Regular readers should need no reminding that Long Valley is empty more than used. DIO’s own booking on/off records for October 2020 recorded just 7.6 hours of use while the gates were locked for 495 hours total.

Why is this so important?

Put simply…we humans are supposed to be in nature. We belong there. We are part of it and inseparable from the wild.

For individual and collective positive health exposure to natural environments like Long Valley is a deeply embedded need.

Since their imposition in 2018 the fence and locked gates have regularly denied the community access to a wild but otherwise empty and unused space.

Fast forward to October 2022 and we are already seeing the same pattern…days of locked gates and no use. The evidence for this claim has been received by TAG in the form of photos recording vehicle tracks…and once again DIO its clear are sticking two fingers up at the community and recreational users.

By now readers shouldn’t need reminding DIO routinely delete records within 48 hours claiming “no business purpose” for their retention. TAG see this as a nothing more than a deliberate action attempting prevent anyone challenging the decisions and policy set for recreational access by Lt Col Dickie Bishop and subordinates…but it does not stop TAG creating records in their own right.

TAG are now in possession of 500+ photos that record what & when stuff happens and they are proving invaluable. A few are shared below to highlight the persistent issues of access at Long Valley.

After reading the tale of an engineered omnishambles that follows and you feel DIO are failing the community then please take a moment to raise concerns with your MP – and we would encourage you to do so – then a link at the bottom of the page will guide you.

Back to the main point; Just what is the problem at Long Valley?

Locked Gates

For the DANGER signs to tell the truth two conditions must exist:

• Military training must be underway
• The training must be considered more dangerous than regular “dry” training

It would be reasonable to close the gates too if training was imminent and dangerous.

But locking the gates for civilian events, reccy visits ahead of training, TSMs driving around…map reading exercises…regular dry training…you name it…none of them meet the statement on the signs. Yet DIO will put the DANGER signs up and are comfortable publishing information that is either misleading or an outright lie. The convenience of the timetable is rigidly adhered to, overrides rational thought, remains inflexible and is sacrosanct.

The job of locking and unlocking the gates falls to the TSMs or Landmark. Their vehicle tracks are seen Monday morning and Friday afternoon as they drive between each gate. Often their tyre tracks remain the only significant evidence of use for days. This summer saw very little use of the test track to the point areas now have grass growing on it…yet the DANGER signs were duly raised and the gates locked to the timetable.

Pause for a moment and consider the role of the TSM. TAG wonder if the job had been sold as carrying authority including the powers to arrest recreational users? That must be attractive to the authoritarian types?

How disappointing it must be to find out powers of arrest were revoked 17 years ago.

If the job comprises of driving around to unlock gates and let the unwashed undesirable types such as joggers, dog walkers and heaven forbid the absolute scum lowlife mountain bikers in for mere recreation then the job’s not got the same appeal, has it?

TAG have very little sympathy.

The fences wasted a lot of our money and TAG firmly believes their existence is to support egocentric decision making and access policy.

And as we will see they are not even in the right place, if they could be rationally justified.

Thing is, displaying the DANGER signs and locking gates is now driven by administrative convenience and this is contrary repeated direct instructions from two Ministers of Defence Procurement to keep the area available for casual recreation when not in use. Its also a massive exercise in crying wolf which does nothing to support what DIO claim to be for safety purposes…its just convenience.

It takes a special level of arrogance to ignore a direct instruction from your political masters…but DIO carry on regardless and are have proved immune to any attempts to point out their failings.

The issue of access goes beyond contempt for the community and loss of access. The fence – justified on grounds of driver training – is in the wrong place.

DIO Land Grab

According to DIO Standing Orders for the Aldershot training area only part of Long Valley may be used for driver training. The area is subdivided into two discreet and separate areas B4d and B4e, which is known locally as Eelmoor. Here’s a map showing the full extents of driver training area:

As a reminder driver training was the justification and there are signs to this day on the fence confirming this. This area covers 465 acres. Now lets compare this are to where the fence runs:

Which is a total of 952 acres. Which leaves us with 487 acres of space that is out of bounds to driver training. The green areas highlight the gap between what is driver training and what is not. Visually it represents the loss of space either due to standing orders or a physical impossibility thanks to dense woodland:

B4d and B4e can and are booked separately. On the map B4e accounts for 44.5 acres. However most of this comprises of dense woodland. The actual, workable and usable area is a mere 12.6 acres.

