'High up' signs on mountains row

Would a warning sign make it safer for this ice climber?

A Euro MP claims new EU laws to prevent falls at work will mean UK mountain pursuits centres having to warn people that they are "high up".

Welsh Tory MEP Jonathan Evans said the plans would burden adventure and activity venues with the regulations of building sites.

Both the Health and Safety Executive and the European Commission have dismissed Mr Evans's claim as "pretty silly" and "utter rubbish".

Jan Royall, head of the European Commission in Wales, said: "It is utter rubbish. How the directive will be enacted in the UK will be up to the national authorities, including the HSE."

However, a north Wales spokesman for 1,000 licensed mountain venture groups in the UK said the new rules had not been thought through.

Mr Evans claimed the EU laws being adopted in the UK would mean activities centres would have to put up signs warning clients on an abseiling or mountain-climbing course that they were at risk from being at a height.

This is madness - most people know that when they climb a mountain they will be up high Jonathan Evans MEP

Another of his fears is that any mountain top with a dusting of snow would be classified as a "fragile surface" - and subject to the same safety and warning demands as a glass roof under construction.

He said: "If this legislation is implemented as it currently stands then activity centres will be legally compelled to post signs to tell people they are up high.

"This is madness - most people know that when they climb a mountain they will be up high!

Rope skills

"They also know streams and wet surfaces can be slippery".

The Health and Safety Executive is consulting the outdoor activities sector about the directive, which has been brought in to tackle workplace falls, the most common cause of fatal injury.

In 2002, 68 people in the UK were killed in falls at work and almost 4,000 were seriously injured.

The consultation period on the directive ends on 2 April, with the rules set to be in place by the summer.

More than 1,000 private and voluntary activity centres in the UK have to pass safety training to obtain a licence to operate.

But mountaineering, rock climbing and caving groups in particular fear their specialised rope-use skills would be judged unlawful and they would be told to adopt construction industry rope techniques, which might not be appropriate.

'Sensible regulation'

John Cousins, secretary of Mountain Leader Training UK, based in Capel Curig, Gwynedd, said: "The problem is, when the HSE started this project, they were thinking about building sites, and they haven't really thought it through.

"We have been trying to explain these things for three years and we are moments away from it being implemented."

There was a risk the new rules would conflict with existing and effective good practice in the outdoor pursuits sector, he said.

But a spokeswoman for the Health and Safety Executive said there was no prospect of activity centres having to warn clients that a mountainside was "high up".

She said the agency wanted a "commonsense" approach to regulations designed to prevent scores of deaths every year.

"We want sensible regulation, that's the ultimate goal.

"Nothing is set in stone - we will look at the comments to see what we need to do to meet their concerns."