Cafe Side / St Andrews Lane Haldon conditions?

Cafe Side has been closed for some time. Long story here from their FB page involving felling, an accident and lawyers:

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM CAFESIDE 🎄

Some light reading for you all to enjoy after your big Christmas dinners 🍽️ <br />(It’s worth the read 😉)

CAFESIDE - The story from the beginning

Thank you so much for your continued support over the past 2.5 years since Cafeside sadly closed.

Here is our story so far…

For many years we have developed a strong working relationship with Forestry England, allowing us to build our trails semi-unofficially. We’ve been able to work closely with the forestry to continually improve our trail building, make our trails safer and reduce our environmental impact on the forest and wildlife. This has been a strong friendship developed for more than 10 years, from right back in the days of Gav digging and Tim the ranger managing the site.

Everything was going very well with the increased popularity after covid and we continued to work well together.

Back in May 2021 we had to close due to scheduled tree felling. We had several meetings with the forestry, and even met with the contractors who would be carrying out the work. This was all to try and save the trails from being completely destroyed during the work. During this we were able to mark up specific trees to be removed to improve the trails and sight lines. (We actually went through 2 cans of spray paint marking up trees!). The contractors did a fantastic job and we avoided a lot of damage.

While the work was going on we were permitted to dig on weekends and repair any damage on the go to keep the closure to a minimum. However part way through this process we got the news to STOP. 🛑

Unfortunately several months prior there was an accident involving a young child on one of the trail crossings. We were informed of this at the time and were asked to carry out mitigation work to further improve our crossing points.

Unbeknown to us as Cafeside continued, the father decided to take legal action against the forestry. Because this claim involved a young child it managed to reach right to the top of the forestry and way above our local contacts.

As Cafeside isn’t a sanctioned FE site or setup with our own insurance the people at the top simply shut us down. This was heartbreaking for us, however understandable as it’s not our land and we live in a world of legal challenges.

Going forwards the only solution to bring Cafeside back was to get insurance.

This sparked us off on our journey to where we are today.

So to bring Cafeside back we need a few things<br />- Permission & lease from forestry<br />- Car Park<br />- Insurance<br />- Signage<br />- Staff

Turns out this is a lot more work than it sounds 😅.

Cue the music 🎶

In early 2021 we started having formal meetings with the forestry and by the summer we had their permission to move forwards.

In November 2021 we met again. We brought along some structured paperwork to show we were serious. This meeting was very positive and FE were impressed at what we had done so far. At this point we were taken more seriously and a follow up meeting was planned in for January.

Jake Scoynes from Silk Cycles then joined the team. His knowledge of business, the bike industry and contacts will prove invaluable going forwards.

In January 2022 we met with the two area land agents, the head of recreation for the west district, the Haldon Forest Park manager and the recreation ranger. In the meeting we were able to show off some of our hard work, and ask the difficult questions going forwards. There was huge positivity from all parties with everyone keen to see Cafeside become a success. <br />Off the back of this meeting we now had permission to move forwards with a pre-planning application.

March 2022 we met once again, but this time to discuss the location of our car park. We had the Haldon Forest Park Manager and the Head Forester join us. We scouted out 4 different locations on a site visit, weighing up the positive and negatives of each one. After deciding on a location we had to wait for the FE ecologist to review the site and ensure it would be a suitable spot with minimal environmental impact. Several weeks after we had the green light from the ecologist and could get the drawings made up for our pre-planning.

Over the summer of 2022 we worked hard on our pre-planning application, speaking with as many different contacts as possible to ensure it was watertight. We were hoping to submit our pre-planning in November 2022, but were kindly requested to delay by Forestry England due to the large scale planning application Haldon Forest Park already had pending.

By March 2023 we finally had the green light to submit our pre-planning to the council. After so many delays and 2 years since Cafeside closed, we made the decision to skip pre-planning and go straight for the full application. We made this decision because after waiting so long, our planning became very comprehensive and pre-planning would just further delay us. At this point we now needed to add a full ecological survey of the site to satisfy the planning officers.

