use of MOD ranges

[shotgun sam]

I was talking to a member of our gun club last night He is also a member of another club and at their AGM last week they were told that later this year on MOD ranges that are booked by civilian clubs only members of the booking club will be allowed to shoot. Visitors from other clubs who have NRA competency cards who in the past paid a fee will now no longer be able to do so. Does anyone know if this is correct.

[John MH]

Don't know, but the issue is probably around the insurance required by Civilian Clubs using MoD Ranges. Quote from JSP 403

Indemnity and Insurance. The MOD and RFCA must be fully indemnified against all damage to the premises and claims from third parties for personal injury or death resulting from the licensee's use of a range. In addition to the signed indemnity contained in the licence DE Form 5665, it is necessary that the civilian club provides evidence of insurance cover to support the indemnity. The insurance cover required to meet third party claims will be a minimum of £5M per incident and be unlimited as to the total number of incidents it covers.

If you are not a member of the Club that actually made the range booking you may not be covered by their insurance, however, it would be down to what the actual policy conditions specify. I would imagine that there are companies that do provide this type of cover as 'Open' competitions would not be able to take place on MoD Ranges without it. It is really down to the Club making the booking to ensure all those shooting with them on their booking are covered by their Insurance. It would not be unreasonable for the MoD require that a Club provides evidence that non-club members shooting with them are covered.

Potential can of worms.

[Dave 101]

Something I heard at my club last night , Landmarc don't want to pay for range wardens so the club hiring the range will have to provide their own staff to run the range .
It makes you wonder for how much longer civis will be allowed on MOD ranges , driven out by stealth measures where by it becomes impossible for a club to shoot and do the donkey work and be able to pay for it .

Dave

[Gaz]

I don't understand why Landmarc have such an obvious downer on civilian range use. Is it uninformed insurance worries, is the firm run by antis, are they only paid when the MoD use the ranges, or what?

It certainly seems that there's a lot of baseless restrictions being introduced by individual Landmarc employees aimed at disrupting and reducing civilian access to ranges.

[John MH]

Something I heard at my club last night , Landmarc don't want to pay for range wardens so the club hiring the range will have to provide their own staff to run the range .
It makes you wonder for how much longer civis will be allowed on MOD ranges , driven out by stealth measures where by it becomes impossible for a club to shoot and do the donkey work and be able to pay for it .

Dave

I would suspect that if a Landmarc Range Warden is not available to cover Civilian Club booking then the Range will not be available and the booking would be cancelled. I cannot see that Civilian Club members will be allowed to conduct the duties of the Range Warden.

[John MH]

I don't understand why Landmarc have such an obvious downer on civilian range use. Is it uninformed insurance worries, is the firm run by antis, are they only paid when the MoD use the ranges, or what?

It certainly seems that there's a lot of baseless restrictions being introduced by individual Landmarc employees aimed at disrupting and reducing civilian access to ranges.

Guys

Landmarc don't make policy or rules, its the DLRSC (Defence Land Ranges Safety Committee) who are responsible for policy and Local Range Authorising Officers who make the rules. Landmarc provide a contracted 'service' to the MoD for the maintenance and operation of Ranges which includes the provision of Range Wardens.

[Dave 101]

Something I heard at my club last night , Landmarc don't want to pay for range wardens so the club hiring the range will have to provide their own staff to run the range .
It makes you wonder for how much longer civis will be allowed on MOD ranges , driven out by stealth measures where by it becomes impossible for a club to shoot and do the donkey work and be able to pay for it .

Dave

I would suspect that if a Landmarc Range Warden is not available to cover Civilian Club booking then the Range will not be available and the booking would be cancelled. I cannot see that Civilian Club members will be allowed to conduct the duties of the Range Warden.

That is what they have thought of for the future , the club would have to run the tower , sentries which at present is done by the wardens , who knows whether these policies will be introduced ?

You would have thought that they would rather have income from the range rather than it standing idle . But maybe there's a bigger picture that we don't see , such as a reduction in the army therefore less need for ranges , equals unused land so lets build houses on it .
This is in Colchester area where part of the army camp has already been demolished and houses built on it , Middlewick range was closed a couple of years ago so the back stops could be raised so houses could be built beyond the range , then there is Fingrinhoe ETR which has very nice views down to the estuary towards Maldon and Mersea an ideal place for expensive housing .

Dave
Dave

[karen]

Any reason why everyone from the other clubs can't join the booking club as well - membership a quid or the same as any current fee they pay?

[Tony-c]

if shooting under the name and membership of the booking club then they would have to be full members I believe, as temporary membership isn't allowed

[Racalman]

Something I heard at my club last night , Landmarc don't want to pay for range wardens so the club hiring the range will have to provide their own staff to run the range .
It makes you wonder for how much longer civis will be allowed on MOD ranges , driven out by stealth measures where by it becomes impossible for a club to shoot and do the donkey work and be able to pay for it .

Dave

I was told by a Range Warden last week that Landmarc are making most of them redundant, such that those remaining will open and close the range but Clubs must provide someone to monitor the phone in the hut in the event of a check fire. That just means sending down an extra bod with the butt party. No mention of clubs not being welcome.