[Closed] Rushup edge resurfacing

I'll do that in a bit.

Have a look at DCC on Facebook. There is barely a single thread on there that hasn't got a comment about this on it.

Keep chiseling away at the facade, people. Keep it clean, keep it succinct, but most of all keep it all over there, all the time. I wish I was more web-literate sometimes. #thestrawthatbrokethecamelsback#

Once the top dressings on and compacted thats going to take a long time to return to the natural bedrock, if ever. Looks like a buttery front wheel accident waiting to happen as it is now...

[img] [/img]

They consider "outdoor recreation" to be a sort of Centre Parcs style affair where British Family Robinson turn up in their X5, pay £5 to park, hire 4 "mountain bikes" and potter off for a 5 mile bimble round the lake on wide gravelled waymarked routes then come back and spend lots of money at the overpriced car park café before driving off home again.

That's spot on. This is the kind of thing they like. A 'project'. Oh yes! Hang on, no. A [b]VISION[/b].

[img] [/img]

Possibly with card payment turnstiles when you go from one 'leisure zone' to the next.

Idiots.

I had a quick count - there were at least 60 Facebook posts, not sure how to count the tweets - someone will be busy on Monday

As for FOI, you need follow this link

http://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/global/publication_scheme/default.asp

that just looks like the FC's vision of Delamere Forest

I've been doing some google searches on "rushup edge" + "forum" "ramblers" "surface" etc etc and using the google date filters for "this week" "this month" etc to see if any other usergroups are talking about this,

so far i've found

http://www.lichfieldanddistrictramblers.org.uk/

who have a campaign on there main page

"Campaign: Save Chapelgate Lane

Help save Chapelgate on Rushup Edge between Edale and Chapel-En-Le Frith from damage by 4x4s by clicking this link."

which links to

http://e-activist.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=117&ea.campaign.id=21274

4x4s are already banned from chapel gate and roych clough.

OK, not sure if this went to the right place but it was the only contact I could find. No idea what the hell I am actually talking about but am as pissed off with all this as people who actually use the route. Hope it makes someone think.

this is what I sent to DCC
"Hi, it has been brought to my attention that an area of natural beauty has recently been destroyed. Nature has, after years of general awesomeness, created a landscape that was as interesting to walk, run, and ride as it was to just simply look at. I have now seen pictures of materials being dumped over this natural landscape hiding it’s beauty from site. Gone are those beautifully sculpted stones, smoothed over years of natural erosion and footfall, never again will an artist, photographer or even a visitors minds eye be able to record or recall this natural beauty.

Anyway, that’s the whimsical prose out of the way and so to my point, I would like to know the financial ins and outs relating to the work carried out at Rushup Edge, how much did it cost, how did you decide to spend the money here rather than on the many dangerous potholes in the roads, how many teachers could you have funded with the money you have spent on destroying gods countryside.

That’s all.

Enjoy your week

John"

I may have had a couple of glasses of wine

😉 They respond asking for clarification on what exact figures you would like.

OK, so what figures do I want? I have no idea, I am now on my third glass

This is the most used walking forums I can find, anyone fancy signing up to see what the walkers think about the desecration, I can't find any walking forums, anywhere, even discussing it. Are the masses even aware?

http://www.forum.walkersforum.com/viewforum.php?f=35

http://www.walkingforum.co.uk/index.php?PHPSESSID=6e7e6d80f5f2d58abc1593c5238ce5c1&board=13.0

[url= http://www.peakhorsepower.co.uk/download/i/mark_dl/u/4008949381/4598476862/Peak%20Horspower%20Legislationreport(final).pdf ]interesting reading[/url]

Chapel gate and roych are mentioned around page 10.
Looks to me like peak horsepower are quite influential.

^ sure I remember reading somewhere last year that a senior councillor at DCC was heavily involved with Peakpower*

* I may have this wrong! it may have been another organisation so please don't quote me but if anyone else can remember and find the link?

They are indeed, as is the BHS to which they belong.

and peakMTB have done what? We need a national organisation to sort out issues like this. I have not had a drink and I am absolutely ****ing livid! Horse riders and ramblers get looked after and we keep getting shafted, facebook posts and a picnic are just not cutting it with me, we should be obstructing the workers on Monday from finishing this desecration.

aracer - Member
One slightly outside the box thing to do is to make them use up their repair budget so they have no money for this. How to do that? Report lots and lots of potholes in real roads.

