I have today resigned from the FRA Committee. The events leading to this have been mentioned on Facebook, as well as on this forum.

My issue originally started with concerns over the FRA’s approach to safety; as the only safety professional on the committee I somewhat naively thought the FRA would be interested in ideas I had for modernising and improving the current ‘one size fits all strategy’, which is heavily prescriptive and rules-based, and which I and others believe are could place race organisers in legal jeopardy.

The Safety Requirements document has been gradually modified bit by bit but it has been like pulling teeth and there has never been an acceptance that the whole thing needs to be scrapped and replaced with something simpler, more modern, more flexible and which would ultimately result in safer, better-organised races and would massively reduce the legal risks to ROs in the event of something going wrong.

The stubbornness of part of the committee was disappointing but that was merely a frustration. Far worse was the lengths which were gone to in attempts to gag me, including meeting minutes which were ‘economical with the truth’, the rejection of a perfectly reasonable motion, the closure of a lively forum thread with little or no justification, and repeated attempts to prevent wider debate on the subject. A post on Facebook supporting Mike Bate (alwaysinjured), who was as ever staunchly broadcasting ‘the message’ then resulted in me being threatened with ‘disciplinary proceedings’, though what the charge would be was never made clear, and this seemed to quietly come to nothing.

The final straw was the announcement placed on the website yesterday. This continues the party line (that everything is basically OK) and we don’t need to “meddle” with anything and repeats the same fallacious and misleading statements about legal advice having been taken etc. It is attributed to “The Committee” even though I have never and could never approve it.

As a professional Safety Advisor I simply could not let my name be associated with it. Hence my resignation.

My resignation letter is reproduced below for members’ information.

There are elements within the committee who understand the issue and who have concerns. There are even some who fully support the approach favoured by me and others. There are also around 100 people who have considered the proposals of Mike Bate and myself and have given it the thumbs up. This number will surely grow as more and more people become aware of the alternative and of how much better it is for everybody.

It is my hope that increasing weight of opinion will eventually make the more stubborn elements of the committee wake up and smell the coffee…

Resignation letter:

Nick

I regret to inform you that I am resigning from committee with immediate effect.

It is my view that the committee and executive have behaved irresponsibly, in drafting of rules, in interacting with Coroner, in hiding evidence, in failing to properly review the inquest, and in refusing to heed competent advice. All of these and more. And, as the recent announcement states that no immediate steps will be taken to rectify any of those matters I cannot and will not support it and cannot allow my name to be associated with it.

As a safety advisor with personal and professional codes to follow I cannot allow my name to be associated with the current FRA policy on safety, which I believe is faulty and potentially dangerous, especially when I have openly said I disagree. Inconvenience or matters of personal pride should never be knowingly allowed to override matters of safety yet this is what the Committee is currently allowing to happen.

The executive has allowed important documentation to contain and continue to contain basic errors of understanding, yet still refuses to take offers of competent help, or even allow such matters to be discussed or voted, and still broadcasts the message that everything is OK, instead of recognising there is a problem that needs action.

These matters are so serious I will continue to oppose them, where I am not obliged to compromise my professional ethics.

Before the above can be rectified, the FRA must admit there is a problem, and it should be honest with the membership and especially ROs about that. Lamentably, there is no sign of any such admission.

That being so I resign.

Sincerely

Andy Walmsley