When you stopped in the lay-by in late January and dumped us in our carry-cases over the wall on the moors you probably thought that was the end of us.
You couldâve just rang a cats shelter. Were we that bad ?
We had been surviving on food out of a nearby bin and living in a space in the stone wall. Black and White Cat died a few days ago from hunger and the cold. I have had to eat some of my sibling to stay alive.
These winter nights have been perishingly cold and wet.
I saw the police come and take what was left of Black and White Cat away today. They said something about trying to catch me and look after me, but i was too scared and went and hid.
But it might help someone close to you enjoy both for longer !
I have a bit of experience in finding people using âdigital meansâ. I used to work for a small bit of a very big organisation that did âthis sort of stuffâ. I still keep my hand in.
The other night i wandered the streets of Sheffield helping look for someone that wasnât called Linda.
When i was a bairn in the North-East i used to walk miles round the streets every night (avoiding being at âhomeâ). I formed a superb knowledge of the streets, alleyways and fields of my youth. Forty something years later i still wander around outside most nights of the year, but 99.9% of that is in a rural or moorland setting. Rarely in a town or city.
Weston Park, Sheffield on a wet Tuesday night. Quite nice really.
As i wandered round i made a few notes in my head on what i thought the easiest way of finding an elderly relative might be using commonly available and reasonably affordable technology.
These are the notes and they feature a hypothetical elderly person called Linda who hypothetically has a recent diagnosis for Early Onset Dementia. (EOD).
70% of people with dementia will go missing at least once.
Every year, at least 40,000+ people living with dementia are reported missing for the first time
1.
We age quicker as we age. Try and take a facial photo of Linda twice a year. If Linda goes from a brown bob to a purple rinse (or Larry shaves all his hair off) take a photo. If all else fails take a facial photo every Xmas. You can take hats off and lose coats but its hard to change your face. Have a look in your phone now for how old your last facial photo of Linda is!!
2.
Make a mental note of who on the street or village or local shops near Linda has CCTV or Ring doorbell cameras. Note also which of these local shops are open of an evening or night.
3.
Fit a âring doorbellâ type camera to the house Linda lives in. Ideally a camera with a motion detect and record function. Most cameras look âoutâ from the property (viewing visitors on the way to your door). See of you can position one that captures a person passing the camera so you get front and back views. Link that camera to a few phones of responsible adults. Make the effort to look at it when it pings.
4.
Register Linda with the Herbert Protocol scheme (South Yorkshire Police or your local constabulary might offer this on their website – if you do it via the police you donât have to also subscribe to MedicAlert).
Itâs worth if possible filling the HP form in with âLindaâ present rather than guessing the answers!!
Keep a copy of the form safe on your phone as (possibly years later) one of the answers on it may be the important jigsaw piece and you will probably start looking for Linda before police resources have been assigned to the search.
Then apply for the NFC / meditag that the HP scheme offers (this stores the key data off the form on to the tag and can be read by the emergency services). Think of it (in a nice way) as the same as the chip on your dog or cat.
5.
The âissueâ with NFC tags is you need to have found Linda in order to read the tag.
The ideal solution is one of a variety of bluetooth based trackers (youâve probably heard otf AirTagsâ˘ď¸ or Tileâ˘ď¸). Putting one of these in the clothing or bag with Lindaâs knowledge and understanding is the perfect solution. Putting one of these in the clothing or bag of Linda with her knowledge and understanding even without a diagnosis for EOD is a more perfect solution. Sell it as âthe AAâ for lovely old people. Sell it as Every Day Carry for golden oldies. Do your best to normalise the carriage of a reliable tracker long before you wish you had asked Linda to carry one!!
There is a sub issue here that many people diagnosed with EOD are vehemently against any form of tagging – they see it as intrusive – ergo you may need to be âcreativeâ how and where the tags are placed.
Oh, and practice tracking the tracker. And share access to it (in case youâre at a Belinda Carlisle gig in Bridlington when Linda goes off to the house three towns away where her third boyfriend – the one with the lovely red MG – used to live (in 1947)).
How It Works âŚ
In theory, and i accept there are a lot of variables herein but the process goes something like this âŚ
Itâs Thursday. Linda sets off at 10am to Yoga-for-the-over-80s at the Church Hall (a 3 minute easy walk from home). She is pinged on the camera leaving home. You glance at the phone ping – expecting her to be going there at this time – and all is well.