Yup – you guessed correct…a booking in B4e representing just 1.3% of the fenced area triggers closure of the lot. The entire area denied to recreation.

A dog walker could be a mile away from the 1.3% of used space but thats just too close for comfort by DIO standards. Rational? Reasonable? Based on evidence? Not at all…but nothing stops DIO in their desire to block recreation.

These maps were created from DIO’s own data and the standing orders were obtained via Freedom of Information requests.

The driver training area accounts for just under 50% of the total space…combine this with very limited use and its clear the DANGER signs are publishing irrelevant and misleading information. TAG directly challenges DIO to refute this conclusion with evidence.

TAG will take silence on this matter as acquiescence and confirmation DIO evidence is non-existent.

There is a fence defining the boundary of the driver training area. DIO have let it fall into disrepair and have elected to spend £250,000 on another one to intended to deter everyone from the full 952 acres, not just the portion perceived to be dangerous.

If the real reason is to keep recreational users away from driver training – and we doubt very much it is – then why is the fence excluding the community 24/7 from a vast area of land?

More DIO lies to support egocentric policy decisions? Administrative convenience? Preparing the area for sale? More housing anyone?

The sale of prime land in the South East would help fill a multi-billon pound hole in MOD accounts.

Think MOD won’t sell the training estate?

Think again.

MOD have an ongoing commitment to reduce the estate.

And judging how DIO treat existing wildlife legislation nothing is off-limits.

TAG can see no good reason, nor have DIO ever provided justification to exclude everyone from an area that sees no more danger than “dry” training – the stuff that is conducted elsewhere on the estate – and without the need for a DANGER signs.

Deja Vu – October 2022

TAG have been sent a series of photos taken during the week commencing October 10th.

They reveal a driver training area that is mostly unused with previous vehicle tracks in the soft sand weathered to the point of being erased.

With patient observation and recording there is no need to visit every day. The weathering of vehicle tracks can be used gauge how long has passed since their creation but most important can be directly compared to previous images. Tracking use isn’t precise as booking records but with DIO routinely deleting them TAG can create a record.

Photos now provide a valuable (and only) record of what is going on.

Taken midday Monday 10th this image was taken at the main entrance to the driver training area:

The area remained unused until at some point prior to AM Thursday:

Thats three days of zero use…and denied recreational access.

By Sunday the land had seen a little more use. However, the most recent tracks left behind on Sunday and seen below are likely to be a TSM or wildlife pickup and not military training.

A quick ride around the area showed the vehicles were not using the full extent of the available tracks.

Here at TAG we prefer quantitive evidence. A while back the driver training routes was ridden (when not in use!) and recorded:

The complete route measures just over 20kms in distance. An average fitness mountain biker would cover that in less than 1hr 30mins. An off road military vehicle is likely to be quicker but the pattern of use over the last two years reveals arrival, one or two laps (not every track every time) and then back to base for tea.

The time Long Valley is used remains a fraction of the time of locked gates and this week’s example is no different to every other week; Minimum use/maximum lockout. The October 2020 example of 7.6 hours of use isn’t unique and continues to this day.

TAG would welcome any challenge from DIO that seeks to disprove our evidence.

Should Long Valley be busy and deserving of locked gates then TAG firmly believe the onus remains on DIO to comprehensively prove it. With evidence. Subject to audit and robust beyond the usual “because we said so”. DIO must clearly demonstrate they are meeting political commitments to make the space available for casual recreation when not in use.

Nothing less will suffice…equally TAG are happy for DIO to remain silent on the matter.

We will take silence as tacit agreement that DIO are unable on balance to prove their case and the DANGER signs really are publishing deliberately misleading information.

Strategic Recreational Asset

TAG bang on a lot about how the use of the locked gates and DANGER signs are being abused. Folks – including Lt Col Bishop and Mark Ludlow (Security and Access) – must be tired of hearing about it.

But the history of failed policy delivering 24/7 lockout is good reason to maintain the tempo and not let the matter rest. In spite of the then Minister for Defence Procurement giving written assurances the area would remain open when not in use for military training this did not happen. In July 2018 DIO locked the gates for a civilian event and walked away, keeping the area locked for months at a time.

DIO had no intention to keep the area open for recreation.

Political assurances were and remain worthless in the face of DIO intransigence.