I've just reported 5,000 potholes on the Mam Tor old road
Makes it sound worse than Blackburn

Could be a laugh though, just send them a picture and grid reference 😈

johnj2000 - Member
it has been brought to my attention that an area of natural beauty has recently been destroyed. Nature has, after years of general awesomeness, created a landscape that was as interesting to walk, run, and ride as it was to just simply look at.

That's the nub of it.

Ultimately we shouldn't be aggrieved as cyclists we should be upset as tax payers.
There's not a person alive who would put these works ahead of hospital repairs.
When I put this to the council their excuse was that it comes from a different pot and needs spending. This from the same council who had their car park resurfaced and bottle bank bins repainted in march so they used up their allowances for the year. The whole thing stinks.
These people are pissing our money up the wall.

Amen MrOvershoot! Now on the Port

[quote=iain1775 ]I've just reported 5,000 potholes on the Mam Tor old road

Very good 🙂 Unfortunately I think that's been declassified so they're not obliged to fix those.

Regarding the destruction of an area of natural beauty, I've had a google, but not really an expert on this sort of thing - does anybody know if there are any laws which DCC might be breaking regarding this? Probably not something they're going to have missed, but it has to be worth a look.

and peakMTB have done what?

We need a national organisation to sort out issues like this.

Steady folks. Don't start turning on each other. That will play right into the hands of the swine. Remember this is not just about us, they are ****ing up a nice piece of countryside for no reason other than their view of the world versus ours. And by 'ours' I mean all who can enjoy the countryside without having a bark chip path to walk along in our crocs.

DCC are the enemy.

fasternotfatter - Member
and peakMTB have done what?

That is a very valid question and one I am happy to try and answer. It formed at the end of 2013 after coming into existence at the request of a PDNPA member to provide local input from MTBers into a proposed cycle route down the Hope Valley.

It took 3 months to find our feet and identify the people we needed to engage with, as we had widened our remit after Chapel Gate was 'sanitised'. We had a long meeting with DCC in March and we genuinely believed we had opened the door to working with them. We were promised copies of repair schedules, input into what was being done and that we would be consulted. DCC even agreed to speak at a meeting of a MTBers if we organised it. Over the summer they stopped responding,

We tried to work through PDNPA but it became clear that although they talk a good game, they have no power at all because they abdicated highways responsibility to DCC.

So at the end of the summer we had identified who the protagonists were, including other organisations - Ride Sheffield, Peak Horsepower, NFU, PDNPA and DCC. We had done a number of dig days to repair drainage on trails and formed a good relationship with the ranger in that area. We have identified some options to link up bridleways to create some nice long loops and then this happened. So we have thrown lots of time energy and effort into helping raise awareness of this, promoting the protest, contacting the media and supporting Esther get the picnic protest rolling.

This has been done with a small committee of 6 people which dropped to 4 during the summer. Each of these people has a full time job and squeezes this into balancing work, family and MTB. PDMTB has no funds at all, everything is voluntary.

Other than that we've just wasted time and drunk tea.

Hope that helps. 😀

www.derbyshire.gov.uk/council/news_events/news-updates/2014/october/older_people_to_work_with_us_on_budget_cut_solutions.asp

Don't spend £70,000 on sanitising bridleways?

I've just made a FOI request to DCC asking how many people use public rights of way in the PDNP and how many of these have been injured, made a claim or been successful in making claim.

Hopefully, this will show that risk/benefits of sanitising trials is not worth it from the point of view of protecting DCC from a claim.

Oh sod it. Let's just head up there, pick the rocks up and lob over the fence! Seriously, if we get enough people up there in one go we can have that lot stripped in a few hours.

I'm not trolling here and have made this observation before but DCC and PDNP appease the organizations that have no clout or say, they allude to give some small wins nothing More

A lot of us have been biking in greno and the peak for 20 years and even when I ran a shop in Sheffield and there were shop rides there was never a need to needle the council.

In three years they have shown limited interest and paid lip service to mtbers as a group

rogerthecat

Keep at it. These relationships and trust take time to build. Timescales on projects like this are always longer than you think and the council/park/etc officers won't bother with 'fly by night' organisations that appear and disappear overnight.

