For the last ten years, I have been constantly amazed at the lack of any decent wall within an hours drive of Cambridge... Surely there are climbers in the flat lands!

Hi Dan, Definately worth keeping this post current - loads of Cambridge climbers do post here (and most of them complain about existing facilities). See you Wednesday.

Of course there is. Cambridge was one of the first towns in the UK to get a wall 20+ years ago. It will easily support a medium-large sized dedicated climbing centre. Nope. When I was there 8-12 years ago I used KK about once a fortnight. That was back in the bad old days when the outdoor wall was open, there were no bolt-ons and no matting! It won't really work on a part-time/volunteer basis. For Cambridge you're talking about a capital budget of around £250K-£400K if you can find a suitable location to lease and triple that if you're talking new build. If you can find a venue (key points - height 10-12+m, close enough to centre for bike access & generous parking) then you'd really be looking at 2-3 people who can commit full-time with around £100K+ of their own money. Hope that helps.

If you are looking just to build a big 'woodie' or bouldering cave like the shed in Portland or various other 'collectives' around the country then it's a different story. Your probably talking £5K+ a year rent for a small industrial unit / lock-up in the area. 30 people @ £200 per year is rather optimistic but you might be able to pull something off on a self-build basis. M