Excellent news and I’m very happy tonight
Having been involved as a young engineer on a year out from uni with cleaning up and building the first roads into pride park I know the site well and even sent plenty of nasty contaminated ground (and a WW2 bomb, later diffused!) to the area that is now part of the nature reserve
To read objections from people in the Home Counties for example, spurred on by Chris Packham, based on this apparently being a “greenfield nature site” really annoyed me, the only reason it was designated a reserve was because it was the one small corner of the wider development area that at the time could not be developed for any other use, any designation was always temporary and that’s also why they built a park and ride site there, as it couldn’t be used for offices etc
To build a cycle track around the perimeter, whilst leaving 80% of the reserve intact and not disturbing the waste area or bentonite slurry wall is ideal to support the adjacent velodrome development and the council have bent over backwards to amend the design to compromise with the wildlife lobby as much as possible
There was a very organised campaign against this from several nature bodies. Fair play they have the power to do so, but not one offered any real evidence as to how the wildlife could not co-exist with cyclists around the boundary of the reserve
Can’t wait to head down there with my 3 yo daughter for some bike skills training in a safe environment