Who is Lord Podgington III on the Peak MTB FB page? There's an ongoing discussion, which I genuinely think is pretty restrained considering the issue, and he's describing us as "abusive". We have no hope 🙁

It's podge I presumed

I don't know who podge is either but I've replied to him, but I feel very pessimistic about the future of MTB in the Peak District 🙁

He appears to be acting as Devils advocate.
It's helpful to see how the other side might view us maybe?

[url= http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2461217 ]This[/url] is a good example of how the "other side" view us:
[i]"This particular bridleway has been transformed from a quiet forgotten way twenty years ago to a highway used by large numbers of mountain bikers (using the route legally) racing and attempting to hit speeds of 20mph plus on the long gradual downhill gradient with little regard for the safety of pedestrians who do not hear them coming."[/i]
[i]"Not a safe place on a Sunday if you are a walker with hearing problems."[/i]

I shall now look forward to riding it at 20mph - instead of my current 2mph 🙄

Esme where is the route?

Anyone know the details of the mountain biker incident on Stanage? Was it the long causeway?

EMRT incident 90 on 25 Oct 2014.

Would be interested to know if it was in any way related to the resurfacing work carried out by DCC.

Pessimistic how so....just ride your bike where and how you want, you cant stop every biker doing that

And yes it's Podge, just being the awkward squad but it does help clarify our position. Occasionally he does make an interesting point, wrong, but interesting. 😀

As someone who also enjoys walking in the Peak District, I can appreciate that there are hundreds of footpaths for walkers, and if I choose to walk on a Bridleway or BOAT, I have to be prepared to share it with other legitimate users. Why do some people have trouble understanding that?

Roger, it's Rushup Edge. Just scroll down the page and you'll see the location on an OS map.
Loads of photos on the [url= http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php ]Geograph[/url] website, divided into gridsquares. Very useful when planning rides (and walks).

Um, sometimes actions do speak louder than words. Perhaps Mattrgee has a point!

Lobbing the rocks over the wall just undermines our argument, and potentially pisses off the landowner/tenant by dumping a couple of tonnes of rubble on his land. Tempting I know, but it gives them ammunition.

Podge used to like riding bikes but fell out of love with it. Hes not a walker. Hes inbetween camps- just sits frustrated and angrily posting veiled-anti riding messages.. 😀

Sanitising trails leads to more riders on 'foot'paths. Nowt walkers can do about that as its not a criminal offence.

👿

very sad 🙁

johnj2000 - Member

Amen MrOvershoot! Now on the Port

So how's the head today?

Esme - the accident was on Stanage Long Causeway.

Have to say that I think the time has come for more direct action. Our views and opinions clearly aren't being regarded so we need to start taking action and showing that actions like this will have consequences. Hell we don't have to clear the whole width of the route, say just half of it and dump the spoil on the other half.

Roger - sorry, but I know nothing of any accident 😕 I'm not sure what you are referring to.

Esme - Member
Roger, it's Rushup Edge. Just scroll down the page and you'll see the location on an OS map.
Loads of photos on the Geograph website, divided into gridsquares. Very useful when planning rides (and walks).
POSTED 2 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

You posted this ^^^ after I asked about Edale MRT incident 90, which it seems was on the Long Causeway. That's why I replied. I'm equally confused but that's pretty normal for me!

@pinch-flat - are you sure? Consider the consequences. Pissed off highways authority, pissed off landowner, pissed off other users - that's going to help our cause a lot. Time & place for direct action and this is neither.

Okay, I now understand Roger's posts 🙄

Esme - posted this photo of [url= http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2461217 ]Rushup Edge[/url], with comments from a rambler
Roger - [i]"Esme where is the route?"[/i]
Esme - [i]"Roger, it's Rushup Edge. Just scroll down the page and you'll see the location on an OS map."[/i]
Roger - [i]"Esme - the accident was on Stanage Long Causeway."[/i]
Esme - [i]"Roger - sorry, but I know nothing of any accident. I'm not sure what you are referring to." [/i]

And with that, I'm going outside to play. Good luck with your protest tomorrow!
(Sorry for boring everyone else . . . )

Oh and there was an accident yesterday somewhere else in the Peak District. Good wishes to the rider involved, for a speedy recovery.

