@ Pook – I’m involved in as much as I do the odd bit of trail repair & maintenance [mainly on the lower section], remove glass, rubbish & litter etc from the trail and more recently, clear the bricks, rocks, logs & branches (and once a rusty old lawnmower) that have repeatedly been strategically placed across the trails as obstructions.
I’ve been riding round there for many years and traffic has seemingly significantly increased recently – which is good in many respects as the paths don’t get quite as overgrown! It is cyclical though. I’m not involved in any of the recent major trail building which has taken place on the top section – oddly despite the trail building & tyre ruts etc indicating more traffic I rarely see anyone on a bike.
Main issue recently has been the sabotage, which I first put down to kids mucking about as it was around the start of the holidays, however on one occasion it took me a long time to clear the trail so the effort involved to place all the bricks & branches etc meant someone wasn’t keen on bikes in the area! and a couple of days later I had to clear everything off again!
Had the odd grumble from nearby allotment folk and once had a close call with a skinhead and his staffy down towards the road, but a cheerful & polite hello seem to disperse any confrontation.
Like I said these things are cyclical – and like skate spots if they become ‘blown out’ seemingly the best approach is to move on and ride somewhere else for a while – which I’ll be doing if the sabotage keeps recurring! but would be a shame as it’s part of my regular local loop!
I’m not even sure if the trail(s) classify as ‘cheeky’ since much of it is really post-industrial wasteland (with a couple of obvious exceptions), which is why I was so suprised at the effort someone had gone to to disuade riding round there!