It took political pressure to secure a commitment from DIO to keep the area open. Even with the commitment in place DIO just ignored the instruction from the Minister before regular access was partially restored with the gates unlocked based on an administrative timetable rather than actual use.

Fast forward to 2020 and it was apparent DIO were still falling short. Their own evidence – in the form of booking on/off records – comprehensively shredded any argument to the contrary.

Then DIO decide to delete the inconvenient truth – the booking on/off records – that should be used to inform and set policy. This is one of the standards in public life. DIO simply ignore the need to function within these expectations.

The current situation is a farce.

DIO carry on locking and unlocking gates perhaps maintaining a fallacious belief the padlocks will work if only people believe just a bit harder. By recording the MTB tracks, dog footprints and jogger trainer marks TAG are confident the DANGER signs are routinely ignored by the local community, who are fully aware the signs are not providing useful or relevant information. For what its worth the popular recreational tracks are away from the driver training routes…

All this misinformation has triggered the TAG satirist creative juices:

The DANGER signs are just a sham. Not worth the scrap value of the boards they are mounted on. The choice of the font and colour scheme is deliberate and is intended to trigger fear…which works until you apply a dose of rational thought and realise its all based on fraud…

Here’s the bottom line:

• As an open recreational space Long Valley benefits and supports military training

When Caesars Camp and Beacon Hill are used for dry training, including blanks and pyro, Long Valley provides an alternate space to use. Avoiding military training very is important but the fence and locked gates make it harder to do just that. Knowing their enthusiasm for full public exclusion a cynic might think DIO prefer fences to force conflict and see training disrupted…thereby justifying more fences…

• As an open recreational space Long Valley is a strategic and important space

With links to the Basingstoke Canal to the north, Velmead Common to the west and Caesars Camp and Beacon Hill to the south the are is used for transit as much as exploring. Its an enabler of greater access and more gates enabling access to the 950 acres remains a very important goal.

• As an open recreational space Long Valley supports the health and wellbeing of the community

Of the 11,000 respondents to the 2020 Byelaws Review survey 4,000 identified Long Valley as an area to use. DIO consistently fail to appreciate the value a cooperative, supportive and welcoming local community represents. Without our cooperation DIO’s goals and aims are worthless and a sensible, rational organisation would be working with the locals not making life hard at every turn.

Try running the show with an uncooperative community who see direct action as a means to achieve the reasonable and rational outcome of preserved and protected casual access

Think it won’t happen?

We would suggest think again. If the National Trust won’t rule it out…or the RSPB…why would anyone think direct action is off limits? TAG are not alone in this thinking with people like Nick Hayes and his excellent book The Trespassers Companion providing food for thought about what comes next.

There are a few simple and inescapable facts that eludes the recreation-is-bad mindset in DIO; humans are very much part of nature and wilderness. We are supposed to be there.

TAG will reason its a human right to exist in nature for we are inseparable. This is recognised by just about every government body except DIO. They stand alone seeking to deny us what Section 2 empowers whilst being funded by the tax revenues the community dumps into their budgets. TAG are now seeing the section of tax handed to DIO as a distinct overhead entitled the “moron premium”…we digress…

DIO function and exist on our cash. DIO require our goodwill and cooperation to deliver their services. Yet we are subject to prejudice, contempt for the laws of the land and are expected to choke on outright lies while Standards in Public Life are disregarded with impunity.

There is a wealth of good evidence to confirm a mentally and physically healthy society is more economically active than unhealthy versions. Demand for health services falls and tax revenues rise. With deterrent fences, closed areas and locked gates DIO are literally killing all- slowly and imperceptibly – the goose that lays the golden tax eggs.

And no one seems to have made that link. Or if they have its a matter of DIO policy to ignore the long term outcomes.

• The success of closing Long Valley will embolden DIO to block casual recreational access

Recreational access is not protected.

DIO remain at liberty and beyond accountability to fence any and all areas they choose.

Think Caesars Camp will remain open? TAG suggests think again.

The fact humans have been using the space for at least 6000 years will count for nothing if DIO decide to pull the plug, fund a fence, install the DANGER flip boards deliver another example of Long Valley “managed access”.

Still not convinced?

Mark Ludlow (Security and Access) is on record saying the areas need greater protection for the habitat and the new byelaws would reflect this “need”.

