both electronic and transport, so much better than they were when these teams were first established, we are surely better placed than ever before for one team to cover a wider area? If there are wardens in the right places, who cares what team they are members of?

Of course the principle to which I have referred is not unique to South Wales:

See: http://www.uwfra.org.uk/d5/index.php

And: http://www.cro.org.uk/

But . . . you actually need to have caved in the caves that I've described and (ideally) led or participated in rescues from them - as I have done - to appreciate my point . . .

Oh, and I volunteered to come along from White Walls with the resigning chairman of the Gwent Cave Rescue Team to a meeting at Penwyllt on Sunday 12th July, with the West Brecon Cave Rescue Team, to consider the options.

I was told I wasn't welcome because I hadn't been invited.

So, I've made my point here instead of in private at the meeting - as I would have preferred to have been able to do.

I am quite capable of appreciating the point you make even though I am not particularly familiar with many caves in the area. I don't have to agree with it though, do I? What matters is the expertise on the ground, the people who volunteer and maintain the appropriate kit, not the political body they might belong to. If the members of the old team are still there (they are still there aren't they?) then surely the expertise hasn't disappeared, has it? Are you going to join, or have you joined WBCRT? If you have (as we all know you do have) a good knowledge of the caves you mention, then you should be welcome, I suspect.