Getting the Council Involved..

The Northern Monkey

Recently, my local council has decided to build a bmx park, a bmx race/dirt track and a huge adventure playground.....none of it is ever used as is such a waste of money

i know of a perfect area for a mountain bike trail (beacon fell near preston) and the area is used for walking only, and seems a bit of a waste.

i have to drive about and hour an a half to get to a half decent trail, and would like to ask the council if they would consider building/allowing mountain bikes in the area.

My Uncle who is a local voice for part of the council has said he'd help me with getting herd by the right people...
so what do i say to them? i need facts and figures etc as this is gonna have to be an essay!!!
just want to make myself sound a bit more professional and make them realise that this is a good idea!
B

KB8

Explain the positives. Lots for those who will use it, and also the types of people that would use it, such as young teenagers with nothing better to do. And the negatives, none, though you may p*ss some dog walkers off... so what?

nferrar

You want to get local MTB clubs involved and on your side so you can prove there's enough demand. Just one person syaing it would be a great idea isn't going to get far. Oh and hope there aren't any ramblers on the council otherwise forget about democracy

.blitz

No chance if there are rights of way involved.

cee

yip.....get as many people backing you as possible.....MTB clubs are a great idea as they have an official membership and theefor have a little more clout than a gaggle of 5 folks on bikes tearing up the countryside........

Try and reasearch how many visitors the area currently gets for walking etc and compare that to your estimated number of visitors for riding.....

Obviously in this case saying that there is nothing for kids to do won't work, as there is a bmx track, adventure playground etc that is never used......Try to explain why MTB trails would be different.

Research visitor numbers to other trail centres (or maybe not quite trail centres, but official trails) and try to show how those visitors boost the local economy by spending their cash on cake......

Good Luck

drewcole81

I'd give the 2012 Mountain Bikes a mention somewhere in there.

andrewjoseph

I remember mtb around beacon fell in the late 80's early 90's.

FC land is not 'walkers only', mtb's are allowed to use FC land with no extra permissions needed.

Creating trails is another issue and requires FC to co-operate.

drewcole81

andrewjoseph wrote:

I remember mtb around beacon fell in the late 80's early 90's.

FC land is not 'walkers only', mtb's are allowed to use FC land with no extra permissions needed.

Creating trails is another issue and requires FC to co-operate.

That is true, so I would approch the FC before taling to the council, that will show you know what your talking about, plus if the FC say no way then you'll know not to go any further.

thebluefox

FC?

drewcole81

Forestry Commission

pemsey

andrewjoseph wrote:

I remember mtb around beacon fell in the late 80's early 90's.

FC land is not 'walkers only', mtb's are allowed to use FC land with no extra permissions needed.
Creating trails is another issue and requires FC to co-operate.

Hi,
Can you point to somewhere official that actually states this - my understanding from published material was that "open access" land was only for walkers ( and FC owned land was included in this as a bonus) - cycling was limited to established ROW (bridleways etc) or permissive routes such as fireroads where applicable. I don't think there is a right to ride where you like on any piece of FC land - if you can show me there is, I'm off now

andrewjoseph

From IMBA website http://www.imba.org.uk/index.php?page=PRoW_FAQs

You have the right to ride on the following public rights of way:

Ordnance Survey Depiction

Bridleways - - - - - - - -
Byways Open to All Traffic + + + + +
Restricted Byways (Previously "Roads used as Public Paths") - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - .

You may also ride on the following:

'Routes with other public access' - the Ordnance Survey term for 'white roads' or 'green lanes'
Unsurfaced Roads
Forestry Commission stone tracks
Some unsurfaced Forestry Commission tracks
Forestry Commission mountain bike trails
Cyclepaths and cycletracks
Some Canal Towpaths

I have been told by many FC staff (including managers in my area) that FC are happy to allow riding anywhere at any time as long as no damage is done.

After a brief search I can't find definitive info on FC's own pages.

Northwind

FC often encourage trail building, since it gets the bikes onto the purpose-built trail and off the walking trails, reduces damage, etc. Sort of "if you can't beat em join em", even if they hated mtb they'd probably still support it just because it's a mutual win. But then sometimes they're afraid that a publicised trail will end up bringing in more people, which overwhelms the mtb trails if they're not solidly built, and then everyone just ends up riding everywhere.

it's all about either coexisting, or existing completely seperately

Chaka Ping

Your local council is highly unlikely to get involved in a financial sense, especially if it has money in Icesave.