In April 2023 we appointed Richard Green Ecology to provide us with our ecological survey, and the initial site visit was carried out.

We further met the forestry to discuss the lease agreements and the legal side of things post planning approval. Once again another very positive meeting with lots of questions asked and answered.

Over the rest of 2023 our ecological survey was completed and we submitted our full planning application in September.

After some serious chasing we heard back at the start of December that we needed to make a minor adjustment to a couple of drawings, and add in a surface water management survey for our car park. Two weeks later, lots of hard graft and a little more money spent and it’s done.

Our planning application is complete! ✅

This brings us up to where we are now. After nearly 3 years of work, countless meetings, and about £5,000 spent…

🎉 📑 PLANNING IS LIVE! 📑 🎉

We are hugely excited to finally share what we’ve been working so hard on!

Please click on the link below, have a read and get excited!

👉🏻WE NEED YOU! 👈🏻

We need as much support as possible to ensure we get approval.

Please read the planning and add your letters of support. There is an option to add comments. The more positivity we can generate the better chance we have of success, so please take 10 minutes to explain why Cafeside is important to you!

https://publicaccess.teignbridge.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=S0NSUFPZFHI00

Our crowdfunder is still running at https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/cafesidemtb-bike-park and has received an amazing £2,700 so far, but if you've not donated yet, or looking for a New Years resolution, any further donations would be very welcome. Every £ helps us take Cafeside one step closer to opening.

We cannot stress enough how thankful we are to everyone who has donated, supported and advised us over the years. It’s been a journey. And it’s not over yet - Roll on 2024!

Merry Christmas 🎄 <br />James, Ben, Andy and Jake.

Did St Andrews Lane decent xmas 2022 and was a little sloppy then but rideable. Conditions worse now so I'd expect it's bad or at least a river down it. Was over at Canonteign at weekend and that was sloppy.

Haldon itself official stuff is more all weather and they've done some improvements (though looks like gravel sanitisation) on the red. Didn't take a look though.

@tjmoore thanks for posting that. I rode Haldon and the surrounding area  last summer guided by @del and it was superb.

I'll be donating.

tjmoore that's really interesting thanks 👍Must have been longer ago we went over there. We live an hour and half away so only visit Haldon a handful of times a year plus don't have the skills for most of the Cafe Side stuff 😞😞😞

Yeah, cafe side all closed.

Most of the off-piste is a massive bog fest at the moment. Personally I'd stay off a lot of it this time of year so it doesn't get totally ruined.

Not ridden St Andrews since end of October, but it will be a stream down most of it at the moment.

There's also been a lot of felling on the racecourse side too, so a lot of trails are gone or unrideable now.

I got soaked to the skin just riding along the Haldon road earlier today. The whole area is about as wet as it gets currently with a further yellow warning of rain tomorrow. If you’re travelling to ride there, personally, I’d leave it until it’s a bit drier.

We cancelled a ride there last Wednesday due to the weather.

I rode up from Kenn back in September, did a couple of laps of red & Blue then back down St Andrews Lane, you need to ride down a narrow trail on the verge of the A380 as the route through cafeside is badly overgrown but St Andrews was running well.

Thanks Andy Sweet might have a rethink , it's usually Haldon or Ashton Court for us this time of year as everywhere else is under water 🙄

Woodbury tends to handle the wet relatively well, if you’re looking for an alternative in the area, although I imagine that’s pretty sodden as well.

Woodbury tends to handle the wet relatively well, if you’re looking for an alternative in the area, although I imagine that’s pretty sodden as well

Wet and muddy in parts, but due to it's sandy nature it's still pretty rideable. I did 40km or around there on Monday.

To really find/access the good stuff on Woodbury you do need a guide though.

Agreed about Woodbury and the good stuff.