Latest news about JJs

CarlS · Latest news about JJs

A few weeks ago Steve started a discussion about a paddler being arrested at the JJs site. This situation has now been resolved from the police and CPS point of view and details can be found by following the link below.

http://www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=39200

I still think that the owners were somewhat heavy handed in their approach and are perhaps missing the point being raised by the paddling community. However, I feel we need to have a chat about this sitation with a view to looking at this venue in the future.

My personal opinion is that we should make some comparisons with other sites.

Slenningford: we pay to use the car park and changing rooms, but not as much as at JJs. I can't see them attempting to charge for simply passing through.

Tryweryn: you don't pay anymore and the facilities are excellent, I've heard that the reason is that the centre is funded by the tax payer and therefore why should we pay twice? (I may be wrong about this).

HPP, Nottingham: also funded by the taxpayer? An excellent facility but a charge is made.

Okay so what do we do? I personally will not pay to simply paddle past the site and if we do this as a club run we would need to park our cars in the town and then do the usual shuttle. I don't like the way the owners of JJs are dealing with this situation and feel that the charge they make is excessive given the facilities provided. However, the site itself is good to use and has been a traditional venue in the past.

I have set up a poll to get a feeling for how members feel about using the site in the near future.

Carl
River Trips Coordinator

Steve T

The initial adrenaline-fuelled rant-mode has subsided but I am still undecided about this. Again what I say here is personal opinion.

If we were to run a club trip (or to be part of a non-club peer group), Tail to Town, there is no way I would pay, even if we were to play in “his” features briefly as a normal part of the run. In a way, though, this is academic as we’re a way off running a club trip through Town falls just yet.

However, before paddling on a park & play basis at the site (or using the site as egress after descending from the Tail, as we had planned in June), then I would want to know exactly what I was paying for – since I’d be entering into a contract that is a reasonable request.

The guy is running a business, so if I was told that the charge was for parking, changing, showers and maybe even a launching fee, then I don’t have a problem in principle. The only decisions would be whether I thought the cost to be reasonable and whether I was happy to do business with an organisation which has behaved as JJ’s has done.

If JJ’s claimed that any part of the fee was for “access” to the water (I don’t mean launching from his site, I mean permission to float on the water which happens to be passing by) then I would not be comfortable with this, and would find it difficult to pay. We used to turn a blind eye to this and pretend we were paying for facilities only. Recent events have made this more difficult as he has made it impossible to kid ourselves anymore. Remember that the guy who was arrested was parked at his own place of work (Paddleworks) and did not use JJ’s changing rooms.

So I’m voting for the third option. I would decide on the day, balancing the answer to the above question with how much I wanted to have a good blast on the river at the time. I shop at Tesco, eat McDonald’s, drive a planet-killer and have worked in the death & destruction industry for too long enough to claim any idealistic high-ground. We do the same thing at the Washburn & Ure and have done so at the Tryweryn, it’s just that these organisations have appeared more sympathetic to paddlers and less opportunistic.

Bear in mind, however, that the mighty T is now free for all and only a few miles further down the road. You don’t have to paddle the whole thing; the top section of the Graveyard is similar in grade to Mile End Mill on a good day with lots of breakouts to catch (the river-left breakout before the next bit is usefully big and hard to miss). There’s no barbed wire and the facilities are incomparably better. For our improvers, you can also try some of the bigger features as you get more confident, and also stand by (laughing) with throw lines while the likes of myself get trashed in the ski-slope stopper or swim screaming down the Graveyard’s second section. Even if they do introduce a parking fee at CT (as seems likely), the money would go towards the WCA rather than what appears to be a fairly questionable business.

Just my £0.02 worth.

Steve