Well its been a roller coaster ride at this crag, and I guess that from the outset it was never going to be an easy transition from a crag being banned to climbers using it through a land ownership loop hole, when the real issues of what caused the crag to be closed were never really put to bed with the adjacent landowner.
As such from the outset of the new agreement there has been trouble brewing, and Mr Webb has rightly or wrongly been gunning for climbers. He has tried many things from intimidation, to using the local media and police. Finally he has come up with a counter claim of the land ownership issue, and the BMC was forced to advise the closure to the central section of the crag.
Baring in mind that several climbers have sneaked down to climb at the crag throughout the previous ban, will the latest BMC advice that ‘until the ownership of the central section of the crag is resolved we felt we had no option but to advise people that there is no access agreement for climbing on the central section’ be honored by climbers 0r will they risk the chance of a civil prosecution for tresspass?
There is more information here on the BMC website.
One potential question is how the whole issue has been dealt with by the BMC. Anyway we’ll see what the situation is next week!
There is some more background information on the issue here and here