Climbing wall premiums spiral (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Climbing wall premiums spiral

9:09am Wednesday 26th February 2003 in

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Insurance premiums at Kendal's climbing wall have spiralled from £500 to around £15,000 in the last three years.

Kate Phillips, managing director of the Lakeland Climbing Centre on Mints Bridge Road, Kendal, said the problem of soaring public liability insurance premiums was affecting indoor climbing centres up and down the country.

She explained that the closure of climbing routes during the foot-and-mouth epidemic meant that the Kendal wall had been busy in 2001.

"That has allowed us to have a little with which to offset the insurance rises we are lucky in that respect," she said, but feared many others may fare less well in the face of rising bills.

She explained that many walls, like the one in Kendal, were to be run by people passionate about climbing and typically made only small profits and could not cope with the increasing costs of insurance.

The problem, said Mrs Phillips, was that insurers perceived indoor climbing as a high-risk activity in spite of the fact that many walls, including Kendal, had never had a successful claim against them.

Mrs Phillips is a member of the Association of British Climbing Walls and is campaigning for the law in Britain to be brought into line with that in America. Unlike in the UK, people there are allowed to sign a legal waiver so they cannot sue a company if they injure themselves through their own actions during activities with an inherent risk attached.

As previously reported, similar insurance problems have afflicted other businesses such as the Fun for Kids Factory on Parkside Road in Kendal. Soaring public liability

premiums have even been cited by both Cumbria County Council and South Lakeland District Council, as a contributory factor in pushing up council tax bills up. CCC claims its insurance premiums have risen by £250,000 since September 11, 2001.