Ride Sheffield Launch Crowd Funding Initiative for New Trails

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Here’s some exciting news from trail advocacy group Ride Sheffield.

 

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We promote and lobby for mountain bike use and access across Sheffield and the eastern Peak District, and today we’re announcing an exciting idea which could become a model for new trails all over the country.

For a few years now there have been plans to introduce a mountain bike specific circuit at blue/red level around an area on the edge of
Sheffield called Lady Cannings Plantation (location here). It’s designed to promote and encourage mountain bike use and the idea behind the project is to provide some fun, intermediate level trails in the Peak. This will hopefully make getting into the sport in our area a little less intimidating as new, inexperienced riders will have an option to develop their skills before stepping up to the pretty full on rocks and gullies of the Peak itself. It will also be a hell of a lot of fun to blast around for any rider as part of a bigger loop. As you can see from the map, it’s just outside Sheffield next to some main byway routes so it’s in a great spot and will be a fantastic asset to have.

There's trails in them there woods

As well you all know, the cuts which local authorities are experiencing are biting pretty hard by now. The green spaces and outdoor funding in particular sees fairly fierce reduction in funding, and this is something that our friends at Sheffield City Council Parks and Countryside have run up against here. They have done some great work in moving forward the approvals process and getting us permission to build trails. What they don’t have these days is the funding for the trail itself and with a project of this magnitude, volunteer dig days just aren’t going to cut it for the whole job. We need diggers and trackbuilders in the woods cutting the trail.

This is where our new idea comes in; riders crowd fund the trail.

Part of our group are the nationally renowned trail builders Biketracks. They built the Parkwood Springs MTB circuit in the city amongst other things. We want to raise as much money as possible so that Jordan and Cheggs can go and get in there with their diggers and build us a great trail. We still intend to put in a massive effort on volunteer days to shape and finish the trail, but basically the more
money we raise, the longer the diggers can be in the woods. Our initial aim is to raise at least £7,500 just so the diggers can cut the route of the trail, but everything helps. More money means more and better materials to build with once the diggers are finished. More money means using mechanical equipment to fill and shape the trail.

And think about it; it’s not that scary a number. Given the volume of riders who visit the Peak, it would take just 750 riders all donating
£10 and we’re at our first target. £10! That’s a round of drinks. It’s not much to ask to get a new trail off the ground.

So how do you donate?

You either fire across your money via internet banking to the Ride Sheffield account using the following details:

RIDE SHEFFIELD
40-31-02
91574205

Account is with HSBC.

Or you can donate via Paypal. The address for Paypal payments is ridesheffield@gmail.com

If you can spare more than a tenner, amazing, send it over. If you can’t, send a couple of quid; it all helps. If you’re totally strapped, keep an eye on the Ride Sheffield website and come and put some spade work in when we need to finish the trail off. Be a part of the project in any way you can and we can get this trail built.

We aim to break ground in the summer, with trail finished in the autumn. We’re really excited about this. There is so much space around
the country which local authorities could be lobbied and persuaded to open up to us if we bring the funding. This could be the start of
something huge.

Join us and make it happen.


Comments (10)

    Who owns the plantation then ?
    Are they Ok with trail building there ?

    The council owns the land and have sought and gained the appropriate permissions. ‘All’ we need now is the money to build the trails.

    Great 🙂 – I’m in
    I was asking as walkers (well one bloke several times) have had a go at me when I’ve been riding through there

    Will we be able to see progress towards the target and a breakdown of the costs etc as with a Kickstarter project ?

    The target isn’t a make or break for the project, hence not putting it through Kickstarter. Every extra pound we raise gets the diggers more time in the woods. £7,500 would get us a cut line in the woods, but I’m hoping we raise way more so the boys can get involved with building the trail as well so we can minimise the reliance on volunteer dig days. Dig days will still be needed, but the more we need, the longer it will take to finish the trail.

    Conversely, if we don’t hit the target, the project isn’t dead, we will just use the money to buy as many hours as we can from Biketrack to get as much of the work done as possible. From then on it will be Dig Days to finish it.

    We will post monthly updates on the Ride Sheffield website on how we’re doing, but this won’t be the last time we will ask, so you can be sure you’ll hear more as it happens.

    Thank you, makes complete sense.
    Money sent

    Excellent. Thanks.

    sounds like a good thing. It isn’t always easy to contribute to dig days that are far away even though we often occasionaly reap the benefits.

    Mine is sent.

    is there anyway you can also register as a charity so you can get gift aid on the contributions – get a bit of cash back from the government or does that make things too complex from an admin point of view?

    We looked into it, but we’d have to record all the names and addresses of donors and get a statement from them that they were UK taxpayers. We don’t have the facilities to do this and donating in the way we have means it’s quick and easy for people.

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