Hi all,

A few weeks ago I posted a thread about Peak District National Park Authority (PDNPA) wanting to speak to resident mountain bikers about PDNPA’s plans for cycling and, more specifically, mountain biking within the park.

Things are now afoot.

A small group of us have started an advocacy and lobbying group to liaise with PDNPA and Derbyshire Dales/County Councils with regard to improving MTB access in the entire park, and to help them with their Cycling Strategy Plan.

To allay any fears or concerns raised previously, we have launched with the full knowledge and support of Ride Sheffield and we will be working closely with them on all aspects of common interest, especially looking at how MTB access can be maxmised throughout the park. We would like to link up with any other rider groups using the park – the greater the voice, the more we will be able to add influence.

If you live in the National Park you can have a direct say by joining us, if you ride here but live further afield then you can become a supporter and add weight to our cause. Please use the link below to read our constitution and to sign up as a member or supporter using the join form on the website: http://www.peakdistrictmtb.org.uk/

(The only purpose in collecting the data is to show PDNPA that we have support and to keep members and supporters informed – we will NOT sell your soul to advertisers etc!!)

News will be appearing on Facebook (PeakDistrictMTB), through Twitter (@PeakDistrictMTB) or on the website.

Please forward the link on to any mates who live/ride in the Peak also, any support would be most welcome.

Cheers, Paul
http://www.peakdistrictmtb.org.uk

a big well done for this – joined as a an out of Peak supporter

Just signed up, but didn’t even see the email section on the membership form until after I submitted. Email in my profile.

Signed up and circulated to various mates

I’ve owned the domain peakdistrictmtb.co.uk for years and never done anything with it to date. If you want me to set it up to auto forward to your site to help getting his from folks mistyping the url let me know.

@dvatcmark – that would be great, many thanks for the offer.
If you drop me an email to paul at vividink.info I’ll ping you the nameservers info.
Cheers, paul.

Well done.

I live about 2 miles outside the boundary. It would be worth asking people when they sign up to say if (for example) they’re served by DDDC. You’ll get some more interesting and useful lobbying stats (unless you’re just going to use address data later) when talking to district and county councils.

You might want to add trails just outside the PDNP area but that provide a useful link to your area of interest as well. (being parochial 🙂 )

Crell – went to the last Authority meeting to get some idea of what we would be dealing with and there are already discussions about linking urban areas into the Peak with cycle routes – more leisure routes than MTB but it’s a start.

Nice idea re geog data & council lobbying – one to add to the agenda.

Signed up and circulated

One thing that I pushed for (& built but was never used) in the brief time I was part of RS was an interactive map of all the local footpaths that could possibly sustain an upgrade to BW & another for footpaths that would benefit from upgrading (regardless of sustainability) to improve loops & links.

Being interactive it means you don’t have to do the initial work, other people submit it before you judge its suitability & pass it up the chain.

I’ve added my email to your list & will forward it around once I’m home

Have signed up as an ‘outside Peak’ supporter

podge – sounds like a brilliant resource – if we could use it that would be great and as you say, shortcut a lot of work. 😀

If you live in the National Park you can have a direct say by joining us, if you ride here but live further afield then you can become a supporter and add weight to our cause.

So… given that I live a mile from the PDNP boundary, I’m only eligible to join as a ‘supporter’ which presumably means that going forward I have no right to vote for officers, get more involved or have any voice within the group? It seems a little arbitrary and I suspect there are a lot of people living a little further west from me in the Manchester area who would think of themselves as Peak District mountain bikers and could potentially make a positive contribution to the group but aren’t technically resident within the PDNP. Hmmm… just thinking aloud…

Signed and distributed. Sorry I could only be a supporter. Living in Nottingham and working in Sheffield, I consider the PDNP as my playground.

I guess what I’m asking is why someone has to be resident within the PDNP to be a full member of the group? It seems unnecessarily limiting. Is there a concrete reason for it?

Signed as an ‘outside supporter’ as well.

It’s great what your trying to do, hopefully it goes well 🙂

I’ve also joined the facebook group, as has my wife inadvertently!

This:

“A few weeks ago I posted a thread about Peak District National Park Authority (PDNPA) wanting to speak to resident mountain bikers about PDNPA’s plans for cycling and, more specifically, mountain biking within the park.”

It was at the request of the PDNPA as they wanted a residents group, a bit arbitrary I agree but they have reasons. If you want to know more call me 07767 444711.

Cheers fella, I’ll give you a bell or drop you an e-mail when I have some time.

Wow this has really taken off 🙂

I text it to a mate who had recieved it from a facebook source only minutes before I sent it to him.

Oh. You’d better change my membership then. I had deemed myself close enough to PDNP boundary to be resident, but sounds like the rules are stricter than that 😕

I’m a mile outside but signed up as inside. Whilst I’m not one, it’d be bizarre to think the residents of the near-enclave of Buxton were outside from a representation point-of-view say compared to someone who comes up once a year with his/her mates for a beer+bike weekend.

