Tricky Access.

[GIRTy]

As a newbie to this trig- bagging thing (apart from the one's bagged whilst out on the big 'hills'), I have noticed quite a few trigs - especially pillars - are surrounded by barbed wire in the fields. As bagging is becoming more popular then obviously more people are going to be attempting to climb over/through these fences. This over time will wreck the fences which are expensive. The idea I am proposing is perhaps someone from admin could possibly have a word with the farmers/ land owners to get some type of basic stile put in. That way we would be happy for getting closer to the trigs without a fight, and farmer would be happy as no fence would be damaged. Win-win!
If you look at one of my photos for 'Thornbank' (TP6446) you will see the type of stile I am referring to.

[Teasel]

Well, firstly I am obliged to say that, for trigpoints in areas where there is no right of access, you should be asking the landowner for permission, so using the least disruptive access route would form part of that discussion. (See T&Cs). However, even where access to land is given as a right, damage still needs to be minimised, so your question is entirely valid.

I would expect the landowner population to divide into four broad camps:

1. Those who would be happy to install a stile
2. Those who would be willing to install a stile, provided the trigpointing community fund it
3. Those who aren't against access per se, but who fear a stile would create problems
4. Those who would rather have the pillar destroyed than allow the public to access it

I know that the Ordnance Survey are concerned about group 4, as they are currently dealing with a number of requests from landowners to destroy pillars, fueled by entries on the TrigpointingUK website which describe acts of trespass. I hope to receive an official message from OS Corporate Office, that I can display on the wesite.

Personally, I would be glad to substantially contribute towards a pot of money to pursue option 2. However, I'm a coder not a negotiator, so would look towards someone else to step forward to identify suitable locations, liase with the landowners, and perhaps even persuade people in camp 3 to move to camp 2.

[GIRTy]

Thankyou for the reply, Teasel. I, too, would be willing to contribute a 'small' financial token.

[peregrinus]

It would be great if access could be negotiated but this would be best done locally IMO. I've approached landowners for access or to find out where a pillar has been moved to, or jokingly suggested they start a visitors book (which one has...) but don't recall ever broaching the question of stiles.

[pritch227]

Yes i have to agree with peregrinus,most landowners are only too happy to allow access and i have yet to be refused access,the problem with approaching them regarding the installation of a stile would be the amount of people accessing what would still be private land and many farmers/landowners would oppose this plus some routes to pillars are far from straightforward and would maybe need 2 or 3 stiles.the sad fact is some pillars are now being destroyed like the one on sunny hill,derbyshire that was destroyed last month simply because the owner of the field was fed up with trespassers wandering 50 yards to the trig from the road.

[GIRTy]

That's bad. Can the landowner not be done for damages? I thought Ordnance Survey owned the pillars?