A Run In With A Warden
'I arrived and as is usual I went to the Brecon Beacons Mountain Centre info desk. The person that I spoke to, and I don't know her name, has consistently been the most unhelpful and rude person I have ever had dealings with at any tourist information point. Why she is still the first point of contact for many after what must be 15 years, I can't understand... I approached and said Hi, she looked at me rather glumly and with an 'I don't know you' face. But she does know me, having had many contacts with me over the past 15 years. So I said I'm Andy Lamb from Wales Outdoors and I have a group of 11 that I'll be working with on the common with kites and two mountain boards this afternoon. She responded with an icy glare and Oh... Wasn't there a problem the last time you were here? And I said not that I know anything about, no one has said anything or been in touch... She said Oh, OK then... and that was that.
I went to meet the group and as I was chatting to them the Central Area Warden, Jon Pimm, drove up and approached me and asked to have a word. He said that he'd been informed by staff that we were running activities on the common that had not been agreed in advance with the BBNP Authority, that we were using the common for commercial gain which needed permission and that we might be posing a risk to other users of the site. He mentioned that we had tried sometime back to run archery at the location and that was a dangerous activity that the BBNP were not happy about.
I said that I ran activities at the site about four times a year, this being the second occasion this year and I had no other bookings for which I needed to use the common that year. That I hadn't run archery commercially at the site for about three years and that I had only ever run archery there on three occasions. I said that late last year, however, I ran an archery training course for staff which I intended for the common but that was moved to the mountain centres field in agreement with mountain centre staff. I mentioned that I always informed the staff that I was there and what I was doing and that I had been using the common on an infrequent basis, without incident or adverse comment from the BBNP, for over fifteen years.
He said that on this occasion, given that it was a quiet Saturday and my clients had already arrived that he'd let me continue with my session but that future use would have to be agreed through the BBNP who might want a face-to-face meeting to discuss suitable use of the common, pre-booking of dates and times, copies of risk assessments, insurance and permissions might be restricted to certain days, parts of the common etc. I am also assuming that as this is commercial use they may want a fee also.
So I ran the session and I won't be going back. I'll find somewhere out of sight of the mountain centre or on a different common or I'll find a park or a friendly farmers field. I'd certainly rather pay a farmer for use of his land than pay the BBNP for use of publicly owned land or to avoid having my day spoilt by officious and authoritarian BBNP staff. And I won't be informing any 'authority' of my whereabouts...
I think that all authorities are exactly what that word means. They are the 'authority' and they like to express their power, flex some muscle. We were doing no harm, we damaged nothing, we left no litter. I believe we enhanced the common and the BBNP. Anyone travelling on the road or walking over the common would have seen us enjoying adventurous activities within the BBNP and surely this has to be encouraged if the BBNP is to be regarded as one of the UK's foremost adventure activity destinations.
And you know what - despite there being an arts and craft fair at the Mountain Centre on the day we were passed by one small family and one couple for the whole of the three hours we were out on the common. Effectively there were no other users of the common...
This encounter raises many issues that the BBNP need to have a think about. Is commercial use of the common illegal? As owners of various bits of common land can the BBNP demand that providers need to gain permission for use of such common land prior to taking groups onto it. Should the BBNP, therefore, have a database of all activity suppliers that might take clients onto their land and hold up to date copies of their insurances, risk assessments etc. Do the BBNP have this kind of record keeping for the commoners, insurance for staff, vehicles, stock etc. I very much doubt it...
Worse still this shows no knowledge of how activity providers operate. This activity was scheduled on the day, as an alternative to another activity that could not take place due to weather conditions. This could not have been pre-booked with the BBNP.
