SE Wales Hang Gliding & Paragliding Forums

Surfing Youtube I came across this vid. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t6tU5oJjmM Looks like a brilliant place. Wondering if there was a chance the site could be reopened seeing a quite a bit of time has passed.

I'm afraid it's very unlikely that we will ever get Southerndown back, as we eventually lost the access battle there because it was found that the council actually have bylaws in place forbidding any aircraft to take-off from the cliffs. This was passed long before we started flying there, so heaven only knows what the bylaw was put in place for. But the bottom line is that we'd have to get the council to repeal the bylaw before we could officially fly there again, and the chances of that .....

I wonder if we could find a solution by drawing up some kind of document that would describe how and when we could be allowed to fly this site. Dunstable HPC have a Letter of Agreement with the CAA (I believe that allows them to fly in Class D airspace near Luton Airport! Have a look at http://www.dunstablehpc.co.uk/images/info/loa09.pdf
Now I don't think we would need anything like so extreme a document to get around the byelaws at SouthernDown Cliffs, maybe one limiting us to foot launched unpowered gliders piloted by BHPA members for the insurance.

The local authority byelaw of 1954 is very specific and states that “a person shall not, without lawful authority, land or depart from the Commons in an aeroplane or other flying machine, except in the case of accident or other sufficient cause”.

We could try to get the by-law repealed, but I don't think that's likely as I suspect this would involve a fair amount of work for the current Local Authority, as of course it was the previous Authority that actual passed the by-law that they inherited. The other approach might be to focus on trying to reach an agreement with the Council, the landowners (Dunraven Estates), and the Local Wardens that resulted in the Council giving us Authority.

From past experience this won't be easy or quick especially as there are three parties involved, but if you fancy giving it a go, drop me an email and I'll let you have what information we have on file. The starting point is undoubtedly getting the wardens on side, as they were the ones that objected in the first place and dug up the old by-law. We'd been flying there for some time and neither the Council or the Landowner had to my knowledge ever complained or said anything about this rather old bylaw until the wardens contacted them to complain.

I really can't imagine what activity they were trying to stop in 1954, but they certainly used a sledgehammer to stop it.