All interested will be consulted and engaged with the liaison process over the coming weeks.
Winchcombe CC and Bigfoot MBC are aware. Gloucester City CC have been mailed. The conservators have a connection with the Parish Council in Winchcombe, so another group to engage with. CC-CC members being made aware. Individual riders like here being made aware. I will be taking this to Natural England who have the say on most of the conservation side of SSSIs over the coming days, and then obviuously a direct link to the Conservators themselves.
As with Cranham it may be likely we don’t initially agree with their first proposals. Our opening gambit is to continue as we have been because we don’t believe we are causing any unnecessary damage (or any at all really). We know they cannot effectively police any restriction they impose that we are not in agrrement with so we do hold a good hand of cards.
Getting stroppy with them won’t help us. Empathy for their concerns (whether we think they are correct or not) will help enable us to get a good deal.

Empathy for their concerns (whether we think they are correct or not) will help enable us to get a good deal.

Exactly.

Good work Rog, and the offer of help stands.

The thing that makes you laugh is Cleeve Hill and Lecky use to be Quarries.Now they are covered over in places they become this wonderfull area and mountain bikes are destroying it all of a sudden.

I think we did well out of Cranham the best stuff is still there.
Only my opinion but i was never that keen on the Shrine thought it was to slow apart from the Jumps of it they were good.Portway is still there.

I can understand Cranham…. Just, as it is now privately owned land and as such the new owners do have a right to say ‘no cycling’. I disagree with the way they (their relatives etc) went about it (setting ‘traps’ and being very very confrontational) but at the end of the day ‘dem townies dunt understand us’!

Cleeve and Leki are both ‘Common Grounds’ aren’t they?

Sorry as with all these things it is just my opinion but I am bored of Cheltenham / Gloucestershire mtb’s being targets.

Cleeve and Leki are both ‘Common Grounds’ aren’t they?

what a common is

Please read the above, a common is not a common as most people eroniously believe.

Thats a good point you go the other end of the county and they let you build everywhere [FOD] strange isnt it.

Im still pissed off with it all though.

I think I may go up to the common with some weed killer and sprinkle it on the grass in the shape of giant letters that say “Cheeky riding rules”

I regularly ride on Cleeve and I think that it is worth engaging with these people. A small compromise on our part could avoid a lot of tut-tuting and confrontation in the future, when all I want to do is have fun on my bike.
I’d be quite happy to stick to a marked path over the grassy common as it’s often hard to pick up the same sheep track on each ride anyway, but I’d still want to be able to go down the valley towards Postlip Hall and a few other bits to join up the bridleways like in Queens Wood (let’s not forget that these are far harder to restrict our access to)
All that said, if they were to get their way and it was overly draconian, I agree with mrmo that I’d ignore any restritions.
Thanks for taking this up Roger, you have my full support.

So we will soon be meeting in the Rising Sun to talk about Cleeve.Turning into a pub crawl 1st the Royal William where next 😆

Bumped into the riding group that go by the name of Phoenix last night and informed them of the situation on Cleeve at the moment. If you ride with this group and want to be kept in the loop, please let me know.
Also have initated a partnership with Winchcombe CC now. The plan will be, like with Cranham, to have the two largest formal clubs represented in front of the Conservators. All views expressed by riders on this forum are relevant and will be discussed.
If you haven’t already mentioned on this forum that you want to be on an email contact group about this, please let me know. If your email is on your profile, I’ll pick it up there.

Hi,
I’m Chair of Friends of Baildon Moor, and a CTC Right to Ride volunteer. We face similar pressures of access on this urban common and have agreed a protocol with Bradford Council for all users. This might be of use in your situation. See Info For Users statement on the web site: http://www.baildonmoor.org

hi rog,

sign me up to

big vern 52 at hotmail dot com

cheers

Email in profile.
Cheers

Hopefully meeting up with a Winchcombe CC representative tonight to shoot the breeze over our response to The Cleeve Hill Conservators. I did speak to a conservator the other day and mentioned about the request to restrict our use of tracks and she said that we should pay like horse riders do. We do actually if you count the £300 plus donation the HONC fund gives them….

Any update?

Cranham is riding fast and is dry.

So is Race Track and the Shrine looking at all those who tyre tracks are all over it!

OK, Cleeve Common update. Our working group on this consists of 2 rdiers from CC-CC and 2 from Winchcombe CC. Plan to have another meet on the common in the coming couple of weeks with the Conservators project officer about their concerns and just confirm the areas of most ancient monument and sensitive flora. We are still planning to propose some form of cycling code of conduct for the area and advertise information on areas to try and avoid / be extra carefull within. No pans to suggest a network of limited tracks though. Keep spreading the work about this dialogue situation we are in.

