Disused quarries: dangerous places where people fall off cliff faces or drown in lakes — or wonderful recreational facilities?

I have occasionally referred to Longcliffe quarry on the Today’s Training thread. I don’t go there very often, and usually there are only a few other people there when I do; but on one recent warm, sunny day, it was teeming with people, none of them more than half my age. These young people go swimming in the lake, they do cliff-diving, rock-climbing, mountain-biking, or simply sun-bathing and hanging out with friends. I do personally know some young people who go there quite frequently; when they first told me about what they do there, I gave them the usual warnings about the dangers of these activities, but they already seemed to have a fairly good grasp of the issues. And that is the point: we live in a world full of all sorts of dangers, and we learn to cope with them by progressively exposing ourselves to more hazardous situations, in the company of more experienced friends — just like a fell runner will gradually progress from local BS races to Wasdale and Ennerdale.

Now my young acquaintances have told me that on their latest visit to the quarry, the hole in the fence giving access had been sealed up (but they had easily found a way round that), but once in the quarry they were confronted by Security staff with dogs. These men asked them to leave, and told them that someone had recently been killed diving into the quarry. Now, I read the local paper every week, and I think such an event would have been reported if it had actually happened.

I feel really angry about this. The young people have found this quarry, they have made it their own (although they could show it a bit more love; there is an appalling amount of litter scattered around), and devised their own activities. These activities are healthy (both physically and mentally); they are not safe, but I think that Safety is sometimes the enemy of Health. They are not endangering anyone else except possibly by their parking of cars on the road near the quarry. They will undoubtedly find other ways to explore danger and prevent boredom, maybe by driving at stupid speeds along country lanes, or by taking drugs. Who benefits from depriving these people of their recreation?

End of rant.

[More on Longcliffe and other local quarries here: http://www.focf.org.uk/pdf/quarries.pdf . Ignore the dreadful presentation of this document, a lot of what it says is very sensible.]