I'll try and get him to give me a view in writing and forward it on

he is of the same viewpoint in that the regs are sensible and aren't tryng to stop activity they are just creating a clear framework of responsibilities

Coming at it as a realist rather than a doom monger. The bit about the thin end of the wedge is more dont think this is a one off just because its biking. 30% cut is huge and definately end of the world as we know it level. Even projects that come from Europe are still at risk – not all the money comes from Europe. These tend to be on 50 to 80% match. In this case I'll speculate at an 80. Thats around £1 million on a £5million project, although this may be split across several partners the a few are likely to be local authority or quangos or should that be quangones. They could still be in for a couple of hundred thousand, loose the match loose the funding.

Grant chasing good idea but if care and upkeep of the countryside comes out from local authorities and goes to organisation like the National Trust. Competion for grants is going to be very stiff indeed. Charities have access to more funding pots than local authorities. My prediction is they'll be running a few ranger / countryside services in the next couple of years.

The brave new world does also throw up some interesting opportunities. It should favour projects like lee quarry and llandegla. The latter as its a private venture the former because of its strong community grounding. Although current gov thinking would suggest they'd want to see it delivered a la Penmachno. Organisations like singletraction could move into small scale bridleway fixes.

Actually, the brave new world is here and it wants to hear from us.

I think the days of big projects are over but the grass roots should be strong but we're now only going to get out of it what we put in. Might be time to establish some sort of national fighting fund – oh if we only had an effective representative body to adminsiter it all mountain bikers and bike businesses would put into it. Oh b***** we are all doomed.

@brownbacks I'm actually on your volunteer distribution list, but the list of dates for the races came out at the point where every weekend on it had been booked up with either festivals or friends visiting. The reason I'm on there for marshalling is cos I'm too useless to ride the blooming trails, can't compete, and too unhealthy currently to dig at Gisburn. So all I can do is write letters, bug the right people, try and add a voice, because that's all I am. If you have any ideas of ways I can help, please tell me. I wanrt to get involved, I just don't know how?

Tony L,
I take it that the volunteer bike rangers positions have all gone up the Swanny with all the cut backs,
i havent had a reply from Ian Hart as yet?

U31 volunteer ranger service is doing fine at the moment and this includes the mountain bike rangers. Let me have your contact details and I'll help you get it sorted out. Was it Healey Nab in particular you are interested in?

tony.lund@lancashire.gov.uk

Mr Sparkle any comments you want to send in could be sent to the same address we always welcome feedback, both the good and the bad! It helps us improve.

Any preference who the letters should be addressed to Tony? I work for a company that uses the trails a lot with local youth so have put it on my to do list for when I am in the office.

Tony, yeah, it was James at Healy who put me on to the post, but after an email with advice from Ian & Christine (?) i applied for the north area.
The application was sent weeks ago but no reply as of yet?
Any info greatly appreciated….

Email on its way!