...looks like it is getting closer as they have now started their consultation.
The knock on effects of this should bring the Inners chairlift a bit closer too.
That is all.
"The knock on effects of this should bring the Inners chairlift a bit closer too."
😀 Even better if I can get some work out if it too 😉
Was it you that started a thread asking about the chances of getting into the mtb industry and working in the borders? If so, you'll still need to join the back of a very long queue for that one. 😀
wind powered chair lift?
"raise the main sail Mr Christian!"
Part of the deal to build the wind farm apparently pays for the chair lift or a fairly big chunk of it.
"Was it you that started a thread asking about the chances of getting into the mtb industry and working in the borders? If so, you'll still need to join the back of a very long queue for that one. [:D] "
I wish ! I do ground investgations and have worked on windfarm sites before, would be fantastic to work on the inners chairlift 😀
Huh?
This thread had loads more posts on it did it not?
No chance of a chairlift at Innerleithan. The financial case makes no sense whatsoever. It includes for example 1000 tourists a week every week going up to see the view paying £7 a time - that is really going to happen if there is a windfarm. It also states every DHer in the UK will go there 20 weekends a year and more MTBers will use the chairlift than currently visit the tweed valley.
Smee - MemberPart of the deal to build the wind farm apparently pays for the chair lift or a fairly big chunk of it.
Really? where d you get that from. Evidence please
Its a dead duck
Teej - that was a separate thread (Whistler vs Tweed Valley)
TJ - that has always been how they were going to fund it.
Evidence Smee - evidence. How about you back up your ridiculous assertions with some evidence.
This was not in any of the documents I saw. I really can see an electricity company paying millions for a chair lift as part of planning permission. anyway having a windfarm will kill the tourism aspect of it.
Druidh - ta - I thought I had finally lost the plot totally
It wasn't in any documents you saw - so that means that it can't be happening. My mistake, I'd forgotten you were the oracle. 🙄
I doubt very much that a windfarm would kill the tourism aspect of it when you consider that by far the biggest proportion of people come here to ride bikes.
Smee - stop being an offensive numpty. I said it wasn't in the documents I saw not that it was not in any documents about funding for the chairlift so I would like to know where you get your information from.
Tourism - one of the proposed revenue streams is to have hundreds of tourists - not bikers - going up there paying £7 for the privilege -do you really think they will do that if the view is of a windfarm?
I can't find the main documents I saw but how about this?
"All sounds good so far, although some of the market research backing the plan up seems perhaps a little bit iffy. Having interviewed over 1,500 people, the consultants have concluded[b] that 7% of the population "undertake mountain biking". Taken nationally, that would suggest that there are 4.25 million mountain bikers in the UK,[/b] which leads us to wonder where they're all hiding. Apparently 1.3 million mountain bikers live within a four-hour drive of Innerleithen, and while we'd love to believe that, we can't help thinking that that figure relies on a somewhat loose definition of "mountain biker". Focussing on the definite enthusiasts reveals that[b] downhillers would use a lift at Innerleithen an impressive 23 times a year on average,[/b] although it's not clear whether a "time" means a day or if, say, a week-long trip counts as only one "time". "
"The new bike park plan is described as being "fully commercial", which suggests that it's supposed to pay for itself although clearly it's going to need some substantial funding to get off the ground in the first place."
From http://www.innerleithen.tv/forums/topic-36799-innerleithens-chairlift-plan
also the same article is on bike magic
TJ - from where I am sitting it is you that is being the offensive numpty.
Just been looking at some figures actually. Based on a larger farm (27 turbines) with a local income of £81k pa, a smaller 12 turbine farm at Minch Moor might only generate a local income of around £36k pa. That doesn't sound like very much. Of course, that would be supplemented by lift fees, but I can't see that £36k pa makes it that much more attractive in the great scheme of things.
TJ - you could site a dozen turbines at the right bit of the Cairngorm plateau and they'd not be seen by the tourists at the Ptarmigan, so I don't see that one precludes the other.
I wish ! I do ground investgations and have worked on windfarm sites before, would be fantastic to work on the inners chairlift
Andy, so far as I am aware, a chunk of SI has already been done for the chairlift down by the river and the lower slopes of the hill, but as always there could be another phase of investigations and I'm sure there'll be further work up the hill required. What sort of work do you do? Do you run competitor rigs or the like?
Smee - please tell me the source of your information. Or did you make it up?
TJ - we get this newsletter posted through the door each month. It contains the community councils minutes and other local goings on.
Then there was the letter that came from the folk that are planning the windfarm....
Dream on boy. It ain't gonna happen.
Right you are old man.
