UKH

Or about to.

Lots of clubs are wrestling with this one so sharing ideas could be good.

North London MC - we have a private hut for members, and a hut we hire out to groups.

As the huts are in Snowdonia we are still very much taking our lead from the Welsh govt, and nothing is opening yet. However, once local businesses have been given the go ahead, we are likely to explore opening our facilities. What to do about the private hut is not decided in any firm sense; there are discussions about maybe an advance booking system to try and maximise social distancing, but we may just have to ask people to evaluate the risks for themselves once it's OK to mix households, as we can't (and don't want) to police access, and also a lot of our older members are used to just turning up and we don't want situations of tension arising because somebody 'hasn't booked'.

As for the hiring-out hut, our current thinking is that when it's suitable to open, we will ask guest parties to clean after themselves as normal, but also impose a 72 hour gap between different groups in the hut. We will also stress to incoming parties that they do so at their own risk. As rock climbing is also something of a risk, we expect most parties to be able to make an appropriate assessment on this front for themselves!

To be clear none of this is club policy yet, that's just where we've gotten to in committee discussions.

https://www.thebmc.co.uk/covid19-reopening-huts

I'm interested in this too. I've linked to the BMC guidance, which might help. However, I imagine that this could be interpreted in different ways, not least because individual huts will be set up quite differently.

Travel to Wales from England allowed from the 6th, I've just seen, so that will be relevant for many clubs, I imagine, because Snowdonia.

There's a brief mention of the Legionella risk in the BMC guidance.  Before re-opening, it would be sensible for hot and cold water systems to be treated to reduce the risk of Legionnaries' disease.  The highest risk comes from showers (and taps with diffusers).  All systems will differ but the following would be sensible and not over the top.  Systems that rely on private water supplies, water off the hill, etc or that have header tanks on the cold side will need more careful thought / treatment. To be done before any other use of systems:

1) Run a hot tap to drain until at least the volume of the system including storage tanks has been flushed through.  Select a tap with the least potential for causing an airborne water mist and keep out of the way whilst running.  (Wearing a FFP3 respirator would be sensible if there's a chance of inhaling water droplets at this stage).

2) Remove shower heads and hoses (and tap diffusers if possible) and soak them in a bucket of 1:40 household bleach solution, disassembling shower heads as much as possible to make sure disinfectant gets into all the nooks and crannies.

2) Turn on water heaters and ensure they are turned up to 70 degC.  Allow to reach full temperature right through the tank (feel the bottom) and leave for at least an hour to give heat time to kill off bacteria.

3) Go round each hot water outlet in turn and run carefully, without splashing or burning yourself,  for a few minutes.  This will allow thermal disinfection of the pipe run and outlet.  Wait for heater to get back up to temperature before going to next outlet.

4) Flush each cold outlet in turn for a minute or two to make sure there's no old water left in there.

5) Disinfect taps and surrounding area preferably using bleach solution (but be careful not to kill off the waste water tank bacteria by putting bleach down the drain if the hut isn't on mains sewers).

6) Re-assemble showers, etc and run through with hot water then cold water, direct to drain.

7) It would be good to keep the hot water system operating at 65 to 70 degC, at least for the first week or two of use, but ensure that users are made aware of the risk of scalding.  (It should never be turned down such that hot water comes out of the furthest tap at less than 50 degC.)

That's really good advice, I'll forward that on to our club committee, thanks.

Day trips in and to Wales are allowed from the 6th but overnight stays not until the week after.  Also overnight stays will be restricted to members of the same household (eg self catering cottage or caravan) so communal multi household hut living will not be allowed yet.  Also I understand the day drip  relaxation may not apply to Snowdonia?

Thanks - all makes sense.

I'm glad you started this thread.

Our hut is in Wales so we are having to follow Welsh Govt guidance. Which means that only one joined 'household bubble' can stay from 13th July (not two as in England) and we definately can't open for clubs yet as it would contravene Welsh govt guidance.

Plus the hut can only be prepared for opening from 13th July.

I've produced quite an extensive set of guidance for our hut (which I can amend as things develop / change) - hut wardens can email me via this site if they wish to use and adapt what I've produced (although I can't respond straightaway due to work commitments). Some may think I've gone a bit OTT but I work for local Govt so risk assessments and liability considerations are my bread and butter. I've tried to cover all bases while making some things a matter of personal responsibility / choice and others more collectively responsible or mandatory.

I ran my take from the BMC guidance (and Welsh Govt guidance) by our committee and this was agreed.

Our hut guidance was developed through taking the key points from the BMC, Welsh Govt, YHA considerations and the guidance relation to reopening self contained accommodation in the private sector.

I'd be happy to hear what others are doing - especially in Wales.

We won't be opening to clubs yet, only self contained 'joined bubbles' with one other family as per Welsh guidance.

I've found it helpful to group our guidance into what is more objectively possible (or not) and what is more subjectively adopted as risk management. The former being Welsh Govt guidance, the latter being how we want to manage risk for each type of cohort that can stay in the hut as things develop.