http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Mum-wins-fight-dangerous-workings-Perranporth/story-19056324-detail/story.html#axzz2Tq74gUNg 

Lozz.

I hope they put the grilles inside the portal, like Geevor adit, so it doesn't change the look of the beach.

If people see a big steel door, they are more likely to come back with some getting-through-a-steel-door gear.

I cannot help but see the grilling of horizontal levels after a child was killed by falling into a gunis in the same light as the council who lowered the speed limit on a road after an accident where a cyclist rode into the side of a stationary bus.

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Her "campaign" sounds like a salve to a guilty conscience

Call me a heartless b*****d; however if Mrs Clarke had put more energy into supervising her daughter in the first place.......

It reminds me of the Gaping Gill incident a few years ago when a chap let his son explore the Rat Hole with a fag lighter and, surprise surprise

I don't know what Cornwall Councils policy is on all the old mine entrances etc, in the light of the recent tragic event it's a difficult one to call from a mine exploration point of view.
Years ago your average person got injured or whatever and that was that, these days most folks have access to litigation, social and general media campaigns etc etc.
I guess it's all down to money.

Lozz.

I am a little bit unsure about where the accident took place but i believe that there was a sort of descending cliff path round a shear drop into a gunnis.
If it is the place I went there a few years ago and noticed that there had been a camp fire there indicating possible popularity with young people, and noted the dangerous nature of the drop.
If I am right its stable doors.

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I think? It was a beach adit with an open winze part way in, some of the local explorers will know.

Lozz.

Stu will put me right but i think the adit is 8 or 9 feet above the beach

Stu will put me right but i think the adit is 8 or 9 feet above the beach

Yes, I think you might be right, a short climb up rings a bell.

Lozz.

from what i remember of the story in the press the father lifted the little girl up into the adit !!!! but we could debate the rights and wrongs of that all night

The Wheal Death adit is the only one in the whole area I have not been in.

The reason being there was no way on earth I was free climbing up there.....there was no sand there at the time.

What we need is a really good bit of hyperbolic hand wringing hysteria, then we could barricade off the beaches as they are basically deathtraps. How on earth any of them could pass a sensible risk assessment, I have no idea.

I wonder if an official survey has been done as to the condition of the adits that are easily accessable by the unknowledgable public (thinking beach and part way up the cliff type of adits) If not then that would be a start for prioritizing any work they wish to carry out. They could pay the local mine explorers to do the surveys.

Clearly the one that the little girl ventured into was a death trap for those not in the know of mining ways etc. I wonder if the council were aware of the danger within the adit before that accident.

Lozz.

The adits are being surveyed by experts and enthusiasts (professional ones). They will recommend that the interesting ones have access fitted, which is great.

The adits are being surveyed by experts and enthusiasts (professional ones). They will recommend that the interesting ones have access fitted, which is great.

Cheers, sound kind of sensible.

Lozz.

How long have these adits been open for all to explore/ignore? Since the days the mines they served were abandoned many, many decades ago, presumably. No fatalities up until now?

It rather confirms my suspicion/prejudice that we have a generation of punters who are incapable of understanding the risks they take. A diet of silly-ass YouTube videos and recycled Hollywood blockbusters on the small screen invite people to think that they are immune from death and serious injury whatever stunt they pull. The world is just one adventure playground to them. A via ferrata mindset where the kind person before you will have provided a completely safe and assured lifeline for your amusement.

To be fair, most of us would probably bemoan the fact that kids today aren't given the same degree of freedom/access to danger that they had even 20 years ago. The father of the little girl obviously didn't want to do the socially-normal thing of wrapping his daughter in cotton-wool and unfortunately paid a really heavy price for that. It's unfortunate that her mother is obviously of the hand-wringing, "won't somebody please think of the children" brigade. Maybe she didn't used to be like that, maybe losing your daughter in those circumstances makes you see things differently. She should however have been very gently and tactfully told to get lost, that you can't mitigate against every single disaster that can potentially befall your child.

People have always gotten themselves killed/injured/otherwise in trouble, well before Youtube existed to give them pointers. The kids who died underground at Alderley Edge (1950's?) spring to mind (Were those deaths the direct impetus for the blocking of the mines there?).

The adits are being surveyed by experts and enthusiasts (professional ones). They will recommend that the interesting ones have access fitted, which is great.

But recommendations are all they will be, unfortunately it doesn't guarantee implimentation. No doubt the final decision will be made by the guy with the cheque book; but here's hoping!

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From todays local online news:

http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Council-s-D-Day-dangerous-features-Perranporth/story-19069891-detail/story.html#axzz2Tq74gUNg 

So far as tourist/visitors go I don't think you can expect them to know about the dangers of old mine workings around the beaches, the parish council concerned wanted to go down the road of educating people rather than grilling the entrances, folks don't come on holiday to be lectured by the local council, they come down to have fun and relax, I don't know off hand what the tourist brochures say now but there was a time when they used words like "explore" and "smugglers caves" all very romantic.
The beaches in the main are public access, if there was an open adit with an open winze in the floor by the side of a major public highway or a kids play ground it would have been made safe years ago if it's existance was known.

Lozz.

The central problem is that the tourists are going to be wandering up to grilles with cut bars on them.

This is a really bad thing and a feature of having grilles in remote places. Geevor Padlock makes sense.

The central problem is that the tourists are going to be wandering up to grilles with cut bars on them.

This is a really bad thing and a feature of having grilles in remote places. Geevor Padlock makes sense.

Hi Stuey, by cut bars do you mean literaly cut ie: by the local wildlife?

Lozz.