I live near to one of the members of the Peak District National Park Authority councillors who is involved in a number of initiatives and activities that cover rights of way and cycling.

We had a long chat after the village Remembrance Day parade and the subject of Brough Lane and Chapel Gate came up then we moved onto chatting about access, cycle routes etc, etc.

The conversation then moved on to representation of MTB interests at meetings etc and was there a voice for us at the table. In his opinion there was not but there was a vocal and well organised 4×4 group and Peak Horsepower were also represented in discussions.

I know Ride Sheffield has been mentioned previously when this subject comes up but he was not aware of them.

His advice, and his request was, that MTB riders resident in, or local to the Peaks get together and form a group that could attend meetings, submit ideas and opinions to represent the MTB interests in the area.

I’m happy to get involved and help co-ordinate at the outset – anyone else fancy giving this a go – there’s an open door for us to get our message across?

Very interesting. Is Nottingham considered local enough? I work in the peaks sometimes if that helps.

Guess so, his only reason for asking for locals was to make it easy to get to meetings, guessing they will be in Bakewell. From my POV anyone with an interest is more than welcome. We can canvas opinion of those who don’t live close to can’t get to meeting on here and take those comments forward.

Going on the pootle?

Perhaps you should point Ride Sheffield at this?

Sure am. That was to Pook.
Jonny, if they want to get involved that’s great but will they work for the entire Peak? There is a clue in their name.

I think Ride Sheffield have a wider interest and the name is just where many of them live. John Horscroft who is active in their contacts with Eastern Moors Partnership etc and posts on here sometimes certainly seems to be interested in more than just Parkwood Springs or Lady Cannings.

As I said, the more people who want to get involved the better as long as it is representative of the wider user groups. I will contact John.

Edit: just looked their website and it does seem they are focused on the Sheffield area, no bad thing and it would be good to have them involved but the Peaks is a very big area

Do they have a meeting calendar?

Roger – I’m part of Ride Sheffield and we’re spread much beyond Sheffield with all the things we are doing and have our agm in a couple of weeks which will shape future items that we will work on. We were initially focused on the Sheffield area but have spread our wings further as we’ve developed and various people/groups have asked us too!
We’re already working/arguing with DCC about their recent works, eastern moors and are involved with the national park on some works already. It sounds like we have more to do and more people to spread the work might help but we are already trying.

Steve that sounds good, how do we capitalise on this open offer in front of us. I understand from my conversation that PDNPA also have their challenges with DCC and the conflicts over access and policing so this invitation may be good for us all. What do you suggest as a next step?

I’m just off to bed now but have dropped the rest of the guys an email and link to this, will get back to you when I catch up with who’s done what so far. Can you drop me an email (in my profile) as I can’t see one in yours. Thanks

Pook, I’m sure they will. If we can get a Enough interest I can flow this through with my neighbour. A key part of this is, in my opinion, to make a strong representation from riders who live land work in the park. This is one card that Pak Horsepower use to good effect – his words not mine.

Steve- hitting the sack now but will ema you in the morning.

I live near Bakewell – more than happy to get involved

Hi Roger. This is great news. As Steve said, Ride Sheffield has already gone way beyond its original brief to look after the interests of MBers in the Sheffield area. As we all know, the Peak has both endless riding and a plethora of issues and almost from the outset, we found ourselves drawn into Peak District. There was until three years ago a group called Ride The Peak who tried to be the voice of mountain biking but owing to a number of problems, they never really got off the ground. A number of the people involved in RtP moved on to Ride Sheffield so the knowledge wasn’t lost. A lot of work has been done over the last three years to increase our influence in the Peak, but your contact with an authority member is great news. If you could drop me an email I’d love to have a chat. There’s lots to do….

You can email via my website Roger -http://www.johnhorscroft.co.uk

John & Steve – YGM
Woody – great – my email is paul (at) vividink.info