Response from Cheltenham & County CC
Chantal,
Since we last meet I have been doing my best to consult with the local mountain bike community. So far I have approached the following groups:

– Cheltenham & County CC members.
– Other local cycle clubs, most notably Winchcombe CC whose members use the common frequently.
– A cycle magazine forum that is used by many local riders.
– Groups of riders who I have come across when riding on or near the Common.

We feel that historically mountain bikers have not made any tracks on the hill, simply followed established ones already there. It is also felt that as riders are keen to ride on such tracks and generally avoid grassland, we are not putting any grassland inhabiting protected flora in any more danger than other interest groups accessing the hill. It is accepted though that there are various ancient monuments on the common that riders might not be aware of and through education we should promote the importance of protceting them. We feel riders should be able to continue to enjoy the variety of tracks that they have done for several decades and that any concentration of riders onto selected tracks is likely to cause issues for The Conservators in the future through over use. We are proposing that over the coming 12 months we work together on the following:

– Making riders (and all hill users if possible) aware of the various protected species ancient monuments on the common, and especially their locations.
– Promoting responsible riding through codes of conduct and best practice advice on how to ride sensibly, respect the common and other user groups.
– Try to get riders involved with helping out on the common (conservation work parties)

We are happy to discuss in more detail how we go about implementing these proposals.

Kind regards,

Roger Smith
Cheltenham & County CC

Response from Winchcombe CC
Hi Chantal,

Firstly a very big thank you for making time to meet us last week and for your subsequent email.

It was very useful to get a better idea and understanding of the issues you are dealing with on behalf of the Conservators and the other stakeholders of the Common.

Members of Winchcombe CC have used the Common for many years (at least 30 years) and along with Cheltenham & County CC and your rangers, who are tremendously helpful, we also determine the routing for the annual “Hell of the North Cotswold” cycle event which often uses the Common, which is now in its 29th year of running.

The Common, as a largely unenclosed area forms a unique environment of limestone grassland in the North Cotswolds and all the recreational users greatly appreciate its value and gain huge satisfaction from access to such a fantastic open landscape.

In our experience mountain bikers use the defined tracks across the Common. We would suspect along with other users of the Common such as walkers, runners, dog owners, golfers, horse riders, mountain boarders, kite boarders, motor cyclists, rock climbers not all will be aware of the environmental sensitivity of specific areas; you mentioned particularly the Hill Fort above Nutters Wood, the Sheepdip area at the back of the Common & the restricted area of Heathland which you are hoping to expand.

Many of the tracks you described as ‘desire routes’ are in fact formed by the herd animals grazing on the Common and it is clear the cattle in the ‘wash pool’ valley have caused much erosion in that area. From our observations heavy rains and run off have also caused damage to the valley floor in that area.

We would favour an approach that avoids the use of ‘Permissive’ tracks and retains the free use of existing tracks and routes for all users but recognises that in some particularly sensitive areas it may be necessary to restrict access or divert routing, eg around the Hill Fort.

We think that many of the diverse users of the Common are not fully aware of the bio and archaeological sensitivities and educating and increasing awareness will be far more productive; leading to support from the wider public to your aims and avoiding conflict where prescriptive bans to use will potentially lead to the need to ‘police’ access and cause conflicts and which given the scant resources would be a negative approach.

Education of the wider public through use of notices at the major entry points, free pamphlets distributed from suitable shop outlets and tourist information centres and use of social media would be helpful in communicating the issues and promoting a ’Code of Conduct’ for cycling and general recreational use on the common. These are initiatives that we and together with our colleagues at Cheltenham and County CC would be potentially able to provide practical support with, alongside the financial contributions already provided by our two Clubs.

Clearly it is in all our interests to conserve and maintain this landscape for current users and future generations alike, importantly keeping what makes it unique, it’s openness is also vital; prescriptive control, unnecessary signage will just ‘urbanise’ more of our countryside.

If there is an opportunity we would still very much like to see the plant species and areas in particular that you are most concerned at protecting to see their relationship to some of the routes discussed.

Thanks once again for your time on Sunday.

Kind regards

Jim Davies and John Taylor – on behalf of Winchcombe Cycling Club.

Agree with both of the above – good work Rog 😀

Perfectly put and excellent work.

Well at this stage it “appears” that promoting some form of code of conduct for riders to consider / adhere to is the way we are going with this issue. Certainly we have had no indication that our proposals have been thrown out. It has gone a bit quite to be honest but as soon as I get wind of any further developments I’ll let you know.
Cheers, Roger.