Just looking for some advice regarding access rights etc, as the local place where I ride (and have been done for 20years) is about to (potentially) go through some big changes in terms of ownership/access.

The area (Bawsey pits, near King’s Lynn) is a former quarry, now landscaped with public access and owned/managed by mining
company Sibelco, who still quarry adjacent sites. Back in Summer 2013, 2 people drowned in one of the lakes, and up to this
point problems had been building up with issues of litter, fires, vandalism, illegal swimming in the lakes, motorbikes/mini-bikes etc.
Sibelco closed the car park from July 2013 but couldn’t prevent access to the site as a whole as there are various public ROW’s criss-crossing the site from end-to-end. However, Sibelco wanted/needed a future-proof solution as to what to do with the site – they couldn’t just close it as there were certain legacy access agreements that had been signed (I believe) when they’d started quarrying
there.

Sibelco asked for public opinions on what to do and conducted a survey on access etc.

Last week an announcement was made in the local paper that a local businessman was going to buy the site and develop it:

http://www.lynnnews.co.uk/news/local/latest-local-news/multi-million-plan-for-bawsey-pits-1-6537959

Perhaps I’m worrying over nothing, but I’m concerned that bikes may get banned from the site/or at least on any parts other than the
bridleways that run through the site. There’s never been an issue with bikes using the site as far as I’ve known and cyclist/runners/walkers/dog walkers
have always got along fine.

First step I’m going to take is to contact the person from Sibelco who is heading up this project, to ask about access rights, both current/future and agreed legacy access rights, and to express my wish that bikes remain permissable within the site and my concerns that access may be denied with the change of ownership/direction ie more of a wildlife area.

Any pointers/advice from anyone? I want to approach Sibelco in a diplomatic way (and not all guns blazing!) but equally keen to get my facts straight and get my concerns in writing/acknoweldged.

Go and speak to your local access forum, I expect they would be very concerned to hear of a developer buying up the land if access was agreed as part of th remediation works.

As for securing the access that you have had, it’s really not easy to secure ‘open’ access by bike rather than linear from/to routes, my first step would be to get together exactly what evidence you have from yourself and others to see how many people could demonstrate a long history of unfettered access.

Just an update/request for more advice!

– emailed the quarry company who own/manage the site asking about current access and future access/ensuring future access for mtb’s

– emailed the county Rights Of Way officer asking for their view/details they have of the access agreement signed by the quarry company and the council (been told a legacy access agreement exists)

– emailed the local rep for Local Access Forum asking for their advice/how to proceed

Anything else anyone can think of, that I should do?

The Planning Authority, the access may have been secured through the planning process for the quarrying activity.