999 Who Ya Gonna Call? Read all relevant memos first

You pick up the phone and dial 999 you expect to have an emergency service that will do whatever it can to help you from that emergency.

So your mother falls down a 60 foot mineshaft* in Ayrshire who you going call?

Well you'll need the Ambulance Service to treat the injuries but you need to get her out first, so surely the local Fire Brigade will be the people to assist the ambulance crew in getting their patient to where she can be treated? Not so.

In July 2008 Alison Hume had done just that and her daughter Jane went looking for her when she failed to return. Finding her in a disused mineshaft 120 yards from her home.

Despite a firefighter volunteering to be lowered down on a rope to rescue her a little bit of paper from Strathclyde Fire and Rescue chiefs in March that year caused a quandary. The memo had banned the use of rope equipment from lifting members of the public to safety. It wasn't until six hours afterwards that Mrs Hume was eventually lifted to the surface when a mountain rescue team were in attendance. However, she died of a heart attack as she was being lifted up.

For those of you who don't know Ayrshire while it has some gorgeous hills it hardly necessitates a full time mountain rescue presence.

During the hearing into the incident a solicitor asking the first senior Fire Officer on the scene what happened that day:

"If Mrs Hume had fallen down the shaft on 13 March, instead of 26 July, you could have used a lowering line?"

He replied: "We could have."

There are too issues that Health and Safety have to deal with, obviously first is the health and safety of the workers who carry out the dangerous tasks. The second in the case of an emergency service is the health and safety of the members of the public that they are supposed to be helping. I'm not expecting firemen to be fearless, but to have control over the fear of the situation they are facing and take the calculated risks that they believe are necessary in every situation.

I'm not calling for reckless abandon of Health and Safety regulation but on the spot risk assessment which can be changed by those on the spot in the event of a crisis and not dictated by some pen pusher at a desk.

* Note not the one pictured.

The 'Flash Mob' Bonspeil

The Royal Caledonian Curling Club may have sought and failed the correct clearance from authorities to hold a bonspeil on the Lake of Menteith for the first time since 1979. But the cancellation didn't prevent a return to more innocent times before health and safety held such sway.

A Facebook group that had been set up announced soon after the announcement of the cancellation shouted out:

"Bring your stones, bring your skates if you prefer, or just bring your self. Take heed of the warnings but do it anyway. See you Saturday."

So yesterday 2,000 curlers turned up, to enjoy the once in a lifetime chance to partake in a grand match on a frozen loch or lake.

The rather appropriately named, for such subterfuge, owner of the Lake Hotel Ian Fleming said the event was very much in the spirit of the 19th Century bonspeils:

"It's as we suspected: a lot of people have made individual decisions to come and celebrate the freezing over of the lake for themselves. Lots of people are just walking out on to the lake, because it might be the only time in their lives they get to do it."

Mr Fleming who himself was skating on the Lake on Friday evening said that curlers turned up Midnight with floodlights and so the first 'flash mobbed' bonspeil in history came to be.

Colin Grahamslaw, chief executive of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club, who had called off the official event when the authorities and emergency services were unable to give their backing said:

"It's great. What we're seeing is what you'd hope for on a busy weekend in such a beautiful setting. It's nice that people have been able to take advantage of that."

The ice is reckoned to be far deeper than the seven inch requirement that the club say is necessary for such events. Welcome to the 21st Century Bonspeil a mixture of the traditional and the modern.

UPDATE: Pity Kevin McKenna didn't check all his fact before publishing this well written Comment is Free piece today.

Bonspeil a Victim of Health and Safety

It appears that ice conditions on the Lake of Menteith near Aberfoyle is not the reason that the Bonspeil or Grand Match of curling is not to go ahead next week.

The Bonspeil where 2,000 competitors come together to compete in the open may well now be confined to history and the last such event in 1979 may be the end of the road. The emergency services said they were unable to guarantee the safety of the competitors and spectators.

The statement from the Royal Caledonian Curling Club expressed their disappointment that these extreme winter conditions couldn't lead to the event that has captured many peoples imagination. While confident that the ice was of the required depth however, they did state the reason why there will be no match is :

"It has not proved possible to address all health and safety concerns and receive the full backing of the emergency services within the timescales involved.

"Without achieving this it would be impossible to gain the necessary insurance to hold the event.

"Every possible effort has been made to facilitate this unique event but it has been acknowledged that public safety must remain the primary concern."

Curling has been taking place on the Lake of Menteith for the past week. But Supt Davie Flynn of Central Scotland Police has said:

"We understand the attraction of such an event and recognise this is an unique opportunity for people passionate about their sport to participate in.

"However, there are clear and obvious risks and the safety of the public could not be guaranteed."

He also went on to say that it was not known exactly how thick the ice was. He's also tried to pass blame unto other public bodies saying that they were discouraging people from walking on ice on frozen lakes and rivers. Adding that he had concerns about the traffic of people wishing to attend over rural B-Roads.

Here is a montage of pictures from 2001 when it wasn't as cold or for as long as this winter. But even then there was hope of a Bonspeil