From the MRT FB page
Incident 90 - Saturday 25th October 2014 11:35hrs
As the team were carrying out their aspirant assessment weekend, as usually occurs we decided to make it a little more realistic. We were called to assist the ambulance service with a mountain biker that had taken a tumble whilst on the causeway from Stanage Edge to Dennis Knoll car park. Due to the team being out they responded quickly and treated the biker for head, chest and pelvic injuries. He was carried by stretcher to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance for transfer to the major trauma centre in Sheffield.

"Land owner"

Do you think someone like United Utilities would give a ****?

Where has playing nice got us so far? Just more routes destroyed and replaced with eye sores- christ you can see chapel gate as a scar on the landscape for miles around. We're not listened to, considered or respected so why shouldn't we take more direct action? I know PDMTB have been trying hard to work things out but clearly DCC don't give a toss so why should we let them bulldoze everything. Perhaps if they kept having to waste money on repairing routes that they had bulldozed they'd start to consider if there was an alternative option.

We need to point out that smoother surfaces will attract chavs and their devil spawn on their kiddie motorbikes.
Probably not true but should make them hate someone more than us.

Someone told me to avoid riding on WLT.

So just let the thousands of walkers slip, slide and trample along it.

I will take non-destructive direct action by lying down in the path of the bulldozers! 😛

Oh, I don't know zippykona, somebody was doing exactly that on Totley Moss just on from the gate near the Froggatt junction on Thursday when I passed. Coincidentally that part of the track has been 'improved' recently.
Cause and effect obviously.

I have been out on the High Peak Trail this morning - you ought to see what the PDNPA have done between Green Lane and Friden, smooth as a snooker table and as wide as a country lane! Public authority vandalism at its worst

tinfoil hat on tinfoil hat on

DCC are doing this in an attempt to drive gravel bike and cyclocross bike sales

MTB is dead

Just back in from riding Rushup Edge today (twice). The sections they've not started work on were just as enjoyable as ever. Shame it will soon be no more. Although, I'm hoping (and I know it's an extremely slim chance) that with all the noise that is being created and hopefully some media coverage this week the work will at least be halted.

I did something that I don't ever do today ... I rode the footpath along the ridge. It was actually the sensible option as that path is pretty hard packed, whereas the adjacent bridleway was a bogfest.

The lady from PDNPA didn't see it that way, but we exchanged a polite few words. I expressed my frustration about DCC, unnecessary work, how this will make people like me make more use of footpaths. She didn't see it my way, but at least will go back and relay our conversation. It really hit home though ... if they're not a MTBer they just don't get it. In fact one group of walkers I bored with the story of destroying an ancient path finished by saying "at least it'll be good for cyclists" 🙄

One more thing if anyone's interested. In 2000 the PRoW figures in the Peak were:

Total length of public footpath 2,136km
Total length of public bridleway 293km
RUPP & Byways Open to all Traffic 30km

Source:

Quite a small percentage of legal routes for MTBs and the efforts of DCC in recent years is squeezing that further (in terms of quality).

Well hopefully we can have open access laws like Scotland in the next few years.

Only one thing for this......mass trespass of footpaths by mountain bikers. Worked for walkers to gain some input into land management and stop poor bureaucratic decisions being made. This is ruining too many areas which are used regularly by a large group of countryside users. We are not a minority and we should stop being treated like one!

I must agree, we've by and large, played too nice for too long and its not done us any favours. Can anyone remember when Curbar Edge to Baslow got the same treatment? I just wish people had been as enraged about that back then. The rot has spread almost unnoticed since.

I do hope this results in some sort of change. If we don't start fighting back now we'll soon have nothing worth fighting for.

Oh sod it. Let's just head up there, pick the rocks up and lob over the fence! Seriously, if we get enough people up there in one go we can have that lot stripped in a few hours.

No you won't.
It'd take an army of people with pickaxes and crowbars a week to shift all that, it's hundreds of tons of baby-head rocks and it's all compacted in - they've run some heavy machinery up there.

I rode it this morning on the CX bike going up from the Rushup Edge road to the summit then down to the Mam Nick road. As a climb, all but one bit which still has some loose rocks on it is now easily clearable even on a CX bike.

As a descent it'd just be a point/shoot affair which is obviously far more dangerous as it will lead to much higher speeds.

Be aware if you do ride it as a descent, there's maybe half a dozen sections of loose baby-head rocks which they've not finished compacting which are incredibly dangerous - they'll stop a bike dead or roll under wheel and they're actually quite difficult to walk on too, they just twist under foot. You couldn't get a horse up there at the moment, it'd break a leg.

