Hi

Been up to Glentress at the weekend. Stayed at Backcroft B&B in Innerleithen (very good) and the landlady there, a local counciller, tells me that despite a lot of effort, it appears there will be no investment in Innerleithen trails for the foreseeable future. The chances of any lift up (other than the current situation) is unlikely as all investment appears to be diverted towards GT. Also that the FC are pulling out of these centres next year. Not sure if that is true or just scaremongering

I thought i remember something on here not so long ago saying that there was plans to invest in thetrails at innerleithen.

Any updates to this?

Well as the FC have a decision to spend £0 on new trails across their forests it would be a bit strange to see new trails popping up at Innerleithen…repairing/improving existing trails is all fair game (so if someone can swing a 6km trail 'repair' then it could be done).

Chairlift – please don't make me laugh…it ain't going to happen – the figures branded around are pie-in-the-sky for Innerleithen and they need a fair whack to build it anyway.

GT is the crown jewel in the FC crown of MTB trails so whatever is needed will be done to keep it there – £9million on the Peel; stifling development across the rest of Scotland to prevent people going elsewhere; selling off forests to buy all the properties and land around GT (they needed to raise capital and selling forest was a 'quick' means of getting it)…Innerleithen has only done so well so far as it was seen as more downhill-orientated whereas GT isn't…

It's a real shame…

Pulling out? They will be hard pushed to – the FC wants total and utter control – even if they aren't in the apparent driving seat so there is no chance they are pulling out – trails on their land do make them responsible for the upkeep of them…they might be less pro-active but they will still be there pulling the strings…

Probably what is meant by "pulling out" is that with Euro money having been used to build the 7Stanes there is an undertaking to maintain the trails for 5yrs. After that who knows? FC, like all gov depts are being starved of cash so it is unlikely any new trails will be built unless the trail planners are being "economic with the truth" when "repairing" a trail 😉

7Stanes as a project finished a couple of yrs ago and is now only a "brand" name, a bit more successfull than anyone in FC ever imagined

New job marketing 7Stanes for next 2yrs would also point to FC still happy with the way things are going;
http://www.s1jobs.com/job/380794340.html

btw it is not just "our" trails that are suffering. I know a few folks who do the forest maint and they are well p`d off with their lot atm re lack of funding for the stuff they normaly do. Just like the rest of us 🙄

no uplift at inners is a good thing in my book.reep the reward

I heard a couple of weeks back from somebody who should be in the know that Laggan (another FC one) is "at risk". Not surprised – only been 4-5 times but not many people there even at the weekend

FCS back pedalling from mtb provision started a good couple of years ago with a clear policy shift. spin will be about funding cuts i don't doubt.

the FCS apologists will be along in a minute to tell us how everything in the forest is rosy…

I know i'm taking a simplistic view but….

FC, in order to maintain themselves have a certain pot of money coming from various sources, if one of those sources is reduced either outgoings have to be reduced or FC has to be reduced. The latter is worst case scenario for them as they have already cut things to the bone internally. So what goes? Obviously things that do not make a paper profit. GT will be the last to go big money spinner and huge advert for them with little, comparatively, cost. Inners/DBT/Kirroughtree/Mabie must be close to paying their own way. Glebtrool and the likes of laggan, and i do not have the numbers, possibly not enough people through the door to make it worth while in the long term.

Oh and as with all short sighted/monied business plans, expansion then maintenance will fall by the wayside until scrapping becomes an obvious option.

Really hope it's not true about laggan, such a great trail.

Report below is a bit out of date now, but I'd be surprised if Laggan is at risk – presume the local community trust still involved and IIRC was intended as a "honeypot" to attract mtbers from elsewhere in national park.

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/LagganWolftrax-FinalReport.pdf/$FILE/LagganWolftrax-FinalReport.pdf

I've not seen visitor numbers for other trail centres for a while. Anyone?

Small beer in the overall scheme of things:

http://www.heraldscotland.com/business/corporate-sme/sse-protege-wins-100m-hydro-scheme-1.1046621

In short, and given the ambitious planting / energy sheme targets, FCS do not exactly look like an organisation who will be contracting. What they are not going to do is take a punt on £10m+ of uplift infrastructure. There's seems to be a hell of a lot of folk sitting on their hands waiting for it to happen. Get real guys…

AFAICS the DH community and their supporters have been handed several hundred £k of feasibility work and (in principle) a nice forest. It's for those who have faith in this project to step up to the plate and work with Borders Council, FCS, SE and the private sector to realise their vision.

As for what's happening in the mainstream I believe it's high time FCS, Scottish Cycling, Cycling Scotland and the sundry other quangos involved in this SMBDC consortium 'opened the books' and let the mtb communtiy at large see where all the moneys being spent.