[Closed] sssi designation, west peninne moors

Someone posted this on the Rivi FB page recently, suggesting it was bad news for MTBs.

I'm not really sure that's the case though. Happy to be corrected, but I thought designations like this are more about what land management is permitted - rather than the public use?

The gov.uk link you posted mainly seems to refer to upland habitat - and I don't see riders going off the tracks across the moors. I doubt riding on FPs is gonna be subject to a sudden clampdown.

It's more recognising the value of what's already there. It won't change any rights of way. As a side note often moorland peat habitats have been artificially dried and drained over the years which is harming habitats and causing erosion and downstream flooding. There is encoragement and some grants for blocking up the drains and rewetting moorland. If, IF, such a scheme happened here it might make your trails a bit soggier but otherwise that'll be it.

I can't see it troubling the average mtber

You will notice that the bits of the west Pennines moorland screwed by wind turbine access roads aren't in the SSSI

It won't change any rights of way.

someone said the same on the fb page chakaping mentioned, fact is RoW are shite currently, stricter enforcement of those current rights - with fines? - would be a big issue for mtbers.

By who? A lot of the land is urban common anyway so lots of access challenges, quite a bit is water catchment so lots of restrictions there as well

The RoW are rubbish, but the only people expanding them are the horse riders and some work by councils. That is piece meal and small scale. The reality for mtbers is that the campaign should be to get access to footpaths and urban commons as a "reasonable accompaniment" or similar. BW upgrades are too slow and require too much effort

huge parts of the Quantocks are SSSI.

For MTB what it means is there is a no build rule in the SSSI area, but that all usual tracks etc are rideable.

This is why there is a concentrated area of permissive man made trails n the triscombe forestry commission area but "normal" riding happens elsewhere without hinderance

By who?

The reality for mtbers is that the campaign should be

Cannock is an SSSI with a trail centre in the middle of it

As above what tends to happen is that it's sympathetically managed. There are some areas that are no-go but by definition they're not near anything

Arsey Landowners and gamekeepers are still your biggest worry. There will be no 'man' from the government up on the moor with a clipboard fineing anybody.

There are probably lots of trails going through SSSIs, lots of lowland heath in the south of England for example, which has plenty of cheeky trails and rights of way (and ones near urban areas that get torched each year!). Large chunks of Swinley are also SSSI and tons of people on bikes, walking and with dogs go there every week. As above it is probably more about land management than access.

If you use existing trails respectfully then not much can change, the important habitats it protects are not the narrow strips of eroded trail, but the bits in between. Again, grumpy landowners and trail user conflict are the main issue - just as it ever was.