"Pay to ride" has pros and cons - it's not really what MTBing's about for most people, but on the other hand it gives you a bargaining chip (income from a lease),
But why take on a lease? The FE are tasked by Govt to manage the Public Forest Estate. They are a semi-commercial company with expertise and resources that should be able to manage a few MTB trails in a wood. Why try and push anymore than is necessary onto a voluntary group? WHy do a group of volunteers need to front up cash as a bargaining chip, I'm not denying commercial realities, trails have some costs, but why is it always that volunteers / users have to be the cash cows?
makes you get organised rather than being a load of faceless voices on forums, and puts off the flakey types who don't want to look after or improve the place.
I disagree, the ability or willingness to pay some money does not guarantee or accurately reflect the desire, commitment or effort people will put in. The only reason to charge fees for a trail building club is the generation of funds to support the most practical elements of construction (tools and hardcore) and cover the minimum of legal requirements e.g. insurance (although if you're helping FE meet some of their Govt imposed targets there seems a good argument for them to foot that bill 
Hell, what about the value of the volunteers time? We haven't added it up for a while but I imagine SingeltrAction's efforts over the years will be wellinto the 10s of thousands if not 100s.
What CTC offer, besides the clout of a national organisation,
I know Ian Warby and have dealt with him a bit. He seems a good bloke with MTB and its interests at heart. But, whilst I'm prepared to be honest about IMBA UK I'll also be the same about CTC. What real clout have they got with FE about trailbuilding? Also, this sort of set up seems more typical of what IMBA (should?) be doing, I didn't realise it was such a strong area for CTC. A whole other argument though possibly.
is basically taking care of the admin side for you, so there's less time spent hassling people for membership renewals, etc. If you're prepared to deal with this yourself, you could form your own club,
If we've managed it can't be that hard
work out your own lease with the FC and get insurance/accreditation through British Cycling instead, giving a rock bottom membership cost along the lines of what Cheeky's talking about.
Not really. I am not advocating anyone lease the land and take on all the responsibilities. As above, that's FE's job. When they've tried to get us to siogn leases (I've seen them for "our" sites and others have asked me about them) I've always strongly resisted. What volunteer wants to sign up to the liability involved? What volunteer is suitable?
It's also FE's job to promote recreation, health and use of the Public Forest Estate for the population. A volunteer group stepping up, putting their own time and effort in for free and helping them deliver on their performance indicators should be supported and engaged with, not made to do everything themselves.
God I'm in a ranty mood today 