Saw two other MTBers on that section (one of them fixing an impact puncture from those loose rocks...) then a group further up on the BW side. I was on the FP side naturally. 🙂 Didn't see another soul, no wardens, no walkers.

Lots of MTBers out and about in various sections of trail though, almost all complaining bitterly about the Rushup Edge work.

I imagine this work is part of the [url= http://www.peakhorsepower.co.uk/#/kinder-loop/4564966794 ]Kinder Loop[/url] "We hope it will be enjoyed by horse riders, cyclists and walkers alike".
If so, I guess that means we can look forward to a smoother Cutgate and Potato Alley. Lantern Pike has already been resurfaced recently.

Ah well, CX and rigids seem to be gaining popularity at the moment.

Slowoldman - which part of Lantern Pike has been resurfaced? I'm not riding at the mo because I've had an op on my spine but that's one of my regular routes.

Me'n'her will be there tomorrow.

email about to be sent to the relevant people.

Roych Clough has been done right - yes it's less comitting than it used to be, but it's still entertaining for an expert(ish) rider, yet it's now capable of being ridden "on line" by novices, and also much more suitable for motorised traffic.

We talked to a good cross section of trail users today, walkers, horsists, MXers, other bikers, and a couple of local businesses. No one gets why it's being done.

Well done, [b]theonlywayisup[/b] - I shall follow your example.

I wonder if the PDNPA lady appreciates the irony of objecting to you "trespassing" on a footpath. Her employer, the Peak District National Park Authority would not even exist, but for the mass trespass of Kinder Scout (and other acts of defiance by brave ramblers).

I guess [url= http://www.mtbe.co.uk/be-careful-on-the-stanage-pole-decent-t49773.html?sid=356af8e45dfce90f70af0ead4a9ce4a8 ]this[/url] might be the accident referred to earlier. Sounds nasty

Esme - Well said

I find it surprising how many people fail to appreciate this

I must agree, we've by and large, played too nice for too long and its not done us any favours. Can anyone remember when Curbar Edge to Baslow got the same treatment? I just wish people had been as enraged about that back then. The rot has spread almost unnoticed since.

I do hope this results in some sort of change. If we don't start fighting back now we'll soon have nothing worth fighting for.

unfortunately its a divided community divided between the wanna do something more if needed and the handringers

Slowoldman - which part of Lantern Pike has been resurfaced? I'm not riding at the mo because I've had an op on my spine but that's one of my regular routes.

Didn't see any bit that had been resurfaced when I rode there yesterday

Slowoldman - which part of Lantern Pike has been resurfaced? I'm not riding at the mo because I've had an op on my spine but that's one of my regular routes.

I think the 'Lantern Pike resurfacing' is in reference to the Aspenshaw Hall bridleway that was resurfaced back in February with tarmac chippings. Can give you the location if needed.

The southern stretch down to Hayfield was smoothed out (I think last year some time).

No not Aspenhall. The stretch of the Pennine Bridleway coming down south off Lantern Pike. It used to be gnarlier than it now is.

Is anyone on here a health and safety expert? Can we ask to see the risk assessments and all that other guff that is involved with anything these days.
What about the impact the works will have on wild life?
Can you ride anywhere on the surrounding land? If not can we get up their in our fluro jackets ,hard hats, megaphones and shout at walkers who stray from the path.
We need to red tape the works to a stand still. Do workers a long way from habitation have to be provided with toilet facilities? They can't be expected to pee behind a bush.
Operation Pain In The Arse is go.

http://www.mtbe.co.uk/be-careful-on-the-stanage-pole-decent-t49773.html?sid=356af8e45dfce90f70af0ead4a9ce4a8

That sounds like like a terrible accident, grounds to remove the "fixes" they've put in place ?

Sounds like a terrible accident that could happen to any of us. I wish him a speedy recovery. However, DCC will blame it on his speed which was entirely under his control. Pretty sure "strava red mist" isn't going to do him any favours.

Gutted I can't be at the picnic but heartened by the response on here.

Wow the DCC facebook page is going to give someone a headache on Monday morn! Great work. I think the posts to page are quite well hidden on the side, so just been lolling at the replies to the main page posts! Very visible and effective 😆