Permission request template wanted

[Pajaholic]

I've identified my local council as the landowner for a couple of prospective cache sites in a local park. Is there a tried and tested template/boilerplate document that I can use to request permission for the caches? I understand from searching the forums that MarkAndLynn created an often recommended template but their website seems to have gone and archive.org doesn't have a copy

 

TIA,

 

Geoff

[+Team Noodles]

have a look here Clicky

[+The Blorenges]

The GAGB have one that may be of help: Try this.

 

MrsB

[Pajaholic]

Thanks guys - much appreciated. While checking the GAGB template I took the opportunity to join (at long last!)

 

Thanks again,

 

Geoff

[+Haggis Hunter]

If you're approaching a council it might be worth pointing them in the direction of the Perth & Kinross Council website, where they are actively advertising Geocaching. They are also the first of the Gold sponsors for next years mega event.

[Pajaholic]

Thanks again guys. I've modified Bill's template a little and included Haggis Hunter's nuggets of info. Here's what I'm proposing to send:

 

Dear {town clerk},

 

I write to request permission to place geocaches within {name} Park, which I understand is land under the control of the Council.

 

I am a member of The Geocaching Association of Great Britain (www.GAGB.org.uk), an organisation that aims to promote Geocaching in harmony with the environment and landowners. We have agreements in place with many Land Owners/Managers including organisations such as The National Trust, Woodland Trust, Councils including Hampshire CC, Wiltshire CC, Cheshire CC, and a number of Forestry Commission Regions. Some councils have embraced Geocaching sufficiently to include details of the activity on their web-sites. For example, http://snurl.com/tbc23 redirects to Hampshire CC’s page. Recently, Perth and Kinross Council became Gold Sponsors for a major Geocaching event, which they have included as a major event in the Perth 800 sporting programme of 2010.

 

Geocaching is a hobby that uses a global positioning system receiver to locate a hidden container. These containers are found by using latitude and longitude coordinates freely available on the Internet at http://www.geocaching.com/faq/ . It is a non-commercial hobby which encourages people to visit locations of interest, views and simply to get out and go walking. It is a fun, family oriented activity that promotes people getting outdoors and introduces them to areas of historic, natural, or scenic interest. Children thoroughly enjoy finding a geocache and its contents, which are often small toys and trinkets. Finders are expected to exchange things from the cache.

 

Geocachers are usually environmentally minded and are encouraged to follow the "Cache In, Trash Out" motto, which has resulted in tonnes of rubbish being removed from around the world, thereby having a positive environmental impact. The average age of a Geocacher is 38 although it covers all ages from 3 to 93 (currently).

 

Great care is taken to hide geocache containers out of view of the public eye (although they are never buried). This is partly to avoid being plundered by whoever happens to walk by and to preserve the sport. It also ensures that the addition of a cache will in no way detract from the beauty of the location. A typical cache is a waterproof box of up to 3 litres hidden under twigs or stones and is visited once every one to two weeks once established (although most receive more visits initially).

 

The two geocaches I propose are 520ml waterproof plastic containers that would initially contain a logbook, pencil, and small trinkets for geocachers to swap. It would also contain a card to briefly explain the activity to non-geocachers and would be marked with identification and contact information. My intent in placing these geocaches is to introduce people to a park of which {town} is justifiably proud and to impart a little of the history of the {name} family and {country seat that was once on this site}. The proposed locations for these geocaches are given in an enclosure. {outline map with OS grid refs and WGS84 coords}

 

For your information, the GAGB guidelines are stated in an enclosure to this letter and I would be happy to provide you with any other information which you may need.

 

Yours sincerely, ...

I would be grateful for any comments (typos, better way to phrase things, etc.) I'm concerned that this is a little wordy, but I suspect I couldn't shorten it much without either leaving out something important or becoming terse.

 

TIA,

 

Geoff

[+Haggis Hunter]

I've gave it a quick once over and I think it's probably as short as you can get it with keeping all of the important information within the letter.

[+Bill D (wwh)]

I agree with HH that you can't really make it any shorter without leaving out information that's necessary to give them a clear picture of caching.

 

One minor correction - the credit for drafting that template belongs to Dave of The Wombles, not to me.

 

Good luck with your approach!

[Pajaholic]

Thanks Bill, HH, et al.

 

The letter gets posted tomorrow. I'm also enclosing a SAE for their reply.

 

For info, it turns out that the Internet was wrong and it isn't the local town council who manage the park. It's actually Cornwall CC, although negotiations are in progress for the County to lease the park to the town for a peppercorn rent. The local Allotment Society are negotiating to take some or all responsibility for maintaining the grounds and their chairman, although not a geocacher, is really enthusiastic. He particularly likes the idea of bringing families who wouldn't otherwise visit to the park and has offered to help by keeping an eye out for signs of muggling etc. Hopefully the County will be like minded.

 

Thanks again,

 

Geoff

[Pajaholic]

(Also posted to GAGB "Landowner's Permission" forum)

 

The council have replied, giving me permission to undertake the activity as described in my letter. However, the last paragraph of their reply gives me concern:

Can you confirm though that you have public liability insurance in place to cover any accident that might occur as a result of the geocaching activity? No doubt your parent organisation can advise you on this.

The wording of their letter doesn't make permission dependent on PL insurance, but I suspect they might withdraw permission if insurance is not in place. Does GAGB or any one else have PL insurance? Does home insurance normally cover this?

 

I would be grateful for any advice.

 

TIA,

 

Geoff