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This website is soon to be significantly changed. The reasons for this change are explained in the following Press Release which was issued to the British Caving Association and the Cambrian Caving Council on 7^th September 2019. The Press release will also be published in the October edition of Descent.

Press Release

Changes to the Administration of Access to

the Ogof Ffynnon Ddu System

Background

The Ogof Ffynnon Ddu cave system lies within a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest administered by Natural Resources Wales who own the National Nature Reserve in which Top Entrance and Cwm Dwr lie. The lower entrance to the system, OFD 1, lies on land owned by the South Wales Caving Club.

For some years access to the whole system has been administered for NRW and SWCC by the Ogof Ffynnon Ddu Cave Management Committee.

Imminent Changes

Following reorganisation within NRW and negotiations between NRW and SWCC, the OFDCMC is being wound up and will cease to exist with effect from 5^th November 2019.

At the request of NRW, access to OFD will be managed directly by SWCC and applications for access will be processed by the SWCC Permit Secretary. However, the NRW have also agreed to the establishment of a new body, the Ogof Ffynnon Ddu Cave Advisory Group. The OFDCAG will not administer access but will incorporate a greater level of representation from the clubs that regularly visit the OFD system. These clubs will soon receive invitations from OFDCAG.

It is expected that arrangements for access to The Columns will remain broadly unchanged and the permit process should operate exactly as before.

There will be no change to the present access arrangements in the foreseeable future. Gary Vaughan remains as Permit Secretary ( This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ) and Bob Hall (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ) transfers from his role as Secretary of OFDCMC to OFDCAG.

For the time being the access related pages of this website will still be available and on-line applications will still be supported as before. This is still the preferred form of application.

On or around the formal implementation date of 5^th November some pages of this site will be archived and the all-important access and permit application pages will migrate to the SWCC website ( http://www.swcc.org.uk/joomla-swcc/ .

It has yet to be decided if the new Cave Advisory Group will have its own website.