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Article here:
Not sure of the reasons, sounds like it's quite a sudden decision.
Not sure of the structure of Sportscotland, or where the money comes from, but as someone else put it on FB:
"This is a disgrace! Sportscotland spend millions on football, rugby and athletics for what? A generation of superstars? Still waiting. MWIS provides a service for ordinary people who love the outdoors and rely on their usually very accurate forecasts. We are not the elite that sportscotland likes to fund- just ordinary people who enjoy the remote places we are so lucky to have and that are the envy of the world. What clowns are responsible for this ludicrous decision?"
Depressing and annoying, have emailed the people in the article but on previous experience expressing your disapproval in writing achieves sweet **** all...
Done. Surely this is a ripe candidate for a crowd funding campaign if nothing else?
That's shite. Can't cost that much to run surely, hopefully funding can be secured from elsewhere, it's a very useful and well used resource.
Wonder if this will effect the SAIS also.
madness
In that link is a list of people to email / write to. Please do so. I did also emailing the scottish government ministers on scottish.ministers@gov.scot
If we make a stink it might just get changed. Its a lifesaver MWIS
A real shocker! Considerably less buffeting ahead I fear... 🙁
Not a well thought decision by sportscotland especially given the increased use of the outdoors in recent years, I hope they will reconsider their funding model as Geoff (very local to me) does a fantastic job as I have used and trusted his forecasts for many years.
PLEASE take the five minutes to write; it's the biggest hope to get the stoopid decision reversed. This has to be one of the most accurate and informative forecasts out there for the hill user.
Thanks,
Tweed Valley Bike Patrol.
Response from Sport Scotland:
Aye and that is a mealy mouthed answer that tries to give the impression it will continue but actually does not say it will. Keep the pressure on.
I can see some of the money currently going to MWIS going to the MET Office next year to fund their version and the rest will be marked as a saving.
Funny, I'd never even looked at the MET Office version until now, appears a distant second to the MWIS version in terms of detail and narrative, no idea how accurate it is though.
As km79, Metoffice do a version of, so I guess SportScotland will be happy to pass the buck to save money. Shame tho, as I use MWIS and have for years when it was just the Geoff Monk show (also now use MetOffice mountain forecast to compare), MWIS has always been much better presented and tends to be better in detail (the overall synopsis is probably similar if they're all using the same data). I can't see SAIS disappearing, it's unique.
The MET office one isn't as user friendly IMO as there are too many clicks involved to get what I am looking for. The data available seems to be the same as on MWIS but presented differently. They only have two mountain areas compared to five on MWIS. Since MWIS use MET office forecasts I guess they add their own interpretation of what people want to produce what they do, it's a much more useful product as far I am concerned.
Change.org petition now up and running:
[url= https://www.change.org/p/sportscotland-reinstate-mountain-weather-information-service ]https://www.change.org/p/sportscotland-reinstate-mountain-weather-information-service[/url]
I think there's a point that walking and riding in the mountains attracts all ages, m and f. You couldn't say that about football.
Shaun Roberts, Principal at Glenmore Lodge has issued the following statement today:
"The mountaineering community is alive with social media statements and petitions regarding the MWIS, following a press release posted on the MWIS website: ‘Mountain safety at risk as key Government funding is withdrawn from crucial mountain weather information service’.
Over the past year MWIS has been directly involved in collaboration discussions with the Met Office and sportscotland. These discussions sought to find a resilient and development focussed structure to ensure the provision of reliable and authoritative mountain weather forecasts. I have been representing sportscotland throughout these discussions and would like to state that the claims made by Geoff Monk are disappointing and misleading. Geoff Monk, representing MWIS has had a very active role within these discussions and the lines of communications have always been open and remain so.
As a mountaineering community the provision of quality mountain weather forecasts has become a critical part of our risk awareness process before heading for the hills and mountains. Sportscotland has been investing in mountain weather provision since 2007 and avalanche forecast provision since 1988 and we are committed to ensuring continuity and enhancement of these forecast services.
I look forward to sharing more information with you regarding future developments and can confirm that sportscotland will ensure the provision of mountain weather forecasting as we enter this coming winter.
Given that the current social media traffic is being driven by misleading statements, I would appreciate it if you would circulate this email to colleagues and friends to help inform our community."
SportScotland continue to say that Geoff Monk's statement is misleading, but have not said what is incorrect. They complain that social media traffic is being driven by misleading statements, but all they can say is that they are continuing to fund MWIS until the end of 2016, which is what Geoff said. Reading between the lines, I wonder if they are pulling the funding from Geoff in order to use somebody else to provide the service.
The Mountaineering Scotland statement perhaps makes things a little clearer?
“Mountaineering Scotland was influential in securing the original Scottish Government funding, provided through sportscotland, which secured regular provision of Scottish mountain forecasts produced by Geoff Monk since 2007. The agreement was for Scottish forecasts and has never applied to English and Welsh forecasts.“Prior to provision of funding, the forecasts had been produced daily by Geoff Monk free of charge for a number of years but together with many other organisations, we felt that this situation was unsustainable and that the forecasts were a major contribution to mountain safety, hence the need for government funding.
“Until April 2016 we managed the contract with Geoff, following which sportscotland took that responsibility. [b]Geoff had already indicated prior to April that he wished to reduce his level of activity and sportscotland had advised us they wished to see a sustainable solution which would ensure forecasts were not solely reliant on Geoff’s relatively limited resources and that would leave a lasting legacy when he eventually retired[/b]. That solution involved the Met Office and we have not been involved in any of the subsequent negotiations between Geoff, sportscotland and the Met Office.
My bold.
It does seem that [i]something[/i] needed to be changed for 2017.
I'm also old enough to remember when MWIS had no funding from any Govt source.
The mountaineering council statement does actually have some content unlike the other two statements.
However Geoffs statement is somewhat at odds with the sport scotland and walkhighlands ones. Read the 4 together it looks pretty clear what is really going on.
[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-37369807 ]Three-year funding secured for mountain weather forecasts[/url]
£37,500 a year in funding is all this service was costing.
Considering the amount of people who must use this service on a regular basis it's astonishingly good value for money!
Glad to see it will be continuing for at least the next three years.