I’ve just found the below on a different forum and voted myself; it may have been up here before but it doesn’t hurt to remind people…

Please take a moment to vote, this would make a big difference in the South East.

2/11/10 – Leith Hill Mountain Bike Training Facilities – Vote Now

The National Trust are applying for funding from Bovril Outdoors Revival to build mountain bike training facilities at Etherley Farm, near Leith Hill. Here’s the details of the project…

“The Surrey Hills has provided many mountain cyclists and many thousands of visitors with a stunning setting to experience long walks or cycles, and many thousands use these networks of trails each week.

The proposed project, a mountain bike training area, will significantly increase the amount of visitors who stay at the Ethereley Farm campsite, which is currently adjacent to the proposed bike area. The training resource will also provide an opportunity for school and corporate groups to visit and enjoy the new facilities.

The promotion of the campsite will subsequently allow visitors to gain access to a much larger network of bike trails linking Leith Hill, Pitch Hill and the Hurtwood Control.”

It’s great to see the National Trust looking to support mountain biking in this way, and it’s a fantastic project, which if it happens could be the springboard for more properly maintained trails and facilities in the area. But it needs your help to happen – by voting for it, so…

1. go to the Bovril Outdoors Revival website here
2. click Find A Project in the top banner
3. type ‘Leith Hill’ into the postcode box
4. click on the spade on the map just to the right of Cranleigh
5. click the ‘Vote for this Project’ button

Votes close 31st December, and this great project will only happen if we vote for it, so please spare a few minutes to register your vote, and forward this on to your friends

done

I’m aware that it’s a highly selfish view to take, and that collectively we should be encouraging others to take up something active like biking, BUT…. I can’t help thinking that in an area that is already crowded and coming under pressure from the volume of users, that bringing more people into the area may not be a great idea.
It needs to be remembered that the Surrey Hills is not a trail centre!!

Am I the only one thinking as selfishly??

Dreadful idea, it’s crowded enough already with weekending Lahndaners.

Get orf moi laaaaaand.

Barry Knows what, mate? Never heard of it.

Not much info on the project there…

The proposed project, a mountain bike training area, will significantly increase the amount of visitors who stay at the Ethereley Farm campsite, which is currently adjacent to the proposed bike area. The training resource will also provide an opportunity for school and corporate groups to visit and enjoy the new facilities.

Hmmm, and how will this benefit local riders???

BUT…. I can’t help thinking that in an area that is already crowded and coming under pressure from the volume of users, that bringing more people into the area may not be a great idea.
It needs to be remembered that the Surrey Hills is not a trail centre!!

Am I the only one thinking as selfishly??

+1, don’t worry! Not quite sure what a MTB training area would entail, there’s plenty of trails to learn on already!

This has made my day, a mountain bike training centre in the surrey hills… 😆

God I’m glad I don’t live there anymore…

I’m all for encouraging people to take up riding bikes, but riding up Holmbury Hill a few weeks ago I encountered three different skills courses within a very small area of trail. I didn’t recognise any of the instructors which made me wonder if these were new courses. In fact the different courses all appeared to be getting in each others way as it is. The place does appear to be becoming very well used to say the least so I do see peoples points of view.

It is only a small area of land that is usually ridden after all.

By corporate groups, do they mean the coachloads of mtb novices that you see pulling up at Llandegla for team building days? 😕

And what if they eat all the cheese straws?

And what if they eat all the cheese straws?

Would give the shop another excuse for a price rise!! Still – I’d probably do the same given their captive market and they are very good!!

Hey HeiHei.- I got that 08 Hei Hei in the end . Quick little bikes , 60mm stems gotta go though far too twitchy for me .
STM

Ha ha – good on you! My id predates it by a good few years though – a 96 vintage ti Hei Hei hardtail.

Cheese straws are amazing.

They had a pork and leek slice in there a few weeks back that I ate in the middle of a 30 miler. It was quite an experience.

With heihei on this. I haven’t ridden the area for months, certainly not on a Sunday and I live 15 mins away albeit by car . Last time I was shocked to see the erosion in general, and visited a few of the tucked away techy trails, even those had been straight lined where people couldn’t ride them, so decided to plough an easy line through the undergrowth, rather than keep to the natural.

I’ll probably get flamed for saying that(as last) but that is how it is. 🙁

No way i’m going to vote for this (i’ll vote for another one). The place is overcrowded as it is, all the old trails have been ruined by over use already.

Trail creep and general erosion are certainly problems, but that more people will come to Surrey Hills is inevitable – and a good thing. Good for those that come and enjoy, good for the rural economy.

What is a good idea is projects that make the situation more sustainable – like the BKB initiative for example. Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty are very much in agreement, and have provided funding. Hurtwood Control are positive thinking and have provided resources and good will to enable Yogurt Pots to be made sustainable, and have also acknowledged the “legacy” network of singletrack.

The Leith Hill situation has similar broad support from several quarters, including The National Trust. If something does get off the ground at Etherley Farm then it will be part of a joined-up positive approach. Training, especially of novices, has got to be a good thing – riding responsibly and leaving no marks are very much at the heart of what we do, certainly.

As for a proliferation of training activities, well provided everyone is acting responsibly I can’t really see a problem. We are the original company (notwithstanding quite a few that have set up in a small way over the years and gone away again) operating from Holmbury, and very much a local business. Villages need an economy – they aren’t just places that other people drive to come and look at, they are communities that need some commerce. This is a stance that Surrey Hills AONB certainly supports – when we look after groups of kids from inner London, or teach novice mountain bikers how to get their mtb kicks safely and sustainably, or help out maintaining the official trails, etc etc then they are very supportive.

Does leith hill really have much of a rural economy that depends on biking? I can only think of a couple of pubs, and peaslake store as benefiting from the biking… the area is one of the richest in the country – have you seen the price of houses? We’re not talking a ex coal mining welsh valley here.

You acknowledge that trail erosion and ‘creep’ (what does this mean? the transition of singletrack into double track?) is a problem but say it’s inevitable. Is it? I’m sure that there will be some organic growth assuming MTBing stays popular, but actively driving more use into the area is only going to add to these problems and isn’t sustainable in my view.

Maybe i’ve got rose tinted hindsight here, but the ‘sustainable’ trails on Leith and Holmbury aren’t a patch on the original versions – though I accept the work had to be done (and helped out with BKB a couple of times) due to the influx in use. The more people that ride the area is just going to result in an ever increasing number of trails becoming sanitised motorways.

To use an analogy, if a shopping bag is full, you don’t keep filling it up until it bursts…

Probably won’t matter what anyone votes………….it will all have been decided already by a bunch of connecteds at the masonic meeting several thursdays ago………..this is Britain you know………….. free fair and open don’t get a look in.

Never been the same since those bloody Normans took over

Long live Eadric Silvaticus and the resistance fighters