You may need its support for planning permissions or change of land usage rights, I wouldn't really know.

But if the Forestry Commission controls the land you are talking about, then you may have a much easier job anyway.

Let us all know how you get on!

The Northern Monkey

awesome, cheers for the replies
i didnt realise i would be able to ride up there anyway, but it is mainly just pensioners rambling round on sundays/boyracers sittin up there in theire maxedd out ridezzzzz :roll:

i might see if i can get my local bike shop involved. i know the guys pretty well, and know they also spend alot of time going into the lakes for riding.

think i'll sent round a few emails and see what sort of response i get

B

pemsey

andrewjoseph wrote:

From IMBA website http://www.imba.org.uk/index.php?page=PRoW_FAQs

You have the right to ride on the following public rights of way:

Ordnance Survey Depiction

Bridleways - - - - - - - -
Byways Open to All Traffic + + + + +
Restricted Byways (Previously "Roads used as Public Paths") - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - .

You may also ride on the following:

'Routes with other public access' - the Ordnance Survey term for 'white roads' or 'green lanes'
Unsurfaced Roads
Forestry Commission stone tracks
Some unsurfaced Forestry Commission tracks
Forestry Commission mountain bike trails
Cyclepaths and cycletracks
Some Canal Towpaths

I have been told by many FC staff (including managers in my area) that FC are happy to allow riding anywhere at any time as long as no damage is done.

After a brief search I can't find definitive info on FC's own pages.

Thanks for that - must admit I looked on FC too and couldn't find anything. I'll be checking with FC in my area to see what their policy is - though I think it will be riding only on surfaced tracks to "protect other sensitive areas" - which I guess is fair enough. Didn't think it was quite as straightforward as it could be :?

Cheers
Pemsey

atky

Hi

How did you get on with this? I was actually biking at Beacon Fell yesterday, on the blue Fellside trail. It does state on the PDF that you can download Mountain bike are fine there

Let us know if you can.

Cheers

The Northern Monkey

If i'm honest i haven't done much... i've got a plan written down and have been in contact with my uncle about it who has given me some ideas.

The only problem i have is that i'm in London most of the time at Uni, however i do stil want to chase this up

B

atky

Alright cheers, good luck with it.

I'm looking at the GT Aggressor XC3, hows the aggressor of yours?

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... 65499#dtab

The Northern Monkey

No problem.

pretty damn good... frame is handling my weight/trail abuse really well.

Took it to scotland and was superb...even outran my bro on his Kona stinky in the downhill sections

Antony_de_H

I would get in touch with the FC first of all as they own the land. My experience of FC rangers is that they are generally very friendly and approachable and they will be able to tell you if there are any issues with the land being used by mountain bikes. They'll also be able to offer help and support (although not necessarily funding).

You also need to decide what you want to do with the trails, how long they're going to be and what type of user they're going to be aimed at. For example, if it's a destination for beginners or families then you may have problems if you want to build something technical and challenging. Bear in mind that you might also be dealing with someone who knows nothing about mountain bikes!

Design of mountain bike trails is usually handled by specialist trail builders and the FC will probably approach a number of these and ask them to tender for the contract.

Cost-wise,it depends on how you're going to build the trail. A ballpark figure is £20 per metre - yes, you read that right - but it does include the costs of materials, delivery, machinery and labour for a fully bench cut trail. The council may be able to help with the funding, if not there are lottery funds (via Sport England) and various other grants which the FC will be able to advise you about. Bear in mind that for a lot of them you need to match funding, and there aren't a lot of people in the bike industry who have spare cash knocking about, so you may have to think laterally.

Anyway, good luck with it all. And go and ride that BMX track, they're fun on an MTB too!

dave_hill

If you Google Beacon Fell and pull up the website specifically dedicated to it, you'll find that the Beacon Fell Country Park is actually administered by Lancashire County Council, NOT the Forestry Commission...

Antony_de_H

Replace "FC" with "LCC" in the above description then. Sorry, I'm not familar with the area so I was going on what people above have said.

But the land owner/manager is still the first person you need to contact - you'll need their permission amd support to get anything official started.