Permissions for fell race

[Sasquatch]

Just wanted to mention that I think the Peak District National Park and National Trust appear to be tightening up their rules around applying for permissions for fell races. In addition to the £50 'registration fee' that I've had to pay in recent years, this year they have forwarded my application on to Natural England. This is because the Kinder Downfall race uses a very short section of path that crosses an SSSI area at the top of William Clough. This is a very well established long used popular path and they've not mentioned applying to Natural England in previous years as far as I am aware.
I've been the RO for last 3 years. Also NT told me that Natural England say it can take 4 months to process the application and they advised me in future to apply for permissions a year in advance. So I'm posting this to make other Peak District based ROs aware. Not sure how people are finding things in other areas.

[IanDarkpeak]

Will, Drop Nicky an email telling her about your issues, she has a meeting with Peak Park etc very soon.

all ROs in the peak are having a hard time. I know of a few races that have had problems yet it seems to me there are more and more commercial races appearing??

[Sasquatch]

Thanks Ian will do.

[DrPatrickBarry]

Andy had to cancel the Kinder Trial becasue "he was too late" applying for permission. I wonder if he did nothing different to previous years and it was more a case of they were slower?

[GeoffB]

Just received this from the organiser of the New Chew:

"Its with regret that I have to cancel the New Chew 2019 event as I don't have Natural England's permission to proceed. NE need 28 working days to look at the map and agree with land owners what the land owners have already agreed. That is to look on screen at the control points that you've all signed up to run to in 3.5 - 4.5 hours. They did have the time in previous years and would have time this year if we paid them, but not enough time if we don't. As we don't want to set a precedent for the FRA and other clubs we decided not to concede to the extortion. The organisation move the goal posts every year and in each of the last 3 I've managed to hit the net. Unfortunately, not this time. "

Not good news.

[Llani Boy]

I think it is about time we started giving two fingers to these Quangos. I have never heard a convincing argument why "permission" is required to run on public footpaths/bridleways.
We are on a slippery slope, the bottom of it being, to only being "allowed" to run on the parts of the National Parks that have been spoiled by paving them over.

[LongbeardRanger]

Yes, I got that email about New Chew as well. Didn't like it one bit. There definitely seems to be a quite concerning trend regarding access and permissions, in the Peak at least.

[Sasquatch]

I agree with the above. The overall direction of policy is worrying as far as future fell races are concerned. Last year I paid the £50 PDNPA 'registration fee' and I was told this payment would mean they 'register the race' (whatever they mean by that - put it on a spreadsheet presumably - for £50!) and also contact landowners/tenants and get their permissions on my behalf.
I got a phone call from PDNPA the Friday before the race asking if I'd contacted the landowners. I told them I had, just as I and other ROs have been doing for the last 38 years that the Downfall has been run. Clearly the £50 is simply a payment for their permission to run the event. No different from having to pay a private landowner.
And now you can pay for NE to look at a map and say yes or no. Because if you don't they might not have time.
Maybe the FRAs access and environmental representative needs to take this up? guidance from the FRA?
I'm sorry to hear that the New Chew is cancelled, but totally agree it's best not to 'concede to the extortion'.

[anthonykay]

The Trans Fan race (Llanddeusant to Cwm Llwch, in the Brecon Beacons National Park) was run every year from 1984 to 1989, but then stopped due to difficulties with access permissions (the largest number of runners in any year was 25 !).

Since 1997, Mynyddwyr De Cymru have organised an informal timed run from Llanddeusant to Cwm Llwch each year. Is this the sort of thing that is likely to start happening elsewhere?

http://runmdc.org.uk/runs/transfan/

[noel]

I think the problem this year is that the rules have changed and we (as race organisers) weren't aware of it. This is particularly troublesome for those whose races are earlier in the year, so have had less time to adjust to this rule change.

However, we do need to work with these bodies to ensure we have the relevant permissions. I would hope we (possibly through the FRA) can be more involved in the decision-making process. That way we can put our case across that we need simple processes that meet the needs of both parties.