Some backround: My Dad has been managing a woodland in the local village for 15 years or so. It was bought by a gravel company who hav finished with it and, after many years of hard work from my father, are going to donate it to the local wildlife trust as a reserve. The children in the village build BMX tracks in the woods at the moment, and my Dad is keen that they are not chucked off when the land becomes a reserve.

However, as the land will be privately owned, despite being a public space, I understand that the trust will be potentially held liable if there are any injuries on the land.

Trail centres get round this as there is no liability on publicly owned "crown land". Is this true? Is there any way to get round this? Can disclaimers be used?

It wont be possible to charge people to use it, so extra insurance is out of the question.

How might he go about keeping the trails and the reserve?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks
Julian

Bloody big pat on the back for your dad.

Woodbury Common is owned by the Clinton Estates, and they allow access to great swathes of it. may there's some useful info here

There are quite a few trails on private land e.g. Llandegla – which do carry insurance.

If the wood is owned by teh wildlife trust – then they will have to "do something" , they can't just turn a blind eye.

There have been attempts by people to sue the FC following injuries in "free ride " areas.
If it is all low level stuff, without big jumps or drop offs – you might get away with a sign up saying that the tracks are known and tolerated and should only be ridden by "competent " riders.

The problem will be the wild life trust seeing the trails as a long term liability, which will require additional maintenance, checking and probably insurance. So anything that can be done to make it as easy as possible should be conisedered i.e. could the trails be run and maintained by a local club?

good luck

Trail centres get round this as there is no liability on publicly owned "crown land". Is this true? Is there any way to get round this? Can disclaimers be used?

no, not true. You need to understand the difference between people hurting themselves as a result of being stupid (their fault and nothing you need to worry about) and people being hurt as a result of something you did wrong (your fault, you can be sued).

What this boils down to is that if you build trails, or allow trails to be built, you need to be sure they have been built safely. You can build a 30 foot six pack for the BMXers if you want, as long as you build it right: if someone tries it and the jumps collapse, you;re in trouble. If they simply aren't good enough and crash, it's their own fault.

this faceache group might be of interest
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=308540858499&ref=mf
although doubtless several members will be along to provide a better explanation and show the bits I got wrong

but as said above, well done to your dad. Kids need somewhere to play and yes, to get hurt, kids learn a lot when they hurt themselves. mostly they learn to get someone else to test ride it first next time, in my experience…

so were they to allow the building, they will need to check the trails are built properly, which the wildlife trust frankly wont be the slightest bit interested in unfortunately. Being built by children I wouldn't be too confident either, they'll be built in a kind of build it, try it, if it doesn't work build it again kind of way, and there's not really any way of policing that.

I don't know of/think there are any local clubs that would be interested tbh, it's not a big village.

This doesn't sound too encouraging so far…. anyone got any good ideas?

hi capn well done to the old fella. We had a slightly similar experience. There has been single track in local FC woods for years they pretty much turned a blind eye. The kids would go up in summer hols and build D/H tracks. Trees got moved jumps got bigger. Still turned a blind eye. On the single track stuff got a bit more interesting, bit of north shore over fallen tress a few bridges etc. Basically stuff so you never had to get off!
That was the point when the FC stopped turning a blind eye! They went up and cut all the timber stuff up.
Long story short we had to form a user group lias with them and we were allowed to build. We use the IMBA Whistler trail building standards manual we have a copy they have a copy. If we build or change anything they have a look and ok it (or not)!
When asked about the DH track they said that they had less problem with it because yes it looks like big jumps and drops. People are less likely to ride it unless they are skilled. However having a 6 foot high section of north shore on a bit of woody single track was more likely to be riden by a novice. Anyway try the IMBA web site there is a section for advice for landowners. Good luck with trails.

http://www.imba.org.uk/Trailbuilding/Manuals.html

This sounds like it was written for you! And its free!

Guidelines for Land Managers

This IMBA-UK booklet offers guidelines for land managers who wish to manage or develop a mountain biking facility on their land. This applies where a cycle trail exists or is planned on open ground, woodland, amenity areas or disused extraction sites such as quarries and pits. The booklet also provides guidance on the management of non-authorised informal MTB sites.

The booklet is available free of charge as a PDF download.

12 A5 pages. Copyright © IMBA UK 2006.

NBT is right.