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Well after a busy fortnight that started with a report of inappropriate surfacing on Pin Dale, we're now looking back, cautiously optimistic celebratory pint in hand going "Right, now what?"
Well here's the latest.
Cave Dale: DCC responses, agrees to halt, Petition over 800
And please continue to sign the petition
https://www.change.org/p/dcc-share-the-detailed-plans-for-cave-dale-and-other-works
Signed
fit for purpose and safe to use for the majority of users that are entitled to use them.
This is the bit that concerns me. It's the same as Rushup and their insistence it be flattened for wheelchair users.
Dumb down the challenge, increase the visitor revenue.
I reckon it would reduce revenue.
But I remain cautiously optimistic that the new guy seems more open to debate.
I reckon it would reduce revenue.
I agree.
MTBers don't want to ride some sanitised flat track. It's also dull for walkers, the 4x4 crew (if it's a track they're allowed on) and it does almost nothing to increase disabled access since you need parking and facilities, not just a sanitised trail that starts at a car park, goes a mile into the hills and then turns to a slushy mess on the moorland.
It actually considerably increases the danger as bikes will end up going faster. If you want to slow bikes down, you build on more technical features, not flatten the whole lot.
Also, unless it's done very thoroughly, packed in (as some of Roych Clough was) then it'll last a year at most before the storms and water erosion take all the rubble/hardcore and wash it down to the bottom of the trail, creating massive ruts in it as it does so.
Just clicked through to look at the PDMTB update on rushup, where they say that DCC will hopefully think twice about doing something like that again. Seems not!
Signed and shared.
Go onto Castleton and look at who's actually there, enthusiasts from any sport are few and far between. I bet if you surveyed the local shops, the general public are rated higher on value than genuine biker and walker groups. Mountain bikers pass through buying the occasional coffee and sausage roll, they don't browse the jewelry shops, go in the mines and then get a Sunday lunch. These are the people that the council value, rightly or wrongly. Mam Tor is hugely busy not because it's a great spot with a great view but because it's a great spot with a great view AND has a car park with a dead easy path to the top.
We have similar in Sheffield, should we follow multiple studies showing reducing traffic improves businesses finances or should we interview a few people who want to drive door to door but have a bigger number without evidence... Extra parking and road widening it is.
Just clicked through to look at the PDMTB update on rushup, where they say that DCC will hopefully think twice about doing something like that again. Seems not!
Well, after Rushup we did get more effective engagement via the LAF and as regards Pin Dale, we're told the work wasn't given the green light to start, so there's that.