DOROTHEA

[angleseydiver]

<font color='#000080'>Been on the local news tonight folks. Glynn Small (?) has officially seen his arse about the hassles associated with Dorothea Quarry and want's to sell /Auction it ASAP.
Anyone out there mad/bad enough to make him an offer.......

[Andy the Coastie]

<font color='#0000FF'>go for it Terry , then get Mr BSAC &amp; Co to pay high fee to enter and dive

[Jay]

Can you imagine the PI cover for Dorethea? Premiums would be SO prohibitive I reckon as to make it an unviable option for any dive operator to take on.

[Mr T.]

Not only that, but sure most divers who use the site (currently gratis) are so bloody minded about paying a penny for entrance fees that they'd boycott the site on the principle of having to pay to use it! &nbsp;

Still, and interesting proposition! [Bren calls Bank Manager for a prospective natter.......]

[Digger]

<font color='#000080'>If I won the lottery, I'd buy it. And just open it up for free, let people dive it, and spend a lot of time just pootling. And dropping stuff in there! Yay! Digger gets a crane! I'd be able to sink anything!

Anyone want to sell a boat slightly larger than the stanegarth to sink in Dotty? Just so Soney can't say they've got the largest inland wreck in the country really.

[Mark Davies]

<font color='#000080'>Digs, the locals are dropping cars and the like in there all the time!

As I reported the last time this issue came up, my understanding is that there is already a behind-the-scenes partner ready to develop and run the site - the issue now is whether Small can dispose of his interest to someone willing to stump up the required capital.

Like you, with a lottery win I'd consider it. My Mum and Dad would then have a huge back garden for us all to play in!

[Sandman]

Mr Small is probably not arsed who buys it and will want as much as he can get for his big water filled hole in the ground. &nbsp;I hope all the divers who use this site don't get too upset if it ends up being pumped dry and used as a landfill site.

[Simon A]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Sandman @ Jan. 16 2004,13:03)]Mr Small is probably not arsed who buys it and will want as much as he can get for his big water filled hole in the ground.  I hope all the divers who use this site don't get too upset if it ends up being pumped dry and used as a landfill site.

If I remember correctly, thats exactly what he wanted to do with it, however he couldn't get permision.

Simon A

[Chardy]

<font color='#FF0000'>He wants a million quid for the site, without planning permission and thats been refused again. The local council don't want diving there. Sadly 22 deaths in a decade mean the liability insurance would be expensive, IF you could get it and the HSE would be very interested if you allow diving to take place[b]. I have never dived Dotty and since I live 20 minutes from the NDC I can get most of the depth I need so I now probably never will. I know it costs to get in but I'd save that in petrol and the rescue facilities are there should anything go t1ts up.

[Mark Davies]

<font color='#000080'>I don't think the council could give a toss about diving there or the deaths, they just used this as an excuse to block Small's main interest - landfill.

And to correct some of the comments earlier, it was never his intention to fill in the quarry. As I've said before, his interests extend to much of the land surrounding Dotty that is currently covered with slate slag - this was where he was planning to use as landfill, after clearing the slate as aggregate for road construction.

There is a separate partner who's always been lined up to develop the quarry for diving. Of course this has nothing to do with any interest or altruism on Small's part - I'm sure he only ever saw it as a sweetener to try and get his other plans passed. Unfortunately, because of other issues in local politics (mainly competing interests for European money and targets for councils to reduce landfill) his plans were on for an uphill struggle. The plans to develop the site for diving backfired when deaths there gave the council ammunition to refuse it.

I'd say there is every chance for plans to develop the site for diving to be passed, providing they are independent from anything else. The only problem is that the council would now need to back-track on previous objections and to do that they'd have to impose serious conditions in the planning permission, purely to save face. That's going to prove expensive, but I don't see why Dotty wouldn't be as big a draw and as successful as Stoney and the NDC, so I'd say it could still be viable.

All that waits to be seen is if Small is prepared to sell off the quarry in part or if he insists on selling his entire interest as a whole.