[Closed] Rushup edge resurfacing

Can that surface actually be ridden on?
Surely a legitimate cycle track should have a surface that is fit for purpose.
At least most of the improvements around our way have washed away.

A nice sit-down picnic all day Monday on those lovely remaining rock steps would be just the ticket. 🙂 Wish I could make it.

Can that surface actually be ridden on?

It's rubbish at the moment, but its gonna get a topping by the sounds of it!

dannyh +1 DCC RoW dept have a history of deviousness, favouring their particular user group, rich landowners, over every other group. We need to be very careful dealing with them, as Danny says they are quite to promise anything but do little.

I'm really disappointed I won't be able to be there on Monday. Best of British to those who are going, and I really hope you get some media attention.

[b]As per Roger, please don't alienate other users and cast them as the enemy. Just look at the state of that work and imagine you are a walker who has walked that area for years, maybe even decades. They are just as likely to be appalled at the ugliness and pointlessness of it.[/b]

What DCC and PDNP want is the rural equivalent of 60's 'slum' clearance and the construction of monstrous concrete tower blocks. They want homogenized, easy to manage, 'safe' countryside. In seeking this drudgery they will succeed in actually destroying the reasons people love these areas.

Don't let these short-sighted know-it-alls win.

Well I will be joining you all on Monday.
I've been riding that track for 20 years, not all that regularly but at least a couple of times most years.
I finished uni in Sheffield in 1993 and bought my first mountain bike in 1994 once I'd started earning. The old trails like rushup that have been there for all those years are what kept me in the area. I still remember the first time I did the Jacobs loop on my rigid bike in about 1995, and I can still remember the magazine route guide description of the fantastic view from the top of rushup while getting your breath back after the climb. Flattening this is like putting a ladder on stanage edge. It makes it available to all and of interest to no-one.
My wife works in Derbyshire and we spend lots of money at local businesses. If the legal trails end up like urban cycle paths, fit for all users but of no interest to experienced walkers or mountain bikers there will be nothing keeping us in the area and we may as well move to the lakes or Elsewhere and contribute to their local economy instead.
Well done DCC

Good work with the "trespass" peachos!

The Peak District pride themselves on being a great place for outdoor recreation. They won't easily be able to justify that if the council continue to turn old trails into modern pavements.

Yes and no.
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.

Can't have anyone doing anything XTreme - that might:
be dangerous/upset the landowner/annoy the walkers/damage the wildlife*

*insert whichever fits best.

Just waiting to hear back from my manager if I can have Monday off.

I see a bleak future for our sport and us being pushed onto manmade trail centres

It does feel that way sometimes - more and more of my favourite trails in Wales, the Lakes and Peaks seem to be disappearing under ill considered 'improvements'.

The protest on Monday sounds like it is being done with all the best intentions but I don't think it will achieve a great deal. I say we get up there and remove all of the rocks they have put down. The top slabs and drops can be saved.

I've not read all this but do we know who exactly wants this doing?
The council can't have dreamt it up on their own.
Can we spy on walker\ horsey forums and see if they are excited by these works.
Are similar schemes underway on footpaths?

Zippy,
I've made a FOI request for basically costs and reasons. Every one should do this.. Tie them up in red tape.

Oh and peachos.. Good work, and a brilliant comeback. I shall use that!

So the rocks are getting a topping? Great it will be about as much fun as chapelgate. I am riding footpaths from now on and I will be digging as well, if bridleways can be sanitised why not footpaths? Nothing wrong with a few strategically placed berms and jumps 😉

How do you make a FOI request?

If it is easy enough for a numpty like me, I will.

send an email to DCC stating I request the following information.....

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 🙁