UKC

We went to Cole Hill on Friday morning. When we arrived there it was overrun with Nature England contractors who were felling all the trees and killing the stumps. Their instructions were to also remove all the vegetation from the cliff faces and also remove all the bolts and anchors.
It appears there is a new land manager in-charge of the place. The last one, although sticking to the 'climbing is banned' line, didn't seem to be bothered about climbers, and was more worried by the cyclists and drunken parties. This new guy seems determined to stop all climbing. That is the landowners choice, but it will be a shame as it was a nice little venue on much better rock than a lot of other, nearby, places.
I have e-mailed the BMC Access Officer.
Take care to be as unobtrusive as possible when down there and be ready to leave, that is assuming that the bolts are still there to climb with. Remember it is an SSSI for its geology, not it's wildlife. I will try to check it out again on Monday morning.

In reply to johncook:

Wirksworth? That is a big shame if it's true.

Is it the land owner or Natural England that has changed? I would have thought it's still the charity's responsibility? Then if NE disagree with climbing they need to take action against the charity, not unilaterally.

Technically any bolts would have to be agreed with NE and the landowner due to it's status, so if they get chopped I doubt they'll be back up.

In reply to winhill:
It is the new land manager who has asked the nature England people to clear the vegetation and the bolts. The quarry belongs to the stone centre and it is their new land manager.
All this is what we were told by the nature England team, some of who were climbers and were against the bolt/anchor removal.

In reply to johncook:

This is a shame. I thought it a nice little venue.

In reply to johncook:

Big shame pleasant quiet little place

In reply to johncook:

That is sad. Be interested to know what happens to it afterwards, is it going to be turned into a different sort of amenity or abandoned to parties/dog walkers/nature?

In reply to philhilo:
Apparently it is an SSSI because of the geology. The big clear out of trees is to make the geology more visible from the (rickety) overlook up in the Stonecentre
Hopefully the raves etc will be discouraged as they leave a huge mess (see thread about Lawrencefield!) Dog walkers and viewers of the rock will probably be encourage. It seems to be just climbers who will be actively discouraged. Unfortunately that is the landowners prerogative, unless the BMC can negotiate with them.
Most of this comes from the conversation with the workers who were chopping down the trees.

In reply to johncook:

This is tragic news. Although it's not brilliant it does have a nice spread of grades and is easily accessible. Great venue for an evening or on a weekend if time is short. Hopefully the BMC can pick up on this and at least attempt to negotiate access before they chop all the bolts. On a selfish point, I've ticked most of the crag so it's not the end of the world. I'm sure another crag will be found and receive the Gibson treatment!

In reply to migs493:

All the bolts still appear to be in place, work seems to be more scrub clearance.

John