Linda doesnât ping the door camera on her return which should be 90 mins ish after she left.
You donât notice straight away as youâre in a meeting at work on phone silent.
When you do realise its gone 1pm. You open âFind Myâ on your phone and âđľLindaâ pings as somewhere near the duck pond 40 mins further away from the Church Hall in the âwrongâ direction in the next village.
Linda doesnât carry a phone.
You ask your Boss for an emergency early knock off and set off in the car. On hands free you dial 101 and explain the issue to the police and that youâre an hour away by car and could an officer please go and make sure Linda is okay. The police ask some details and they pull up the full Herbert Protocol file including a recent photo. You describe what she was wearing when you saw her on camera leave home earlier.
A PCSO finds a person matching the description of Linda sat by the duckpond chatting away quite happily to a person called Frederick. Frederick isnât actually there.
The officer scans the bright yellow Herbert Protocol NFC tag tied to Lindaâs bag and it matches the HP record. That officer then rings you to confirm they have found Linda and all is well.
You park 400m away from the duckpond and navigate to Linda via the Find My app for the AirTag on the inside pocket of her coat.
You thank the police officer profusely and take Linda home. In the car on the way home Linda describes in detail her day out with Frederick and that heâs promised to pick her up next Thursday âŚ.
The End.
P.S. the elderly lady from the actual search on Tuesday evening was found (safe) several miles from home having made her way in to the city centre in thick fog and rain. It was a passing conversation in a kebab shop 6 or so hours later that prompted the shop owner there to scroll through the cctv camera app on his phone and very quickly provide a positive ID and starting point for the police showing the lady on a particular street at a particular time wearing a distinctive hat (that she was earlier seen on a Ring doorbell camera leaving home wearing). There then followed a âgameâ of follow the bobble hat âŚ.
Apparently the British Mountaineering Council and Moors for the Future are combining to fund and recruit the âfirst *dedicated* wildfire ranger for the Peak Districtâs Eastern Moorsâ.
It says so here âŚ.
Note the use of the word dedicated.
The dictionary defines âdedicatedâ thus;
So if the soon-to-be-appointed Wildfire Ranger is âthe first dedicatedâ one on the Eastern Moors of the Peak District, WTAF were Danny. Sam and me doing last year ?
(*dear reader thereâs a 14000 word answer to that question here )
On several occasions we volunteered more hours in a weekend extinguishing BBQs and fires than this new post will work in a week.
And 2 of the 3 of us had full time day jobs on top of a massive voluntary contribution to fire prevention and fire extinguishing.
And i managed to squeeze in about 105 call-outs with the local mountain rescue team as well.
And on many occasions we were left hungry, dehydrated and utterly exhausted night after night after night by the incessant tempo of incidents.
Iâm quite certain that although i did get a small fuel allowance about every 3 months from the RSPB (*which by the way is only 50% of the reimbursement per mile that a salaried member of the RSPB gets đ¤ˇââď¸) being a Fire Ranger last year cost me at least a few thousand pounds out of my own pocket.
And i am aware that both the aforementioned organisations have read and socialised my account of being a fire warden on the Eastern Moors last year, and indeed i know theyâre actively trying to get hold of me to get my buy-in and support for the new role.
But why would they be doing that if we three werenât âdedicatedâ enough ?
So theyâve read what i wrote about what we three did, and not one of them thought ⌠hang on a minute, perhaps the use of the word âdedicatedâ is inappropriate here.
Language matters.
Anyway, hereâs a little photo-recap of the year in which we seemingly just werenât dedicated enough âŚ..
Anyway, enough of the semantics, weâve got a whole new fire season to prep for. First job to sort is trying on the new wildfire ranger PPE for size âŚ.
** viewer discretion advised on some of the photographs herein
I failed to find anyone to convert the 14000 words and 100+ photos of the review of my rangering in 2025 (âA Year On The Moorsâ), so it has had an edit of the words but will have to stay as a web based article. Thanks for the feedback ⌠which was mostly that it was too long. Hmmffff.
In the aformentioned article, 2025 got weird in February. In 2026 it got weird on January.
A few examples âŚ
3rd.
