This might be of interest to anybody who occasionally visits London (and lives in NI) ...
GAGB currently have an online petition going to the PM requesting a review of the blanket ban on geocache placement in London's Royal Parks (Hyde Park, Green Park etc). 500 signatures are required for this to go foward (25 or so still needed by 23 Feb). Any UK resident can sign this - your name gets published, but not your address. If anybody wants to do it, the URL is:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Geocaching/
Or you can see the GAGB discussion here: http://www.gagb.co.uk/forums/showthread ... #post37637
Sinbadsfriends

Thanks for the heads up on that one, I've had many hours fun searching for caches in both those parks in the past.

Petition signed

I'd sign but I'm not a British citizen!

The last time I checked the government only register block petitions as 1 complaint

No, I don't think that's the case. According to the No 10 website, online petitions have the same status as paper ones, but they need a minimum of 500 signatures to be presented (see http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/faq).

I'm sorry that this facility is only open to NI residents, but that can't be helped. The recent blanket ban on geocaching in all London Royal Parks is a bad precedent for the game as a whole, and I think something worth putting an e-signature on a petition over (if you can). Lots of existing geocaches (placed with local permissions) had to be physically removed because of this diktat from the Royal Parks CEO, and the GAGB people are requesting support from regional forums for the petition.

Petition signed

Thanks Kevin (and everybody else who signed) - its now over the 500 and will go forward to the PM. Maybe we'll all be caching in Hyde Park again soon (Ryanair permitting); or maybe it'll just go in the round filing cabinet. But at least we've tried.

Actually it is open to expatriates, but yes british citizens but no need to be living in the UK at the time

Thanks for the heads up....signed

But, despite clicking the link in the email, my name isn't showing on the list for some reason

Ah well, I tried

I wonder, in the scheme of things, how much attention from the Prime Minister a petition relating to a minority hobby and signed by just over 500 people will attract? Particularly with an election on the horizon.

I hope I'm wrong but I just can't see it.

I have just signed up. I also saw a Gillian Clarke on the list, I wonder if it is our local one?

Hi Parkmoy
You may well be right, but on the other hand ...
A submitted petition has to be dealt with in some accountable way by the PMO - if only to get it off somebody's desk/PC. More than likely this one will get sent on to the CEO of Royal Parks, who will then have to register and account for it as head of a public body. All it can show is that a number of people (pity it's not much more than 500, but that's a start) care enough about this issue to bother to sign up. It's really only a contribution to a much more direct campaign directed at the RPs by the GAGB landowner permission negotiators.
But then again ... with G Broon needing every vote he can get in May, and a pledge to make allow geocache hides in RPs costing the govt absolutely zero poonds and no pee, wouldn't that make a nice cheap way to swing a few key votes in marginal constituencies (the ones we live in in NI excepted of course, as always)?
Just a thought ...

I noticed a campaign in some part of the UK to get more people into Parks recently, 'Reclaim your local Park' or similar.
Drug dealers and Prostitutes are selling their wares in some park and leaving evidence of their activity.

It seems a bit of an oxymoron on one hand to disallow caching and then have a campaign to get people into local parks!!!

Maybe RPs are different, but then I'm not local.