Oi TJ where is [i]your[/i] evidence? You seem to be quoting from another website, hardly quality evidence?
[i]Evidence TandemJermey - evidence please.[/i]
Perhaps you have the Scottish Border Tourist Stategy 2009/10 to hand and to link. Or maybe some reports that were quoted on the internet blog site that you have linked above? (e.g. the actual presentation made by the Tourism Resources Company)
Since when was innerleithen.tv definitive? You'd be better off asking grannies in the tea shops than believing anything published on that link. Did you write it?
I'm looking forward to the local consultation on Tuesday but can't see me walking away happy. The proposed site covers part of (half) the XC route and the Southern Upland Way, from an outdoorsy point of view, what else has this end of the Tweed got going for it if not easy access to some great tracks and trails? Certainly not a chairlift yet!
I can't see a windfarm reducing tourism/use of a chairlift much...I like em and last time I was riding in Wales and saw some, I stopped to take a photo of the view. I can't be the only wierdo as a couple of other people stopped to take a look and make a comment about them. (not negative, just pointing it out the their mates as something of interest.
TJ, look up www.walkerburn.com/ , if this doesn't work, put " burning issue walkerburn " into google etc, for the latest up-to-date community, police and council topics in the Walkerburn metropolis. I think that this is the newsletter that Smee is referring to.
Tourism - one of the proposed revenue streams is to have hundreds of tourists - not bikers - going up there paying £7 for the privilege -do you really think they will do that if the view is of a windfarm?
One of the positive aspects of windfarms [i]can be[/i] the attraction of tourists .
[url= http://www.bwea.com/media/news/tourism.html ]evidence evidence evidence[/url]. can provide journals on it too, if required.
Your neck of the woods - Dirt issue 81, headtube.
"Dis you see all the quarrying going on at Innerleithen during the last two races, 100ft tall piles of stone ready for the footings of the chailift"
Now even if 100ft is an exageration, that a lot of stone to be ordering for no reason if TJ's rght?
I don't think there is even a planning application in yet
TJ - You are so far behind the times with this....
TJ - do you ever even ride at innerleithen? why you are so interested in argueing your point on these threads eludes me.
thisisnotaspoon - You clueless noob 🙄
lol at the quote from Dirt! Like the sole purpose of any quarrying at Innerleithen is for bikers 🙂
no idea how accurate dirt is/was, just quoting what I read.
only downside to a chairlift i can see is that its going to result in even more race's being held at Innerleithen. May as well scrap the NPS and add an extra category to the SDA events!
GW - I have ridden innerleithan XC a few times.
I keep on debating about the chairlift it because its pie in the sky and Smee and others are talking such tripe about it. There is absolutly zero chance of it getting built. The financial case is rubbish, there is no planning application lodged yet, there is no funding in place.
However I will shut up about it now.
WTF's innerleithen XC got to do with a chairlift? 🙄
of course it's pie in the sky, but you really don't know very much about it either way, you're just coming across as determined to get a chance to call smee an arse and will argue whether you know what you're talking about or not.
thisisnotaspoon - Are you by any chance a reletively new reader of "Dirt"? - "innerleithen chairlift" has been an ongoing joke in Jon's wee column since he started writing it for them back in the '90s
aww c'mon boys dont stop now iv`e just got a cuppa.....
i thought i just heard smee say something about your mum TJ.
been reading since about issue 40 or so.
I always presumed it was the truth!
GW - MemberWTF's innerleithen XC got to do with a chairlift?
Because the proposal included extensions to the existing XC track plus additional easier routes to encourage more users.
of course it's pie in the sky, but you really don't know very much about it either way, you're just coming across as determined to get a chance to call smee an arse and will argue whether you know what you're talking about or not.
I think that's working both ways. seems like anyone arguing it's not going to happen is branded as "anti-chairlift", whereas I don't think that's the case.
It's also worth noting that detailed planning permission for the windfarm hasn't yet been submitted either, and since it might straddle both the existing XC route and the SUW RoW, that's not a foregone conclusion.
spoon - issue 40 of Dirt is over 6 years of missed copies, so I'd imagine you've missed a lot of the..er.. oh, so funny "in-jokes" over the years 😉
Druidh - didn't realise TJ had a "minder" these days :roll:, he cannae even spell the place properly 😆
GW - thats right - mock the afflicted. Not my fault I cannot spell 😉
ah, hiding this one away on the chat forum eh?
the windfarm cash ain't going to to pay for the chairlift either.
Vattenfall have not committed to spend anything on the chairlift and their application has not been approved anyway.
There has been no planning application submitted for the chairlift as yet, however, a substantial amount of funding is in place should it go ahead.
Source: Me! All in the public domain though.
