Derbyshire County Council have decided to continue re-surfacing work on Rushup Edge, despite ongoing protest from not just fellow mountain bikers, but all outdoorsy groups in and around the area.
The initial track destructive work began back in October of last year, but was halted following pressure from riders and written concern from Andrew Bingham MP for High Peak. But now a new update has surfaced – and it’s not good news.
A somewhat self-justificatory report from the DCC has finally been published, and councillors have voted to continue the work, much to the disappointment of pressure groups such as the Peak District MTB. Protesters are angered as they feel their concerns have been downright ignored.
“While we pleased that Derbyshire County Council engaged in more in depth consultation, the published results are disappointingly misleading,” said Paul Richardson, Peak District MTB Chair.
“The report is misrepresentative of those who provided formal responses and fails to capture the broader public feeling towards these works,” he added.
So in a very upsetting nutshell, the DCC feel they have a duty to maintain byways to ensure access for all – and after consulting horse riding groups, walking groups, disabled walking groups and mountain bikers; they believe that the best course of action is to raze the lot – they’ve previously managed to use ‘materials sensitive to the natural environment‘ by laying down road planings in a limestone area, so goodness knows what it’s going to look like.
Please enjoy this image of what will be lost.
You can read the summary of the report here.
If the whole DCC saga is news to you then take a look at our past stories/updates on Rushup Edge here. And join in the forum debate thread here
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Blimey. I really wish that original Protest Ride hadn’t been cancelled. It would have been a real show of mountain bike popularity and potential power.
Words escape me.
DCC/PDNP seem to have this attitude, the motorcycle trail riders have had similar results. Mass protests have had little effect.
If you aren’t a rambler quietly plodding around the park they don’t want you there…
PDNP were at least partially supportive of the MTBing stance on this. Their views are being over-ridden as much as ours.
There are no lawful or democratic ways of influencing DCC policy on this matter. If ignored for long enough, at some point people will start using more ‘creative’ solutions to modify DCC’s efforts.
Although Rushup Edge has got a lot of attention DCC are up to their evil ways elsewhere. For me the complete massacre of the Stanege descent is a travesty that doesn’t seem to have attracted the controversy it should have. I can even ride up it now so it must be bad!
Whilst I don’t agree with this work and the way the report seems to single mthere out, there is some hope in it…
“Materials natural to the area will be used for the repairs”
“Much of the existing bedrock will be retained as is practicable”
“The design will retain some of the rock surface”
“Revised plans will be shared with the PDLAF”
“Chippings will not be used”
“A revised procedure is proposed is proposed for consulting users on future works”
So not all bad?
The works simply shouldn’t be going on.
– It’s a BOAT but with a TRO. This effectively makes it a bridleway.
– the comments from other groups, not least the BMC and PDNPA haven’t been represented or have been nullified to such an extent that they are pointless
– the infrastructure in the area does not support the central access argument put forward, nor its classified as high priority by expert bodies
– they called Peak District MTB “Peak MTB” (this may not be the most important point)
Is this project directly funded by dcc or where exactly has the funding come from – just wondering if it is via some EU or other grant funding which is likely – I cannot imagine that dcc would be wasting our money on this when there are so many other issues that require funding that are more deserving – a dialogue with the funding party rather than the demolition guys might have some impact
The funding question has been an interesting one and we haven’t really been able to get a clear view on exactly where it’s coming from. EU funding hasn’t been mentioned at all. A ‘capital pot’ has been talked about. To quote DCC “when it’s gone it’s gone”. That didn’t include maintenance cash, but for the threatened Roman Road, cash has miraculously appeared for both the fix AND maintenance.
To the best of our understanding (and we have been given no reason to believe otherwise), the money is DCC’s.
a freedom of information act request with regard to the funding trail will yield the answer – pressure could be then equally placed on the funder too which may yield better results than hitting DCC – if you put grant funding rushup into google there is evidence of funding back in 2010 for this very area and others – it is difficult to ascertain if this is the same cash though if folks can see these other locations and they have been subjected to the same DCC abuse I think we may be onto something – nothing is ever over with these processes and the more people that shout the better – when they are gone they are gone
Do you have time to dig further Chris?
Hi pook I could give it a go and see what I can find
Great cheers. If you email me and info AT peakdistrictmtb.org too that’d be ace. We’ll make sure we’re coordinating efforts then
My email is in my profile