General News
Access to MoD ranges in Wales and West Midlands
The MoD continues to experience unprecedented demand from military users for ranges and training facilities in Wales and the West Midlands. This is driven by a number of factors and compounded by capacity constraints caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The NRA, working with our colleagues in the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) has agreed a phased resumption of bookings for NRA affiliated Clubs.
Club officials are responsible for the conduct of individual members and must ensure compliance with Covid-19 guidelines, particularly the restrictions set by Welsh Government that prohibit travel into Wales from a Tier 3 location in England. Details are available here https://wtsf.org.uk/coronavirus-update-3rd-december/ and here for England
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/local-restriction-tiers-what-you-need-to-know
Club officials must ensure that range bookings comply with MoD policy including the limit of 30 people per booking and local Covid-19 restrictions. RCO’s should conduct a recce, check range orders as these may have changed, update the Covid-19 risk assessment for the shoot and RASP/RSD.
DIO has confirmed the following availability for NRA affiliated Clubs, Club officials should contact the local Landmarc event co-ordinator to arrange bookings.
| Location |
Ranges |
Dates |
Remarks |
|
Sennybridge |
MMTT 150m
Z 200m |
Dec 20 |
18 Dec 20 until 4 Jan 21 – Closed |
|
MMTT 150m
Z 200m |
4 – 12 Jan 21
4 – 31 Jan 21 |
Limited availability
Intermittent availability
|
| Rogiet Moor |
Range |
22, 30 and 31 Jan 21 |
These are the dates when the range is currently available for bookings
|
| Sealand |
A Range |
Sun 20 Dec 20 NRA affiliated Club– BAMS Bid B87543
Sun 10 Jan 21 NRA affiliated Club – BAMS Bid B86492
Sat 30 Jan 21 NRA affiliated Club – BAMS Bid B84991
|
Already supporting bids |
| Kingsbury & Wittington |
All (less 25m) |
Unable to support any non MoD bookings until Feb 21 |
Staffing constraints- resources will be prioritised for military users.
|
Ranges not shown above (example Sennybridge J range) are either closed or not available for non MoD users.
Thank you for your continued patience and understanding. The NRA will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates accordingly.
Please contact Nic Couldrey, Regional Ranges Manager, if you have specific questions.
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General News
Tiny Tyros
Offering a wide variety of colourful play equipment suitable for newborns – 5 year olds, Tiny Tyro’s play centre will be open from the Thursday 11th – Tuesday 23rd July in one half of the NRA Pavilion for families to use during their time at Bisley.
Please note this is not a staffed crèche, parent/guardians are required to supervise their children at all times.
Full details can be found by visiting the Tiny Tyro Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tinytyros/
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Competitions
Civilian Service Rifle Imperial Meeting
Broadly speaking the Civilian Service Rifle Meeting will follow a standard Imperial Shooting Programme, with the Imperial Practical Rifle Match put into abeyance for 2020. Individual matches will take place on Thursday 3rd, Friday 4th and Saturday 5th September.
The Methuen team match is scheduled to run on Sunday 6th September.
Full details as they are published will be available at www.online.nra.org.uk/csrimperial2020
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General News
URGENT – Offensive Weapons Bill Amendment
Despite recent assurances the Government has decided to proceed with the ban of .50” calibre rifles; this is a wholly unreasonable and unfounded attack on target shooting.
The NRA with other shooting organisations suggested that more stringent storage requirements for these rifles would be a better option than banning them. This is especially true given that no legally held .50 calibre rifle has ever been used in crime in the UK. In addition we are unaware of anyone being charged with illegally importing such rifles into the UK. Because of their size and weight .50 calibre rifles are entirely ill-suited for criminal use.
The Home Office have failed to produce any credible evidence to support a ban.
Our efforts must now be focused on garnering support for Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown’s amendment found [here]
Please email your MP as a matter of urgency asking them to add their name in support of this amendment; they can contact Sir Geoffrey’s office in the Commons on 0207 219 1294; his assistants are Matthew and Judith.
The email address for your MP can be found https://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps/
We are promoting another amendment for MARS / lever release rifles.
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COVID-19
Coronavirus Update: 5th March 2020
The National Rifle Association and National Shooting Centre are planning for the potential escalation of the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19), and closely monitoring updates from the statutory authorities and Chief Medical Officers.
We are determined that it will be “business as usual” at Bisley, but instigating procedures to mitigate the risk of exposure to the virus for shooters, visitors and our staff.
The situation is dynamic; please refer to the NRA website news section https://nra.org.uk/news/ for the latest updates.
How is it spread?
The spread of COVID-19 is most likely to happen when there is close contact (within 2 metres) with an infected person. It is likely that the risk increases the longer someone has close contact with an infected person.