If I had a pound for every mention of the Innerleithen chairlift quest I'd be rich. I'd still not invest in a chairlift though 🙂
Its an MTB'ers pipedream which has been talked to death but never done. Reason? Its not commercially viable. Proof? If it was as lucrative as everyone seems to think it would be it would be in place making money right now.
It would serve one purpose - to ferry bikers to the top of a hill to come back down. There is no other commercial aspect of this that would make money and the "tourism" thing is a load of balls. There was a big hoo haa a year or so back when the Glentress visitor figures were announced and it was subsequently noted that the methodology used to calculate visitor numbers was balls. IF GT numbers are inflated then inners is hardly going to outstrip that to make enough money to interest a 3rd party in spending thousands if not millions on a chairlift.
It pains me to say it but TJ is right 😉
the bus seems to work pretty well at inners
TJ perhaps you should have a try, see what all the fuss is about?
I was talking to some people at a ski lift, can't remember if it was one in Sweden or France but they sell more tickets in one day for the winter season than the whole summer season for bikers. I could imagine it would not pay for itself.
Maybe they could compliment the bikes with a ski centre? 🙂 Actually they have one in Sweden at a similar latitude [url= http://www.vallasen.se/index.php3?use=publisher&id=1&lang=1 ]vallåsens ski park[/url] that does biking in the summer and snow canons in the winter.
Always seemed to me that the main issue with a lift at Innerleithen isn't really the money- silly money gets thrown at projects like this after all- it's the fact that it's not a particularily massive descent, it's only 300 metres or so isn't it? About half that of the nevis range gondola lift. And it's not brilliantly located either, poor public transport etc.
Davidrussel wrote,"Its not commercially viable. Proof? If it was as lucrative as everyone seems to think it would be it would be in place making money right now."
That's right, because everything that can possibly make money has already been done. Not a very compelling argument. No less compelling than EVIDENCE EVIDENCE EVIDENCE mind 😉
so where would a chairlift start? cos if it's the floodplain (i.e. carpark level) then no chance. that's why there's no visitor centre (flood risk - no council would give consent i'd say)
Has anyone got any ideas how much a lift would cost? It can't be that expensive, just a few pylons, some cable and an engine room.
>Maybe they could compliment the bikes with a ski centre?<
Comparing Innerleithen with other 'resorts' in Europe is an exercise in pure fantasy - 99.99% of Alpine resorts have existing lift infrastructure, vertical elevation and winter sports. IL has none of these...
>Has anyone got any ideas how much a lift would cost?<
£2m for starters and >£12m in todays money to realise the full scheme:
Page 24 makes interesting reading.
Three points really:
1. Where are the PRIVATE SECTOR champions of this scheme?
2. Is public sector funding likely to be forthcoming?
3. Is venture capital funding likely to be forthcoming? This needs point 2 to happen
IMO the public sector cannot and will not take a punt on this, we no longer have fantasists at places like the Bank of Scotland and the public sector certainly can't afford to do a Ratho and bail it out when it all goes pear shaped
Also - I dont believe any of the figures in that report took account of the fact the FC themselves were building a not insignificant development just up the road.
Wonder how much the GT development is currently running over budget...
Also remember that if it is in someones 'strategy', then 'viability' is often pretty irrelevent - and vica versa...
For a good example of this, just look at Ford (or GM) and their European 'purchases'. Or probably most things that government/councils do - NHS Spine project?
I think TJ has given us definite proof that it will go ahead and will be lauded to the heavens by the scottish parliament.
TandemJeremy - Member (and local savant :lol:)
There is absolutly zero chance of it getting built. The financial case is rubbish, there is no planning application lodged yet, there is no funding in place.
I stand by that Kev - it is a complete fantasy. No finbancial case, no planning application,not viable
Sorry TJ was meant to be tongue in cheek, if the financial case is rubbish and there is no indication of planning permission. It sounds like the perfect SNP project, think of it as a trams for inners 😮
it's obvious isn't it? the wind turbines are to be connected directly to the driveshaft of the cable that pulls the chairs up the mountain.
kevonakona - Member
Sorry TJ was meant to be tongue in cheek, if the financial case is rubbish and there is no indication of planning permission. It sounds like the perfect SNP project, think of it as a trams for inners
For those with selective/defective memories, the Edinburgh trams project was NOT an invention of the SNP. In fact, they tried to cancel it when they got into power, but the other parties voted it through.
Onion this is an internet forum, since when did we let things such as fact get in the way of a good thread.
What do you want from me man?? Actual real facts?!?
😯
😆
We all know who's idea the trams were:
[url]
(Downfall vid refering to the trams)
Excellent! I'd not seen that
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