Well - I remember the 'stunt' - Ian Write/Rob Harrison, bbc film crew, sponsored by troll, longest line of continuous bolts blah blah...
but these are deffo shiny new bolts with hangers and proper lower off chains. the lad in the kiosk said it was done earlier this year.
Not sure about access - the worry has always been dropping rocks on the tourists below which is a fair point, as its all pretty loose apparently.
However, this is mostly over to the left and away from the footpath so not sure. Just seems to me like an awful amount of effort and expense for no real reason, other than to repeat something that was done before.... unless that is, they've got some sort of access agreement, and you can pop along and try and free it.
Maybe I'll have a word again next time I'm up there.