The council are knocking down our trails, trails that would be at home in Sheffield but that are in Hertfordshire. They consistently get knocked down. I do understand that they are “illegal” but some of them have been there for over 17 years and they have just started to knock down ONLY the newer ones.

This is what baffles me, why now? they obviously have known about them for a long while (they logged a area around a 10 pack dirt jump row and didn’t touch them, this was 5 years ago)

So, do I email the council and try to come to an agreement with them and find out why they knocked down 80+ hours of work or should we just keep rebuilding till the decide to **** off?

Pulls up chair…..

Yes, talk to the council.

Are they on council land ? Maybe you could stop digging it up if they are .It sounds like they dont mind a few jumps if they have left some but dont want to see expansion of the site ?

They’ve obviously accepted a certain size of area but no more.

Who built and maintained the existing stuff – they may already know the score.

fact is that most of the trails we’ve built are all in one area of the woods, the medium sized doubles, big drops and a slopestyle trail all in a smallish area, the rest of the trails are spread out around the woods.

Why do you think they they get knocked down?
Maybe try thinking outside your little box on this one.

Health and BLOODY SAFETY.Boring men in Suits.

I do have a few ideas as to why they got knocked down, they got a really teeny tiny bit large 😛 and that the area we built in was sandwiched between two footpaths (non of them leading to the trails i might add)

Build smaller jumps, make them a little less obvious, and just accept that you don’t live in whistler?.

Or, talk to the council.

Build smaller jumps, make them a little less obvious, and just accept that you don’t live in whistler?.

Or, talk to the council. it’s not that they are big, 15ft, 25ft, 30ft and 32ft..

Its harsh seeing work being ruined by councils and forestry commissions. The STW cliche responses above about “duh obviously you’re not meant to be building here so how about dont” are predictable and obviously written by people who don’t build trails.

Without REBELS like you giving it a go, biking could become a very sanitised sport. Just dig, maybe build rougher so you don’t invest as much effort in case they get ruined again. It’s frustrating.

Mate of mine have just been through this with an old established jump site in South Bucks that was going to be turned over. While it was a clusterf**k to sort it out it was well worth it. We now have an approved site where we can largely dig to our hearts content. Get in touch with the landowners, hopefully it is the Forestry Commission, and start a dialogue about ensuring that jumps are built to a proper standard. They can be remarkably helpful – our lot were. In fact, the key issue was ensuring that someone responsible was “managing” the area, which largely means stopping idiots building poor jumps and picking up the litter every now and then. Good luck with it.

Rebels? FFS?

Land and trail access is hard enough as it is without this sort of attitude.

Take a look at the Surrey hills, where local trail advocacy groups have worked really hard and well to build a solid infrastructure and relationships with landowners.
As above, you don’t live in Whistler.

The owners are the council.. managed by them too..

In their mind maybe the old trails are stable whereas the new trails may be built out of rotten wood and red bull cans.

Talk to them ffs. That’s what happened in Sheffield.

Maybe it’s the wildlife?

http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/rodborough-common-bike-jumps-opened-7571729

ASk a grown up to help you.

The rebel was highlighted to emphasise the attitude of some towards those who just start trails. I.e. overly dramatic. If every trail had to go through a rigorous project cycle we’d have a fraction of the trails currently available. There are a lot of people who ‘just build’, and I applaud them, especially compared to number of people in the sport who have never swung a pick into the ground let alone cleared a fallen branch.