Derbyshire Caving Association

Information Circular 2005/2, April / May 2005

NEXT DCA MEETING

DCA Special General Meeting - Saturday 16th July 2005, 10am. Monyash Village Hall

This will be followed immediately by the DCA Council Meeting (open to all DCA Members)

The S.G.M has been called by DCA Council to consider 3 further amendments to the DCA Constitution which were accidentally omitted from consideration at the DCA AGm on 19 February. These amendments are detailed on a separate sheet.

The Hall will be open from about 9.30am with tea, coffee and biscuits on tap. The Old Smithy Cafe, next to the Pub, does an excellent breakfast from about 9am.

DCA Meetings for the rest of the year, all at 10am. at Monyash Village Hall

DCA Council (open to all DCA Members) : Saturday, 22 October 2005

DCA Annual General Meeting : Saturday, 25 February 2006

LIABILITY INSURANCE - A WARNING

DCA Legal & Insurance Officer Pete Mellors has warned Clubs of the importance of keeping membership records up to date. In particular this means you must notify your insurer, whether DCA or BCA, of the name and address of any new member as soon as they join the club - even if there is an agreement that the extra premium does not become due until later in the year.

Pete also reminds all insured with DCA that he needs to have details as soon as possible of any incident affecting an Individual or Club which could conceivably lead at some stage to a claim being made for negligence, libel & slander, or error of judgment. A useful suggestion is for clubs to keep an Incident Book. Members should not admit liability with regard to any such incident. The requirements are part of our contract. Failure to observe them could result in refusal by the Insurers to meet a claim. If you have any queries with regard to DCA Liability Insurance, please contact Pete direct - either tel. 01623-882515 or email legal.insurance @ theDCA.org.uk.

CONSERVATION & ACCESS NOTES

Don't forget that all three members of the DCA Conservation & Access Team can be contacted together on one email address at access @ theDCA.org.uk. Otherwise you can contact them individually at:

HILLOCKS MINE ENTRANCE
The old and rusty oil drums have now been removed from the Hillocks entrance crawl and it was found that the concrete surrounding them was good and solid and only needed to be pointed up. Hence the plastic pipes weren't needed at the site after all and will now be used elsewhere.

ECTON HILL SSSI & SHAFT CAPPING
Len Kirkham has been commissioned to cap some of the old shafts on Ecton Hill using steel mesh funded by English Nature under the Conservation Grant-aided Projects scheme in partnership with DCA. DCA is currently involved as a "stakeholder" with ENTEC, project consultants for Derbyshire County Council, on a scheme to produce new guidelines for capping abandoned mineshafts. It is hoped that we can come up with something more "user friendly" than the present concrete slab or railway sleepers - we're aiming for potential for bat access as well as access for cavers at suitable sites whilst still safeguarding the general public

DEVONSHIRE MINE & YOUDS LEVEL GRAFFITI
A small team of cavers, including Dave Webb and John Barnatt, have used wire brushes to remove the spray painted direction arrows - "this way out"! - which disfigured the mine recently. Dave notes that, although they came off easily enough, there were far more than expected and were so far beyond the main chamber that they could only have been done by so-called "cavers". The clean-up team will shortly tackle the disfiguring spray-painted names which appeared close to the 18th century inscriptions at the end of the coffin level (base of Deep Shaft) in Youds Level - "Dale, Russ, Wilco & Rod" are the names of this latter bunch. (Are the same individuals responsible for both sets of graffiti?) Both of these sites are within an SSSI which makes damaging activity of this kind an offence in law. If anyone has any clues as to who these vandals might be, Dave would like to hear from you.

GIANTS APPROACH TRACK
The track from the road to Giants car park is in a very bad way and Ralph Johnson has approached Mr Baldacci with a view to utilising and spreading the pile of limestone chippings he already has in the car park. Mr. Baldacci is naturally behind the idea but of course the work will be of benefit to all of us. Young fit volunteers to assist ageing and infirm "coffin dodgers" half a day mid week will be very welcome. Please contact Dave Webb or Ralph on 01782 515753.

P.8. PARKING AREA
After Iain Barker's negotiations with Derbyshire County Council they have agreed to purchase an area of land a matter of a few meters from the original parking site for cavers' use. Iain still has a site meeting to attend but in reality this is a good result and he will be accepting it on DCA's behalf. The new car park is a short distance towards Sparrowpit, just beyond the small pond. The area is to be designated for the use of cavers and rescue vehicles only. At present work has halted temporarily on the old car park alterations (landowner problems!) and cavers are parking on the new stone track which runs parallel to the road, the construction of a new dry stone wall will soon prevent this.

WINDY KNOWL CAVERN - COLLAPSE
The entrance of Windy Knoll has collapsed. The entire span has come off taking the roof back about 6ft comprising an estimated 40 tonnes of rock. The National Trust have erected an emergency fence around the area. Photo's can be seen on www.PeakDistrictCaving.info.

NATIONAL TRUST AND ACCESS MEETING
Paul Mortimer from the National Trust South Peak Estate Office has invited representatives from DCA C&A team and our Insurance Officer to attend a regional Cave and Mine Access meeting to be held in Birmingham on Thursday 19th May 2005. We are told that this is part of a review process, the purpose of which is "to look at issues at local level and arrangements in place at present", and they are keen to involve "user groups" (cavers and mines historians etc) at the start of any review. Information gleaned will be passed on to higher level and form part of later discussions at national level.

BAT WORKSHOP
Jo Poll of English Nature in collaboration with Alan Walker of Poole's Cavern and the Cave Conservation Monitoring Group is to convene a Bat Workshop at the cave in July to bring together bat workers and cavers. This will present an ideal opportunity to not only learn more about our "furry flying friends" but to discuss and air issues of concern to both groups. There are only ten places available for cavers (and an equal number of bat workers) so, if you are interested, please contact Dave Webb direct.

THIEVES ACTIVE AT GIANTS!

Some time on Sunday, 24th. April the box at Giants Hole into which "trespass fees" are placed was broken into and the contents stolen. (There wouldn't have been much in it as it had been emptied the previous day!) If anyone was around and saw anything suspicious, please contact DCA Access Officer Iain Barker: Tel. 0114-253-0112 or Email access-off @ theDCA.org.uk. It is suggested that it would be better to pay by cheque when you visit Giants to go caving, that way the thieves will lose out if they strike again. We appreciate this isn't always possible but, if you can do this, cheques should be made payable to "Peakshill Farm".

TRAINING

A separate yellow sheet is enclosed giving a complete list of all the training opportunities being organised by DCA Training Officer, Nigel Atkins, during the spring and summer - there is stacks going on and you are welcome to contact Nigel direct if you want to arrange a special session for your own club. Contact Nigel on Tel. 01283-210666, Mob. 07831-449919, Email training @ theDCA.org.uk.

Don't forget that the BCA/DCA Cavers Workshop on the weekend 14/15 May still has some places left.

FOR YOUR NEWSLETTER / NOTICEBOARD

www.theDCA.org.uk - dca @ theDCA.org.uk

26th April 2005