[Closed] Whats Happening at Woburn these days?

here is a copy of the latest Woburn sands facebook post from last night, hope it helps. some good work going in to getting the place up and running again from those involved:)

Update post meeting with Bedford Estate, Beds. County Council, Greensands Trust, Ian Tunnicliffe & myself.

Summary of meeting;

- Within the next 2-3 weeks all the fallen trees will be removed. A further meeting with then be held on site to discuss how the area is progressed.

- No commercial activities (this includes coaching) will be condoned / authorised by the Bedford Estate and Beds. County Council - this is with immediate effect.

- No vehicles are to be parked in front of the gates opposite the Bike Park entrance and as a minimum we can park in the mini lay-by (approx 10 cars). Please park in the big lay-by further up the road (which the Council kindly funded for us).

- Building of any illegal trails must stop with immediate effect and any current trails / jumps in non-permitted areas will be destroyed.

- Do not ride in the Quarry area- this has undergone replanting and needs sufficient time to flourish and mature. Also expensive deer fencing has been erected and it's vital for the environment that this area is not disturbed.

Other points to mention;

- It was never the intention for the Bedford Estate or Beds. County Council to stop us riding at Woburn. The recent closure has been purely related to the interests of Health & Safety.

- An XC Committee will be formed so both areas are represented properly.

My personal thoughts;

I am actually buzzing like a bee right now, the vibe between all parties at this meeting was both positive and constructive. We do have a future @ Woburn, that's for sure but it relys solely on us (riders) to keep it that way, this means,

- All digging of trails and / or jumps must be controlled through the committee who then will liaise with BE, BCC & GST and seek approval.

I would therefore like to ask that we all continue to respect the closure of the area, this is even more vital now as the BE need to finalise the tree removal operation and interference will only delay this process.

We have an opportunity to make something truly amazing here and I for one feel very confident about the future of the Woburn Biking community.

I really appreciate you all being so understanding and whilst it's early days, I hope we can all pull together and ride again soon.

Further updates will follow ASAP.

Deano.

Interesting, so about the comment:

"- Building of any illegal trails must stop with immediate effect and any current trails / jumps in non-permitted areas will be destroyed-"

Does that mean the almost man made trails that twist and turn elsewhere will be removed ? The ones with the sort of lips, drops and small berms etc ? The ones not in the jump site.

Does that mean the almost man made trails that twist and turn elsewhere will be removed?

I'm not very confident at this stage, my feeling is this will be the case. Woburn has got out of hand over the past few years. It's not a big area and the trails are very short.

The 'best' trails are all illegal and almost certainly end up on a footpath, bridal way or fire road. So, according to the discussions, I'm not hopeful that many will survive (if any), especially over Backwoods (Church side). There is no management or control of the trails, and as they are clearly not interested in any commercial aspect happening there, the only way to control will be to remove anything that shouldn't be there and enforce people ride the dull permissive paths.

We can live in hope but the whole Woburn thing is a legal mess.

It maybe my local trails but I'd rather spend my cash and ride Aston Hill now because I know the trails are managed correctly.

Mmmm, I agree.

I would expect some effort to remove these trails. Then later we will still ride them and they get reinstated and we are back to the status quo. Till someone builds a giant jump / berm / drop and the whole ban / dismantal / reuse cycle goes on again.

Shame, but I dont see it being different.

We just need a sensible warden to educate riders, remove the daft bits and leave the good bits.

But Ive never seen this happen anywhere, so Im not holding my breath.

Better get over there now, otherwise later in the year there will be nothing 🙁

The 'best' trails are all illegal and almost certainly end up on a footpath, bridal way or fire road. So, according to the discussions, I'm not hopeful that many will survive (if any), especially over Backwoods (Church side). There is no management or control of the trails, and as they are clearly not interested in any commercial aspect happening there, the only way to control will be to remove anything that shouldn't be there and enforce people ride the dull permissive paths.

From seeing the info last night my initial though was it sounded bad for trials outside the bike park. Later comments from people at the meeting suggested any existing trails would stay but there would be modifications to stop people shooting out onto footpaths/bridleways. I remember them making similar modifications in the past so it's not out of the question. The fact they have/want a XC representative/comittee at all also suggests they are not going to kill everything outside the bike park.

Things in Back Wood are a totally different kettle of fish (different landowner isn't it?). These discussions have nothing to do with that area. My impression is that trails there are less legit so I would consider them under threat at any time. They are slightly more under the radar, and have survived pretty well so far bar logging damage, so who knows.

So the bike park is closed at the moment. No problem i didn't use it. Are the XC trails open

As it happens I went into back wood last weekend. My first woburn trip for ages. Packed with great trails. It looks like use is up, possibly due to the closing of the jump area. The pressure point there seems to be access via the foot path by the church. I think it makes more sense to ride in and out on the Bridleways

I have to admit it is a shame that the jump/down hill area has been flattened, I always found it a nice little diversion to the regular loop and although I never went near the serious stuff, there were a few steady runs that were fun plus the pump track was good in its day. Is that it for the jumps then? Or are they simply performing land maintenance and then allowing managed/sanctioned trail building in this area.

I really hope transfer line and hip line stay in tact somehow. Loved that gap at the end of transfer line! And the big step down near the entrance! I should really ride more of the xc stuff but I always ended up getting a bit carried away with the dh stuff 😆

Thing is, like anywhere, how do you police a "stay out of the woods" policy? Having been cycling at woburn for over 5 years, and having brought my permit to do so from the land owners representative, who i have actually seen precisely once in 5 years! If you ride evenings in the week, you have the place to yourself.........

I was there at the weekend for a quick blast round the xc loop and had a look at the bike park area. The dirt jumps have been flattened, and there are lots of trees that have been felled.

A few of the lines near the main road would probaby be rideable bar a tree lying across one (and this is outside the taped area).

I had a look at the short downhill lines that are at the far side/back of the bike park area and while they are still there and unaffected by the tree felling that has been going on, it looks like no one is really riding these as they are very grown over. I did manage to ride down one of them after walking it first to make sure it was clear.

Long story short, the lines on the hills are still there but due to the tree felling very few would actually be safe to ride until the tree felling and removal of said trees has been completed.

I do hope all goes well and it opens up again as some of those lines looked really really fun.