Handwashing and Hygiene:
We are all advised to maintain a good handwashing hygiene routine. Wash your hands often with soap and water, or an alcohol sanitiser if handwashing facilities are unavailable.
Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue then throw the tissue into the bin. Remember the saying “Catch It, Bin It, Kill It.”
Surfaces Sanitising:
Viruses can be transferred to and by peoples’ hands; therefore regular hand hygiene and cleaning of frequently touched surfaces will help to reduce the risk of infection.
We are increasing the cleaning regime for such surfaces, including reception areas, ablutions, hire rifles and shotguns, shooting mats, range radios and ear defenders.
Facemasks:
NRA staff are advised not to wear facemasks as protection against the virus. Facemasks are recommended to be worn by symptomatic individuals to reduce the risk of transmitting the infection to other people.
What if a person with suspected COVID-19 has recently been to Bisley Camp:
For contacts with any suspected cases, no restrictions or special control measures are recommended while laboratory tests results for COVID-19 are awaited. In particular, there is no need to close the particular facility at this point. Most possible cases turn out to be negative. Until tests results are known there is no action currently recommended that the premises needs to take.
What to do if you or a visitor begin to feel unwell:
Check if you / they need urgent medical help – in which case call 999.
If non-urgent the person should be moved to an isolated area (we suggest a car) and then use the NHS 111 phone service that can tell you if you need medical help and advise you what to do.
Further details can be found https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/
Andrew Mercer
Secretary General, National Rifle Association
Chief Executive, National Shooting Centre
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COVID-19
Coronavirus Update: 13th March 2020
The National Rifle Association and National Shooting Centre continue to closely monitor updates from the statutory authorities and Chief Medical Officers.
Whist further restrictions are being announced, we remain determined that it will be “business as usual” at Bisley.
In essence our ranges and other facilities will remain open as long as:-
- we have sufficient staff to ensure range safety and proper levels of service;
- there are sufficient shooters to justify the staff resources; and
- the statutory authorities do not issue advice that we should close.
We have instigated procedures to mitigate the risk of exposure to the virus for shooters, visitors and our staff. The patience and good humour shown by the large number of shooters and visitors with these new arrangements over the last week is greatly appreciated.
The situation is dynamic; please refer to the NRA website news section https://nra.org.uk/news/ for the latest updates.
How is it spread?
The spread of COVID-19 is most likely to happen when there is close contact (within 2 metres) with an infected person. It is likely that the risk increases the longer someone has close contact with an infected person.
Handwashing and Hygiene:
We are all advised to maintain a good handwashing hygiene routine. Wash your hands often with soap and water, or an alcohol sanitiser if handwashing facilities are unavailable.
Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue then throw the tissue into the bin. Remember the saying “Catch It, Bin It, Kill It.”
Surfaces Sanitising:
Viruses can be transferred to and by peoples’ hands; therefore regular hand hygiene and cleaning of frequently touched surfaces will help to reduce the risk of infection.
We are increasing the cleaning regime for such surfaces, including reception areas, ablutions, hire rifles and shotguns, shooting mats, range radios and ear defenders.
Facemasks:
NRA staff are advised not to wear facemasks as protection against the virus. Facemasks are recommended to be worn by symptomatic individuals to reduce the risk of transmitting the infection to other people.
What if a person with suspected COVID-19 has recently been to Bisley Camp:
For contacts with any suspected cases, no restrictions or special control measures are recommended while laboratory tests results for COVID-19 are awaited. In particular, there is no need to close the particular facility at this point. Most possible cases turn out to be negative. Until tests results are known there is no action currently recommended that the premises needs to take.
What to do if you or a visitor begin to feel unwell:
Check if you / they need urgent medical help – in which case call 999.
If non-urgent the person should be moved to an isolated area (we suggest a car) and then use the NHS 111 service that can tell you if you need medical help and advise you what to do.
Further details can be found https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/
Andrew Mercer
Secretary General, National Rifle Association
Chief Executive, National Shooting Centre
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COVID-19
Coronavirus update – 13th May 2020 – Update for NRA affiliated Clubs
We welcomed the recently published Government guidance that allows, from today, the re-opening of outdoor sports facilities.
More details are available here
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-guidance-on-spending-time-outdoors
We’re currently working on detailed instructions, revised risk assessment documentation and new procedures to allow limited reopening of our outdoor ranges at Bisley on Saturday 23 May 2020. Details will be published on Monday May 18th on the NRA website. Clubs are encouraged to use the Bisley documentation as a guide to producing their own specific risk assessments, procedures and supporting documentation to ensure compliance with Government advice, particularly from the devolved Administrations and the safety of their members.
We anticipate that many of your questions will be answered by the NRA documents that will be published next week and appreciate your patience.
Nic Couldrey
Regional Ranges Manager
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