A report from a walker that they had found some bin bags on Big Moor. After a bit of W3W shenanigans and assistance from a four legged detective the bags were located. There were 3. Each contained a dead female dog that had (probably) been killed after their ability to continually produce puppies (probably) for the illegal dog fighting industry had ended. The matter is with Derbyshire Police.
vividly recollect walking away from that one wondering what i would have done if (in the very very slim chance) i had seen the âownerâ of these dogs dumping their bodies.
21st
A phone call telling me there are two bags on Big Moor. For some reason the person didnât want to look inside the bags, nor did they want to walk to the nearby ranger base to report them. Later that day two colleagues examined the bags in situ. They held a large quantity of shamanic ritual gear including books of spells, a ouija board, âherbsâ and a fairly large kitchen knife.
Our sensible interpretation of the contents is that some (young ?) people have been told to get rid of this equipment / their hobby and they have dumped the kit. The weather was grim either side of the 21st. Hopefully itâs nothing more sinister.
26th
The great car mystery of 2025-2026 ended. Iâve covered it before but iâll summarise the diary of events âŚ
7 Nov 2025 – white LR Discovery is parked at Lady Cannings layby
13 Nov – local police speak (face to face) with the owner and advise them that the car is likely to be stolen / torched if left in situ.
8 Jan 2026 – second contact with the owner by the local police
8/9 Jan – vehicle leaves the layby
24 Jan – owners pop in to the Norfolk Arms after going to Lady Cannings to collect their car and it not being there
approx 26 Jan – reported stolen to DVLA with a âlast seenâ date of 1 Jan 2025
Elsewhere in the month i hit a deer with a car i had bought 3 days earlier. Police shot the deer.
Someone subsequently hit the car i was selling to buy the newer car.
Put an 8ââ scar on my scalp after headbutting a dwarf tree covered in thorns.
Geography – this post relates to the area between the Dennis Knoll and Upper Burbage Bridge areas of the northern flank of the Hope Valley in the Peak District National Park
ÂŠď¸ Ordnance Survey
The Resources Committee of the Peak District National Park convened on 23rd January (2026) to discuss and subsequently unanimously approve the implementation of a Byelaw (pending DEFRA approval) making it an offence for a vehicle to park on the roadside verge of certain areas of the Stanage North Lees Estate (SNLE).
You can (and indeed should) read the background document here which outlines the breadth of the Byelaw and the penalty for not complying therewith.
The detailed maps are viewable on the PDNP planning portal.
Iâll break down whatâs happening in to 3 parts starting with a bit of background
1.
The SNLE is a farming, moorland and crag landscape. It is a very popular area for visitors. It is culturally and historically important. It is one of the most important climbing areas in the UK. For as long as anyone can remember the popularity of the SNLE has meant that visitor numbers have far far exceeded the coping capacity of the landscape and infrastructure. There is a small toilet block under Stanage. There are 3 pay to park car parks under Stanage and one at Burbage North. There are numerous areas where parking on the roadside verges has happened unchallenged for at least 35 years. The last significant study of the parking situation and the capacity of the landscape to cope was done in 1990. On any given decent weather weekend there will be multiple hundreds of vehicles parked along the verges. On days when the ruination of the verges is at peak level there will be spaces available in the (pay to park) car parks. Verge parking damages the landscape, impedes access for others (in particular the tenant farmer and local residents) but is the default norm for the majority of the vehicle borne visitors to SNLE. There is no public transport provision to the âunder cragâ road running from New Road (Bamford) along under Bamford Edge then past Dennis Knoll and up past Overstones to Burbage. The nearest bus stops are Norfolk Arms in the east, many stops through the Hope Valley and Yorkshire Bridge in the west. Relative to the size of the influx of visitors to SNLE the provision of National Park Rangers and or traffic enforcement is negligible. The current car parking charges are shown below ..
Higger Tor (foreground) and the Overstones Farm âlay-byâ below Stanage
2.
The National Park are extending the pay-to-park car parks at Dennis Knoll and Hollins Busk (aka Plantation). There is a comment made in the video of the Resources Committee (see above) which sugests that extending these 2 car parks will meet the vehicle demand for the area. I believe that to be categorically untrue. At the time lf writing Hollins Busk has been finished and Dennis Knoll was started this week. The design and capacity for both sites are viewable on the PDNPA Planning portal.
Dennis Knoll
3.