Oh. You’d better change my membership then. I had deemed myself close enough to PDNP boundary to be resident, but sounds like the rules are stricter than that

Come the revolution when only Peak Park residents are allowed to ride inside PDNP boundaries and rangers can legally shoot of the rest of us like sheep-worrying dogs, you’ll be sorry you did that.

It was at the request of the PDNPA as they wanted a residents group

I can understand this. At the last Ride Sheff meeting it became clear that the decision makers at DCC didn’t give a hoot about MTBing or the environment generally, and weren’t likely to take any notice of a bunch of riders from Sheffield. The best way to put pressure on them was through the county councillors, and the best way to get to those people is by pressure from constituents and local businesses.

Those of us on the fringes can offer support, but getting local residents involved is key.

Those of us on the fringes can offer support, but getting local residents involved is key.

I used to be about a mile out, now about a hundred miles 🙁

Compared to the consultation around the development of Swinley it’s a good thing. Yes someone in Manchester might consider themselves a ‘Peak Mountainbiker’, they’re also as close to North Wales or the Lake District. So their needs and a locals needs are hugely different. Whether you live in Manchester or Maidstone, you’d probably drive to Hope, park up and do a 20-30mile loop, just with differing amounts of familiarity and map reading. Therefore access and maintenance issues are limited to a small number of areas. As a local I’d have liked a traffic free link between Bamford and Hope. So the needs of the people electing the councilors and paying the taxes that fund any work are often completely different to those of ‘tourists’.

Going back to Swinely, it’s ended up with a route for ‘tourists’ (who are maybe 90% of the people) to (IMO) the disadvantage of people who lived nearby (who maybe make up 90% of the laps ridden).

Dead right chris, the R.o.W dept of DCC are particularly resistant to the march of the 21st century and would like a return to the times when apple cheeked scamps could get a good kicking from the jolly village sadist aka policeman if they so much as breathed on a Tory supporters lawn.
I realise this will not go down well with some people but that’s how I see it.

Signed up as an outsider – as Matlock just outside the park!! 🙁

Chris is bang on the money, we need resident MTBers to leverage the position we have, it’s not about exclusion, it’s about using the best routes to represent all our interests and why we really do want supporters from outside the park. So, please get over to the website and give us your support. Thanks.

Actually it’s a local group for locals riders.
Hello, hello, what’s all this noise, we’ll have no Hope hubs here!

The best way to put pressure on them was through the county councillors, and the best way to get to those people is by pressure from constituents and local businesses.

Well, I am a constituent of DCC, just don’t live within the PDNP boundary, though only a mile or so outside it in Glossop. Like others though, I’d consider myself to be a Peak District resident, as I would consider folk who live in Buxton, Matlock etc.

Anyway, signed up…

I think we can all agree that the actual Park boundaries were somewhat circumspect when originally drawn up. If we can just park that for the moment and focus on what we may be able to achieve that would be brilliant. 😀

Signed up. Another not-quite resident, I live less than a mile from the boundary, but up in Marsden, so in Kirklees. Kirklees council highways have made a right **** mess of BWs they have responsibility for in the Peak too on occasion, so please don’t forget about us wierdo outliers up north! 😉

Good luck!

Joined as an outsider. PDNP is the nearest decent mountain biking to me and I’d like to see all mountain bikers represented.

If we can just park that for the moment and focus on what we may be able to achieve that would be brilliant.

Well said.

the R.o.W dept of DCC are particularly resistant to the march of the 21st century and would like a return to the times when apple cheeked scamps could get a good kicking from the jolly village sadist aka policeman if they so much as breathed on a Tory supporters lawn.

That’s not going to help. “They” might already be reading this.

I’m not convinced about the must be in the park at PDNPA request. Ride the Peak didn’t restrict membership to living within the boundary of the Peak Park and PDNPA didnt take issue. Ride the Peak was always offered up as the mountain biking liaison group for the park.

I never lived in the national park but all my local (as in from the door) riding was there from the mid nineties to the other year. That was living on the E, W and Buxton Bite. Not being counted as your not a ‘local’ on your local trails is just farcical.

That’s not going to help. “They” might already be reading this.

Yes, please play nicely DCC are people too, and some of them ride MTBs. 🙂

Actually it’s a local group for locals riders.

You do seem to be setting yourself up that way. I didn’t realise there was a requirement for representative bodies to be composed entirely of National Park residents? Is that really the case?

No, call me.

Signed up as non resident supporter. I take the point about DCC listening to constituents but as someone who rides from home into the peak I feel I’ve more in common with residents than with those driving in. I’ll share the link with some genuine locals.

I won’t be supporting a bunch of red necks and their super exclusive club. If somebody comes up with a more inclusive organisation that better represents the ideal of the peak district being open to everyone then I will join.

Yep, I’ve signed up as an outsider very interested in this group. Well done OP, this is the sort of organisation required to affect change and improvement.

Jesus Christ – someone does something proactive and supportive of riding in the peak and half of you pick and poke before it’s even got off the ground. Give the man a chance.

Signed up Paul. Good work.