As reported this morning on BBC Breakfast:
"A cheese-maker has been told by police she may be liable for legal action if she supplies Gloucester's famous annual cheese-rolling event.
The event sees revellers chase a wheel of Double Gloucester down a steep hill and has seen some participants injured.
Diana Smart, who makes the 7lb (3kg) cheese for the event at her Churcham farm, said police warned her about her responsibilities as organiser.
She said: "It made me feel pretty angry... there's not a lot we can do,"
Mrs Smart, 86, who has made cheese for the event for 25 years, said police had warned her she could be regarded as responsible if anybody was injured.
[size=10pt]'Liability issues'[/size]
The cheese-rolling at Cooper's Hill dates back to at least the early 19th Century and this year's event is set to take place on Monday.
Some 15,000 people turned up for the last official cheese-rolling event in 2009 but the hill, near Brockworth, is only suitable to host about 5,000 spectators.
The traditional event features people chasing a wheel of cheese down a steep hill
Unofficial races organised by local enthusiasts have been held during the late spring bank holiday each year since.
A Gloucestershire Police spokesman said: "Advice has been given to all those who have participated in any planning of an unofficial cheese rolling event this coming bank holiday.
"This included the individuals who provide the cheese.
"We feel it is important that those who, by law, could be constituted as organisers of the event that they are aware of the responsibilities that come with it so that they can make an informed decision about their participation."
Police said they had visited Mrs Smart to advise her that, in the absence of a recognised organiser, anyone who facilitates the event could be deemed to be an organiser by default.
"In this case that person could then attract the legal liability issues that come with hosting the cheese-rolling," a spokesman said."
To quote Wordsworth:
"MILTON! thou shouldst be living at this hour:
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness."
To quote Shakespeare:
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,
Fear'd by their breed and famous by their birth,
Renowned for their deeds as far from home,
For Christian service and true chivalry,
As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry,
Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's Son,
This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world,
Is now leased out, I die pronouncing it,
Like to a tenement or pelting farm:
England, bound in with the triumphant sea
Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds:
That England, that was wont to conquer others,
Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.
"A cheese-maker has been told by police she may be liable for legal action if she supplies Gloucester's famous annual cheese-rolling event.
The event sees revellers chase a wheel of Double Gloucester down a steep hill and has seen some participants injured.
Diana Smart, who makes the 7lb (3kg) cheese for the event at her Churcham farm, said police warned her about her responsibilities as organiser.
She said: "It made me feel pretty angry... there's not a lot we can do,"
Mrs Smart, 86, who has made cheese for the event for 25 years, said police had warned her she could be regarded as responsible if anybody was injured.
[size=10pt]'Liability issues'[/size]
The cheese-rolling at Cooper's Hill dates back to at least the early 19th Century and this year's event is set to take place on Monday.
Some 15,000 people turned up for the last official cheese-rolling event in 2009 but the hill, near Brockworth, is only suitable to host about 5,000 spectators.
The traditional event features people chasing a wheel of cheese down a steep hill
Unofficial races organised by local enthusiasts have been held during the late spring bank holiday each year since.
A Gloucestershire Police spokesman said: "Advice has been given to all those who have participated in any planning of an unofficial cheese rolling event this coming bank holiday.
"This included the individuals who provide the cheese.
"We feel it is important that those who, by law, could be constituted as organisers of the event that they are aware of the responsibilities that come with it so that they can make an informed decision about their participation."
Police said they had visited Mrs Smart to advise her that, in the absence of a recognised organiser, anyone who facilitates the event could be deemed to be an organiser by default.
"In this case that person could then attract the legal liability issues that come with hosting the cheese-rolling," a spokesman said."
To quote Wordsworth:
"MILTON! thou shouldst be living at this hour:
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness."
To quote Shakespeare:
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,
Fear'd by their breed and famous by their birth,
Renowned for their deeds as far from home,
For Christian service and true chivalry,
As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry,
Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's Son,
This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world,
Is now leased out, I die pronouncing it,
Like to a tenement or pelting farm:
England, bound in with the triumphant sea
Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds:
That England, that was wont to conquer others,
Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.
Am agreeing with you 100% on this Big Unc , Elf n Safety strikes again !! >