If DEFRA approve the application from PDNPA for the Byelaw then at (probably) some point in the latter half of 2026 there will be a ÂŁ500 fine for verge parking on almost all of the roadside between Dennis Knoll and as far as east of the Burbage North lay-by, including down towards Cattis-side and down The Dale but not (at this juncture) down past Higger Tor.
The specific details of the areas in which the Byelaw will apply (inc maps) are here
and listed here –
The competent map reader / byelaw plotter will be able to observe where the âfive hundred pound lineâ is discontinuos. That is due to that stretch being owned by Derbyshire County Council Highways and not owned or leased by PDNPA. Unfortunately that gap in the line coincides with one of the worst affected areas for verge parking.
Sheep, verge parking, a half empty car park, world class climbing and blue sky âŚ
Observations, Criticisms and Concerns âŚ
To lay out my pitch i am someone who spends a lot of time along this stretch of road (particularly its eastern margin). I consider myself to have a detailed knowledge of the underlying issues, experience of trying to deal with them and an awareness of the very significant increase in vehicle borne visitation over the last five years. I have written and commented elsewhere on the serious impact that verge parking has on landscape, erosion, access and visual impact.
I also greatly appreciate the âlandscapeâ within which the National Park Authority is trying to act âŚ. land ownership in the Park is utterly fragmented, funding from Government to the Authority is repeatedly cut and the Authority is desperately trying to generate revenue.
A – Not once in the Resources Committee did a single Member discuss any form of alternative transport option. Whilst the car remains the most convenient means of getting to SNLE for the majority of people (ie no affordable sustainable alternative is supported) then the visitation issues which have increased for the last 36 yrs (since the 1990 study) will continue to do so. A solution to vehicle borne visitation that offers no alternatives to the cause of the problem is NOT a solution.
B- The ecological carrying capacity of the landscape needs to be worked out and adhered to.
C- Pay to park or get a ÂŁ500 fine is a PR disaster waiting to happen. All stick and no carrot.
D- The timing of the implementation (latter half of 2026) will coincide with the rolling closure of the Hope Valley road (due to the Severn Trent Water pipeline from Bamford to Worksop) and therein the closure of Surprise View Car Park. This will drive commuter and visitor traffic arojnd the eastern end of these proposed changes.
E- Viewed as a landscape parking issue âŚ. the Hope Valley runs east to west ⌠its west end around Mam Tor is being âred linedâ to enforce changes to parking behaviours. There is very little parking over the southern lip of the Valley. The north edge of the Valley will now be pay-to-park or a ÂŁ500 fine. The valley itself has zero spare capacity for parking. All of this – whilst a sustainable alternative to the private car and or a park and ride solution remain off the table – means the problem is squeezed eastwards. The eastern end of the Hope Valley and the moorlands thereabouts already routinely see vehicle numbers two or three times greater than the ecological capacity. Excluding the area around Higger Tor will, at a micro local level, serve only to greatly exacerbate the issue thereabouts.
F- Parking enforcement for PDNPA is now done organically (not by contractors). There are very few of them and they have ~44 car parks to âpoliceâ. Will the enforcement be sufficient to change behaviours ?
G- The income from the fines does NOT in any way benefit the local landscape or organisations charged with caring for it. The ÂŁ500 (minus some overheads) goes to HM Treasury not SNLE or PDNPA.
H- Will the road markings be refreshed to make it patently clear what is and isnât a verge. One likely area for concern / conflict is the lay-by above Overstones Farm. The extent of the permissable lay-by here was damaged and destroyed by verge parking and the âlay-byâ now extends over several hundred metres.
verge or lay-by ?
I- How will a bunch of letâs say European climbers driving to Stanage be made aware of the ÂŁ500 fine situation when they enter the âzoneâ ? and will the signage further impact the landscape ? Itâs going to have to be fairly obvious to any and all types of visitor.
Consultation
It is my understanding that as part of the process of getting approval for the Byelaws there needs to be an accessible consultation period of (i think) four weeks.
Will you be airing you opinions on this proposal ???
