Windy dam conditions 'did not affect cave visit'

Leeds Crown Court has heard Joe Lister, 14, a pupil at Tadcaster Grammar School, died when water rose in a tunnel at the Manchester Hole cave in the Yorkshire Dales during a trip with 11 other teenagers run from the Bewerley Park Outdoor Centre, near Pateley Bridge, on November 14, 2005.

North Yorkshire County Council, which owns and operates the centre, denies two charges of failing to ensure the health and safety of the pupils and its own employees.

The Health and Safety Executive claims the council failed to carry out adequate risk assessment knowing water could spill over the Scar House Dam under certain windy conditions.

The defence maintains the rapid rise in water was unprecedented and could not have been foreseen.

Helen Soutar, a teacher in outdoor activities at the Bewerley Park Centre, yesterday said on November 10 that year she took a primary school group to the dam as part of a trip about the Nidd Valley.

The wind was strong and she said water running over the spillways was very similar to that shown on mobile phone footage taken on November 14. "I remember rainbows in the spray."

Later that day she took the group into the Manchester Hole cave as far as the first narrowing but did not go further because of the time.

"Was there anything unusual about the water flow," asked Robert Smith QC, defending the council.

"Nothing at all, it was within my normal experience," she replied, and said she told staff at the centre what she had seen at the dam.

She agreed under cross-examination by Tim Horlock QC, prosecuting, she might be wary of going into Manchester Hole if she knew that Goyden Pot was "sumped out" and water from it might back up into Manchester Hole but had never seen any change in the level there herself.

She was aware one colleague had an incident where the water slowly began to rise but the level had always remained constant when she was there.

Earlier Jill Lockett told the jury she had seen water pouring over the spillway at the dam at certain times of the year. "It can be quite spectacular but it is not unusual."

She said conditions were always checked at the dam before a visit to Goyden Pot but it was not considered necessary by the centre to view the dam before a visit to Manchester Hole.

The hearing continues.