Effective immediately, Casterton Fell permits will be managed by Geoff Whittaker.
This includes caves on the north/west of Ease Gill Beck including Top Sink, Pool Sink, Wretched Rabbit, County Pot, Sylvester Pot, Lancaster Hole and Cow Pot.
The CNCC website has been updated with the new details.
This means that Geoff now deals with permits for Ingleborough Estate (including Gaping Gill, Newby Moss and The Allotment), Leck Fell, Casterton Fell, as well as being the administrator of the online booking system (which is immenent for going live... more news soon). Hopefully this should make life a little easier. We are extremely grateful to Geoff for taking on this extra work, and Hannah, who has dealt with Casterton Fell permits so excellently for over three years.
We appreciate that Casterton Fell is open access land.
The CNCC has a good dialogue with the landowners of Casterton Fell; they are aware of the BCA CRoW campaign. However, until the Government bodies decide to support the BCA view, the landowner desires continuation of managed access.
At present this takes the form of the permit system that has been in operation for many years.
We are aware that this is outdated and does not reflect modern needs and expectations of cavers. Those of you who follow CNCC business will be aware of the online booking system currently being trialled on Ingleborough. We are hopeful that in the near future we will be able to extend this to Leck, and then Casterton Fell too. This compromise system will meet the wishes of the landowners for managed access, helping sustain good relations, while making access available for all using a modern and simple system. It is a solution that we hope will satisfy everyone.
Watch this space for more information.
Thank you for your cooperation.