Nipped down to the hurt arms just after 11am. Utter chaos, quite a spectacular sight to be fair. Some reckoning over 6000 bikers turned out to so fair play to those involved.

imagines 6000 bikers taking a bath together

Took us 15 minutes to get out the A610 at the Hurt Arms on our way up to Carsington. Chaos all over, so they made their point.

Not sure why motorbikes shouldn’t pay to park in the same places that cars do though? Ditto blue badge holders.

Support the principle – but Mothers Day was perhaps not the best choice of date!

Ruddy bedlam, and I bet a fair few Mothers Day lunch treats were ruined.

Not sure why motorbikes shouldn’t pay to park in the same places that cars do though?

Cars don’t pay to park at the roadside in Matlock Bath either.

Short-sighted from Council – by the time they’ve covered admin costs I can’t see it raising a great deal.

Thought the plan was for all roadside parking to pay? I may have missed the detail though.

On the plus side, Bakewell was almost deserted when we went for lunch

What was their issue? that they’ll have to pay to park?

The issue is that they’ll go somewhere else, so all the businesses along the ‘front’ in Matlock Bath will lose a vast proportion of their trade. The main car parks are already pay-and-display but along the front it’s free, and all the bikers can pack in nicely. The trade from bikers on a sunny Sunday is huge.

local newspaper link[quote]
A spokesman for the bikers’ group said that the proposals would mean people would have to pay 50p per hour for a maximum of two hours on North Parade and South Parade, impacting negatively on tourism, trade and the economy within the area[/quote]

they’re protesting about 50p p/hr? I think they need some perspective. A load of middle class men pretending to get upset about it so they can drive their bikes around pretending to be annoyed about 50p p/hr.
Am I missing something?

Am I missing something?

The history.

Matlock Bath has been a bikers destination since the 50s/60s and probably before that.

The trade is huge for local businesses, and without it the village would be dead in winter.

Mad idea and unenforceable without a permanent Traffic Warden every hour of every weekend. And even if there was one I don’t know how they’d keep track of hundreds of bikes constantly coming and going.

Yeah I don’t live far away and we have friends in the area so I have been through matlock bath many times and I well aware it is a bikers meet up point. That doesn’t justify their stance though as far as I can see. Perhaps it won’t generate a lot of money and might not be enforcable it will still raise *some* money and if that money goes to the up upkeep of this beautiful area that all the better. It’s 50p fgs, most town centre parking is at least £1.50 an hour so 50p p/hr is very generous.

I get the history, and understand the importance of the biker trade. But then, you used to be able to park in a lot of places for free. Times change.

The enforceability/cost is a genuine pitfall, I agree.

It may change the demographic of the visitors rather the spend. When it’s full of bikers, no one else can get in as there isn’t a huge amount of parking close to the “front”. They are trying to reboot the area and make it more a year round place, and when the weather is bad, the bikers don’t turn out in any great numbers at all. And although I’ve never heard or seen any trouble, if you are of a nervous disposition and passing through then all the bikers can appear intimidating.

Most bikers would still go and pay up. For those that don’t, someone else will take their place and spend their money.

Couldnt go as I was at work, was a fantastic turnout. I agree with the date could have been better ie not mothers day lol and should have been a summers day.
Imo its not the price of parking its the fact of where you put the ticket without it blowing off, do they stick on in the rain, someone could nick/ remove it?
Then you are left arguing the toss with the parking warden about proving you have payed, with the threat of a fine a lot of riders thinking it’s not worth the hassle so will stop somewhere else.

Whilst I have little sympathy about the bikers having to pay for parking, I do have some sympathy that they will be limited to a 2 hour maximum stay. I assume the council’s objective is not just to make money from parking but to “encourage” a faster turnover of visitors on the frontage.

Overall though, council budgets are being slashed and some important services are being lost. If DCC can make some money out of this that goes back into fixing potholes on the roads, surely the bikers would be happy to give up an extra £2 when they visit. It’s not even a beer token!

While I’d agree that 50p/hr is not enough to really get your knickers in a twist over (though I hate paying to park, especially in Matlock Bath which is an area I’ve already paid my council tax to) I think there’s a bit too much at stake. While trivial the bikers are clearly upset about it and won’t go any more (am I right in thinking they did a trial a few years ago and the biker trade completely dried up?). If they don’t go that’s a pretty massive impact on the businesses in Matlock Bath, which are pretty much all small local enterprises. I’d much rather the bikers parked for free and the businesses stayed open.

We were driving down the A6 and A38 at about 9am yesterday and assumed something was kicking off- I’ve never seen so many bikers on the roads.

A better funding stream for the council would be turning off the bloody huge spotlights they light up the hall in Matlock with every night at no doubt great expense. 🙄

It’s the two hour thing that is the main complaint. If you’ve come over for a day trip it puts paid to that.

Stilltortoise opined
…some money out of this that goes back into fixing potholes on the roads repairing trails with inappropriate materials and radically changing their character in the process.

FTFY