TAG views this as utter nonsense and is an example of how simply an emboldened DIO will decide what areas are deemed to be off-limits for any human who is not anointed and blessed by written permission. Contrast that to how Middlewick Ranges have been treated…nothing DIO say ever makes joined up sense to the rational thinking types. And knowing how certain groups are blessed by DIO with a named contact…whilst cyclists are treated one up from dog mess…we can guess who might get permission and who won’t be on the guest list.

The idea of using military byelaws to protect habitats makes even less sense when the current raft of protections – SSSI/SPA/Wildlife and Countryside Act plus the existing byelaws – are taken into account.

The desire to protect is sound but DIO are dropping the “solution” to their “problem” on at the feet of casual recreation. The habitat is precious and yes ground nesting birds are indeed worthy of protection but industrialised agriculture and its practices have done more harm than recreational users have to Nightjar chances of success. Yet DIO blame the local community and resolve to ban us instead challenging the real culprits.

DIO will use any and all means to justify their desire to limit or remove casual recreation…its all a fallacy.

Just what part of the existing laws fail to protect the wildlife?

The easy answer…the smokescreen of habitat protection would empower DIO to remove the very thing they despise and resent whilst presenting a charade of being a caring and nurturing organisation. Goodbye casual recreational access.

Which is the very thing we cherish, treasure and value – because we humans are part of wild nature and an active balanced life means immersion in a natural environment is inseparable from the what it means to be a healthy, net positive contributing member of society.

We pay their wages. They work for us. Its time the local community is recognised and treated with respect.

The Way Forward

The current situation isnt sustainable. The holes in the fence and recreational tracks demonstrate the deterrent isn’t working.

Until the Seven Principles of Public Life are amended to include egocentric policy and publishing misleading information, changes must be made to how DIO function and engage with the local community. Changing policy on Long Valley opening times is a step towards that goal.

TAG recognise the need for the army to train. What we struggle with is seeing DIO act as if the community does not exist and their collective and individual failure to use evidence to set policy. We also recognise there might be a lag between closing and start of training and similar when training ceases…but we are not talking a few hours lost…its hundreds of hours per month and thousands over a year. We can never get this time back but the time for change and a better future is now.

TAG sees several options:

• Do nothing

This option is worthy of consideration for a fleeting moment…but like a bad budget its best dropped as it will not deliver an outcome. The status quo cannot be allowed to continue as it serves no one.

• Remove the fence

This option would be expensive but TAG will wager a large group of willing volunteers would pull it down and dispose of its carcass at zero cost to the taxpayer. Judging by the number of holes in the fence there is plenty of talent out there and it won’t take long…this option is TAG preferred.

• Unlock gates and reword signs

The default setting for gates should be unlocked. The DANGER signs replaced with CAUTION signs and more information advising where driver training occurs. The principle must be to inform and educate not revert to fear mongering and scare tactics. Gates may be locked but only when the type of training really is dangerous…apply the lessons and principles of respected range red flags and garner some respect for the system of safety.

Of the three TAG consider the sensible and pragmatic compromise of lowering the warnings to rational levels – advising CAUTION – and supplying sensible information to help recreational users let the army do their thing as the best way forward. The gates can remain unlocked and the TSMs are free to concentrate on other matters. If training gets really gnarly then the decision to lock gates can be taken…but the risks to trigger that will require a rational mindset.

This one is a win-win for all.

So to conclude we will ask everyone to do two things:

Firstly, when you enter the lands adopt a simple mindset;

“I am supposed to be here. I belong in this space. I am part of nature.”

We are supposed to be in nature, to feel the wild and suck in the benefits being in open wild space brings. By taking on a positive mindset we start to remove the barriers and fences others have imposed on our free will. We are, in effect, turning every visit into a small, unmeasured but very personal protest at loss of access.

Having practiced it, stepping over the fence no longer triggers the negative emotions DIO seek to induce with their barbed wire and faux DANGER signs.

Secondly, if you feel suitably aggrieved please feel free to contact your MP and raise your concerns. Encourage them to seek the sensible compromise – include a link to this blog if it helps articulate the issues. Make it clear casual recreational access – including Long Valley – is not something to be removed or blocked by unelected unaccountable remote desk bound civil servants. Remind them of the extreme value of casual recreational access to the wild spaces and ask what provisions they plan for increased healthcare costs if restrictions continue or expand.

Here’s the link:

https://www.writetothem.com