Saturday night for we three @eastern_moors_partnership volunteer patrol rangers âŚ
Usual patrol ranger routes and nattering with a lad out night bouldering
(* for the thermal imagery geeks tonight was one of those rare nights where almost the entire landscape was the same temperature so the optic canât âseeâ by differentiating temperature so all you see through the optic is humans seemingly floating âŚ. image 1 is a boulderer at Burbage West)
Walk right through Burbage Valley trying to locate the source of some smoke
Assist the tenant farmer and the police locate and relocate â20 cows wandering round the roadsâ
Witness the breaking of the Houndkirk land speed record by a bunch of males in a Freelander that was bought yesterday. Maybe it went so fast because it wasnât weighed down by VED or MOT đ¤ˇââď¸
Learn about a weird twist to the saga of the white Disco (parked in a rural car park on the edge of the Peak for 2 months and 2 days). After the final âaskâ from the police to the owner to move it, it was moved. But not by the owner. She arrived today (2 months and 17 days after parking it) to find it not there. đ¤
Judge the Kia late Saturday night alternative parking competition at Higger.
Go home and sit in the car park listening to a vixen somewhere nearby making that blood curdling scream they make when they want some dog fox action đŚ
Eat weetabix for tea at 2320hrs
Good steady rehearsal for the mayhem of the coming months.
The felling of trees has commenced as part of the (Planning Authority approved) extension of Dennis Knoll car park (under Stanage).
The car park extension will accommodate 59 cars in total (the current capacity is 10)
The works here and at the Hollins Bank (aka Plantation) car park are part of the PDNPA efforts to combat verge parking.
At Dennis Knoll they are decimating the verge and some woodland in order to create the car park.
At Hollins Bank they are opening and resurfacing an existing overflow car park.
There is currently very little to dissuade vehicle owners from verge parking anywhere in the National Park, and the Stanage North Lees Estate in particular suffers as a result of this. On any given day visitors will consciously choose to trash verges rather than use available parking spaces – the most cited reason being a point blank refusal to pay to park.
The County Council is considering implementing (via By-Law) a very significant fine for verge parking along the road under Bamford and Stanage Edge and near Burbage Edge. The fine far exceeds any other currently applicable in the region.
Viewed alongside the parking prevention measures around Winnats and Mam Tor (the west end of the Hope Valley), this fine along the ânorthâ of the Hope Valley and the lack of parking along the south of the Hope Valley will move the parking issues eastwards.
At the micro, local and strategic level none of this does anything to persuade people out of their vehicles. There is not a single project in a National Park in Europe where enforcement without provision of an alternative sustainable transport option has succeeded in reversing or removing the massive impacts of vehicle based visitation. None.
A book about a man that eschews normal interactions with society and instead spends countless hours, day and night, all year round, caring for, monitoring and rescuing wild animals in Yorkshire.
The person that bought me the book (for Christmas) read the sleeve notes and thought it might have been about me!
On reading it there are many many experiences that i can fully relate to. The author focuses on protecting wild animals whereas i guess iâm mostly involved in protecting landscape (and the nature therein) from humans.
Many of the recollections herein of doing odd things in the dead of night in adverse weather for the sake of nature, resonated. As did the authors honesty about the cost and isolation of all that time spent mopping up the mess of the human-nature interface.
I probably ought to try and have a brew with him.
I thought it an honest, detailed and excellent book .. but it wonât be for everyone.
from which you can discern the likeliest clearest route to the bingo, dog groomers or kebab shop. *Priorities may differ.
Most councils split the gritting commitment in to Primary and Secondary routes. Roughly speaking these split thus âŚ
Primary routes Are treated during the day and night and will âpre-treatedâ before bad weather hits. Gritting continues 24 hours a day if necessary, as previously.
Secondary Routes Are generally only treated in the day with the first run being completed by mid-morning. This helps overcome problems of parked cars getting in the way of gritter vehicles doing their job on residential roads at night.
Trunk roads and motorways are the responsibility of the Highways Agency not your council.
Come the actual winter apocalypse, councils generally tend only to clear key routes to hospitals.
NB a lot of residential streets donât get gritted by councils (or contractors).
On a lot of council grit sites you can navigate to a POC for getting salt bins refilled. Some councils also have âVolunteer Snow Wardensâ that help clear footpaths. Become one. Or start a whatsapp group. Share the effort. Pretend youâre about to get invaded by Trumpistan and youâre all frantically digging defences đŞ, you never know âŚ
P.S. Wearing Microspikes saves you walking like Fred Astaire and ending up in A&E
