Anyone know much about the details of this ??

Link here but underwhelming amount of information/detail Forestry Commission Sell Off including Delamere ??

Heard rumours of Centre Parcs wanting to buy and seal off but I had understood there was a right to roam ??

Really dont know anything Nic but i really hope it doesnt happen, very big mistake in my book selling off woodland.

I think it is april 2011 when we might know more about where it is heading.

I love the Centre Parcs rumour…. Untrue fortunately.

I hope you are right and it was just a crap rumour from a patron of the Ring ‘o’ Bells !! Just need to understand bit more about the likelihood or otherwise of a sell off and implications ????

There’s far more chance of them buying the old Marley Tiles site as there was a planning meeting about access to both sides of the site being granted.

If it is sold, I can’t see anything really changing; parking is currently paid for, bridle ways will still be bridle ways, cafes will still be expensive, private ventures such as Go Ape and Tracs will still exist (so long as their leases are current) so much like any other FC owned park in the country. One upside is that it may well prevent parking along the main roads as the company that buys it will more than likely have the man-power/budget to enfore proper parking regulations.

If by the sale of Delamere Forest and the adjoining woods (Grestys Waste and Primrose Woods) to a private company it frees up money for development and gives control to an organisation that isn’t hemorrhaging money we could even see some improvement in facilities.

I’ve lived 2 iles from Delamere for 17 years. The Center Parcs story has been doing the rounds for at least 10 of those years!

They were interested in the Marley Tiles site and that has been considered in planning meetings – if you do a Google search you can find the meeting minutes from the relevant council meetings. I think the reaon it didn’t go through years ago was twofold: site too small and traffic implications. I guess the worry now is that potentially the whole of the forest is available to them so the scale issue goes away.

I guess if it does happen, we have to look to Sherwood Pines, where the forest exists happily alongside the CP site. Having said that, Sherwood Pines is much bigger than Delamere and in my opinion Delamere couldn’t sustain all the development that would come with CP. It’s bad enough now with the concerts, events, Go-Ape, 6 week long Christmas, etc….!

A question about Delamere from today , neatr the station it says parking for rail users only, and wheelclamp area, lots of cars parked there but no signs of any of them having bought or showing a ticket, the station is un manned so how do you prove youre a rail user.

Also if Delamere is sold,perhaps the new owners can make it illegal to use it as a dogs toilet, and also ban walkers wearing his and hers jackets in the same colour, along with those metal walking stick things.It makes you look so daft .

its flat anyway – good for training blast, but not that interesting (although I havent been for years so it may have improved?)

M6TTF – Member
its flat anyway – good for training blast, but not that interesting (although I havent been for years so it may have improved?)

Posted 56 seconds ago # Report-Post

Theyve built a huge big hill, and lots of car parking, a railway station, and a cafe.

project – Member
M6TTF – Member
its flat anyway – good for training blast, but not that interesting (although I havent been for years so it may have improved?)
Posted 56 seconds ago # Report-Post

Theyve built a huge big hill, and lots of car parking, a railway station, and a cafe.

still pretty tame then

The dogging areais well used 🙂

project – Member

A question about Delamere from today , neatr the station it says parking for rail users only, and wheelclamp area, lots of cars parked there but no signs of any of them having bought or showing a ticket, the station is un manned so how do you prove youre a rail user.

be weary of the cafe owner, she doesn’t like bikers using that car park, unless you spend considerable cash in her cafe

i tried over the xmas period during the day, and she protested – i asked her repeatedly whether she owned the car park or not and whether she had the right to move me on, and she wouldn’t respond – only stating that her customers have a right to use it as do rail users – in the end she got a bit sweary at me and basically threatened to block my car in i left it there, so i moved it on to the road instead

to be honest, i know she doesn’t own the car park, a rail company does, but they don’t regulate who uses the car park (at the moment) – daft thing was there was only another four cars in the entire car park and i’ll never spend any cash in her cafe again

the problem has been made worse by the fact the adjacent Delamere visitors car park is now £6 for an all day ticket, so people are parking elsewhere and the FC appears to have a permanent car park enforcer armed with binoculars (strangely) – driving round all the car parks around delamere forest park in a FC pickup van

I always park at the sides of the road in the switchback section anyway. Not if i do a night ride though. Too scary!

Hey Curlie, watch out! The main reason that Station Road no longer has parking along its length is because there was so much crime theft of and from cars..now the same thing is happeneing along the switchback..beware!

Will do, thanks!

i tried over the xmas period during the day, and she protested – i asked her repeatedly whether she owned the car park or not and whether she had the right to move me on, and she wouldn’t respond – only stating that her customers have a right to use it as do rail users – in the end she got a bit sweary at me and basically threatened to block my car in i left it there, so i moved it on to the road instead

the problem has been made worse by the fact the adjacent Delamere visitors car park is now £6 for an all day ticket, so people are parking elsewhere and the FC appears to have a permanent car park enforcer armed with binoculars (strangely) – driving round all the car parks around delamere forest park in a FC pickup van

Yes, idiots like you who can’t be bothered to use the car parks and then park on the road instead.

Hey Curlie, watch out! The main reason that Station Road no longer has parking along its length is because there was so much crime theft of and from cars..now the same thing is happeneing along the switchback..beware!

No, it’s because it was causing lots of congestion on the road. If cars are parked on Station Road (actually Blakemere Lane), it is difficult for traffic to travel in both directions.

Much easier to use the car parks.

A little harsh there ‘dirt123’ no reason for the idiot tag. You are totally unaware of the exact situation that occured that day and the final outcome. That is unless you are who I presume you to be, if that is the case a public forum is not the best place to post deflamatory comments!

A little harsh there ‘dirt123’ no reason for the idiot tag. You are totally unaware of the exact situation that occured that day and the final outcome. That is unless you are who I presume you to be, if that is the case a public forum is not the best place to post deflamatory comments!

I doubt you know me, but maybe you do. Who knows.

Maybe chunkyPaul will enlighten us as to why he parked on the road an not in the car park. I can’t think of any good reason to park on that road though. It’s very dangerous to do so, and there have been a number of serious accidents due to people parking on Station Road/Blakemere Lane.

I suspect that he didn’t actually park on the road, but one of those handy, FREE, muddy layby’s further around the corner.

There’s a clue as to why he didn’t use the car park in that last sentence BTW 😉

I can reliably inform you he parked in neither, but in a perfectly safe place where he was not obstructing a public highway 😉

the road I parked on is called Farm Road – not Station Road or Blakemere Lane, which as Joanne quite rightly says, Blakemere Lane can be a bit dangerous (nasty crash there last year iirc) due to speeding drivers

there was quite a bit of snow on farm road, so unsure whether i was on yellow lines or not, but i didn’t get swore at for doing so 🙂

as for the idiot tag… well, i’ve been called a lot worse 😉

Fair point fella, I personally park at barnbrige gates in the daytime as it free and is pretty central to the trails (being on the switchback). mind you i can ride there so dont have those problems (even if i’m now giving slack dads a bad name…).

Back on subject, yes it is under very real threat, there are some very worried looking FC staff around.
If you think about the money require to buy Delamere for instance, then the return you would make running it as it currently is with income from forestry, carparking, cafe, tracs & go-ape rent, it wouldn’t even come close to paying the interest on the debt taken on.
So either you do something completely different with it, or you massively increase prices.
Either way, does anyone really want to gamble that a private company would really come in and think the way to make money would be to get the odd parking fee off a few bikers etc?
Is it so bad now that it’s worth the risk?