Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • People cutting new trails in Malvern Hills
  • jimw
    Free Member

    This has hit the attention of the Conservators and the local press:

    http://www.malvernhills.org.uk/Content/2015.05.18MountainBikingTracks.pdf

    http://www.malverngazette.co.uk/news/12968197.Mountain_bikers_damaging_hills_and_frightening_walkers__say_Conservators_/?ref=mr&lp=3

    It really is annoying that people are wrecking the local area which is protected by bylaws, and much of the hills have SSI’s in place. From a very personal perspective I would ask people not to ride these new cut trails as it will cause all sorts of problems.

    However, to link this with the other issues is unfortunate. My experience of walking and cycling the Hills is that there is remarkably little conflict, most people are happy if one is polite and careful, but the damage outlined above will only give the angry brigade a justifiable reason to get angrier.

    So again, a personal plea, please be careful and polite, 95% of the time you will get a positive response from the other users of the Hills.they are there for everyone to enjoy and long may this continue.

    Edit: I should say that in general the Conservators field staff are, if not sympathetic, at least tolerant of bikers if you treat them OK and engage in sensible conversations. At least one is a mountain biker himself. The nature of the Gazette piece doesn’t reflect this very well.

    Stoner
    Free Member

    Hi Jim.
    I too had noticed a new trail cut from the top of Black Hill down across the zig zags that come up from the eastern side (the track from holy well road that crests at the col between Black and Pinnacle hills). The new tracks take a very direct fall line which isnt going to be good for water erosion. I was trying to get excitable about it then just though, no, **** the conservators. It’s their ecological vandalism that’s made it possible for the grommets to cut new trails in the first place. They’ve cleared all the shrub and undergrowth, felled thousands of birch tree habitats, all for some bollox victoriana pastiche. So the hillsides off the original trails are far more accessible now. And then they come out with that biased and patently incorrect press release and I just dont have the heart to try and stick up for them. If it were still Ian Rowat at the helm I might be more inclined since he had some sense about him.

    Apart from the local gravity grommets cutting the new trails as there’s little all else nearby for them like it, the majority of conflict is usually as a result of sheer numbers of visitors both by foot and bike on key weekends.

    Since I have the luxury of riding any weekday I choose, and do so after 6pm earliest, my give-a-****-ometer is off the left hand side of the scale.

    And as for that photo:
    1) That trail has been there for at least 10 years.
    2) There’s plenty of visibility to enter the road safely
    3) that photo only shows the car moving (quickly) not the rider.
    4) arguably that trail provides an outlet from the stretch of hill paths that DOESNT result in conflict with walkers!

    As for the staff, apart from the retired Rowat and the Warden, Rich, the rest of them I have little time for. Lot’s of “conservationists”, very little practical experience on what the user groups need, like the commoners on castlemorton.

    jimw
    Free Member

    Stoner, whilst uncomfortable with some of the points you have made, mostly I concur with you, particularly about the clearing of shrub etc. I was not intending to give the impression I agreed with the whole of the two links, far from it.
    However I still think that deliberatly cutting new trails in soft loam which then transect existing trails in unexpected places is asking for trouble. What I was mostly saying is please don’t wreck fragile habitat and be nice ‘cos it’s best for everyone.

    As far as that photo is concerned I have already emailed both the Journalist who just rehashed the press release, and Beck pointing out exactly the same issues you have made. That path has been there since I started walking the hills 20 years ago. It almost looks staged to me. I have also told both that I don’t recognise the apparent major conflict between bikers and walkers that they imply and that my experiences of regularly using the hills both as a walker and a cyclist are that the vast majority of encounters are positive and friendly. I am sure this will be ignored as it doesn’t fit their perspective.

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    Stoner
    Free Member

    What I was mostly saying is please don’t wreck fragile habitat and be nice ‘cos it’s best for everyone.

    And I don’t think anyone sensible will disagree with the sentiment. But we all know it’s a small number of people who are hardly likely to read the Gazette or indeed a pompous press release from the conservators. Meanwhile hundreds of conscientious Malvern mountain bikers are tarred with the same brush and treated like children in a stupid press-release It’s not up to us to police the idiots who are strangers to us just because we have similar hobbies.

    If the conservators want to “manage” the problem constructively, It’s not beyond their wit to research how to do so. It’s not like there havent been any successful case studies the last 20 years.

    dobiejessmo
    Free Member

    While walking up there the other day saw a down/hill type trail down by the side of the quarry.The ledbury end don’t know what its call.Only ever ridden up there once back in 1991 got fed up of being told of by about 10 people over the length of the hills and that was in the week.Know its different now 😆

    v8ninety
    Full Member

    Ooh, new cheeky trails available up the Malvern hills. <checks google maps for travel time> are they easy to spot? Good of the ‘conservators’ (who sound like particularly dull Dr Who baddies BTW) to open up the hillside for us nicely, wasn’t it?

    Speeder
    Full Member

    If that track in the picture is where I think it is I rode it on a BMX in about 1985 so as others have said it’s a bit of a red herring.

    As for the conservators – what aspect of the hills are they trying to conserve? Is it pre or post quarrying, either way it’s a bit of a joke.

    As for riders building stuff off piste – kids will be kids anything “built” up there is temporary and nature will reclaim it if it stops getting used. To claim that as an issue is somewhat ridiculous. The only aspect I’d be concerned about is if they’re crossing walkers paths with little visibility as that’s pretty anti social in such a potentially crowded environment*.

    * It’s really not that crowded on most of the hills and in my experience of riding up there ( 20 odd years up until about 8 years ago) you rarely see much foot traffic on the eastern side lower paths anyway. Things may have changed but it’s unlikely – no-one like walking in the dark.

    ninfan
    Free Member

    Ask them why the right to ‘air and exercise’ on common land includes walking and riding horses, but prohibits cycling?

    (For context, it tracks back to a clause in a 1926 law, which was introduced to prevent gypsy encampments and hawkers on commons)

    Now then to be fair to the conservators, they have published a lot of their thoughts on the current problems here: http://www.malvernhills.org.uk/Content/2015.04.30%20Mountain%20biking%20plan.pdf. And it looks as though they are reasonably keen to enter into a dialogue, even if some of ides appear high handed.

    I note one of their key concerns is liability (isn’t it always) should there be a collision between a rider and walker – this could be easily solved if they gave riders a right of access under s16 CROW, thus minimising their own liability!

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