Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)
  • Longleat Woods – Trail Building and Access
  • martib
    Full Member

    Over the last couple of weeks the Estate Manager from Longleat has been reaching out to a few people in Warminster with regards to Mountain Bikers and trail building in Longleat Woods. This evening I have had a message from the organiser of the Warminster Wobble (this weekend if you are in the area) that the Estate Manager is going to attend the Wobble this Saturday to chat over some issues.
    They plan to follow this up with a Meeting at Warminster Civic Centre where the Head Forester will clarify the situation, with regards to access, trail building and bio security. Up until now the local trail pixie has had informal conversations with the head forester and they have been relatively happy. We have not had any issues in the past and would like to keep it that way.
    Therefore could you please spread the word and not carry out any trail building, berms, jumps etc until we have had the situation clarified. There are plenty of jumps & berms over at Windhill.
    When I get anymore information I will post it up here, please do not shoot the messenger, as this is all the info I currently have.

    beaker
    Full Member

    Where are you referring to exactly? In Cannimore woods?

    wordnumb
    Free Member

    Cheap lion food.

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    c_klein87
    Full Member

    as a Longleat local the trail building has become fairly extensive, I best take notice of this! rather not loose our trails, perhaps they need to stop being marked with arrows!

    martib
    Full Member

    I’ve been man down for a couple of weeks but got this update today. It appears that there is an issue with Ash Dieback in Longleat Woods and want all users to only use the Public Rights of Way on the hard tracks and not venture in to the woods and to wash down afterwards as part of Bio Security. Below is a link to a flyer they were handing out at the Warminster Wobble.

    Posted by Cannimore Cycles on Saturday, July 1, 2017

    ninfan
    Free Member

    This case is unusual, but the strongest piece of advice that I can give to everyone in similar landowner situations is that ‘Jumps are bad, m’kay’

    Over fifteen years almost every incident of landowner conflict, crackdown, exclusion, bad press, ban, bulldozing, blockage or restriction has been prompted by jump digging. (I can count on one hand the number of times that this wasn’t the flare point, two were scheduled ancient monuments, one was nightjar, one was ancient woodland, this is the fifth)

    If you want to keep your trails, kill the jumps, dead – most particularly gap jumps, and then exert peer pressure to stop people digging more (I find putting the word round the local shops helps)

    Then google ‘forestry commission wild trail management guidelines’ and read them

    deadkenny
    Free Member

    ninfan – Member 
    This case is unusual, but the strongest piece of advice that I can give to everyone in similar landowner situations is that ‘Jumps are bad, m’kay’

    Events in Surrey Hills at the moment come down to this. I’ve warned about it, shot down in flames, oh look, landowner is kicking up shit, flattening stuff and now getting aggressive about anyone on the land at all.

    Jumps have their place. Industrial scale digging all over the place and every single one just has to be a gap jump, is just inviting changes you will not like.

    Next step, Trail Centre Surrey Hills. Cobbles being imported from Swinley 😉

    samunkim
    Free Member

    Its difficult.
    I have built mile n miles of popular singletrack ( & had lot flattened too) but nothing get the adrenalin pumping like a big jump

    orangeboy
    Free Member

    They may need to rethink there pr. between my better half and me we both use the longleat estate by cycle walk or horse and have not seen anything ? No signs are up on the way into the estate

    martib
    Full Member

    @ Orangeboy I agree and when I read the flyer, it didn’t seem quite right. They have been logging in Longleat for a while now, dragging mud and debris on to the main tracks. A check on DEFRA’s Ash dieback map shows it was first found in the Longleat area in 2016. Much as I agree that the trails should not be ridden in the interests of bio security and controlling the spread. It begs the questions, why is this now only being mentioned and secondly why are Longleat targeting this at a small group of users, when they should be putting up signs, putting information out in the local media, their own website etc and informing all users of the woods. It is as if they are trying to keep it quiet. There again Longleat does have a bit of a track record, when it comes to poor PR.

    martib
    Full Member

    I have emailed Longleat asking why this has only come to light now and why it is not widely publicised.

Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)

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