I’d agree that there are still calls and arguments against us by a vocal minority, however it’s a dwindling minority and they don’t have the momentum or carry the weight that they did twenty years ago, nobody’s really listening to the rabid anti cyclists any more. I’ve just ploughed through fifty odd pages of internal reports about how Surrey dealt with the leith hill complaint by one of them, the councils approach was very even handed in protecting mountain biking, when it could have played very differently.
it’s very different from pre foot and mouth, back then even places like The dales national park were openly hostile, and the trails in Wales and Scotland have fairly firmly rooted us in the rural economy and eyes of the people in power. The political weight has shifted and hopefully will swing further, the approach has swung heavily towards management rather than prohibition, even where there are ongoing problems like mod land in Surrey, the noises going upwards are often a lot more accepting than the public persona, and this bodes reasonably for the future.
It’s really not all bad news for us, we can dou a lot more, but we’re not under threat. We’re not close enough to say ‘a rush and a push and this land will be ours’ but we’ve come a long way.
