Can you help? Edinburgh charity bike park vs NIMBYS

For the last few years I’ve been involved with a group of people trying to build a pump track and MTB skills loop in an area of disused woodland in central Edinburgh (in Dumbiedykes, next to Holyrood Park).

We’ve spent a lot of years sorting out the bureaucracy and securing £150,000+ of funding. We’ve now managed to get everything in place with the lease, planning and cash and are on course to get it built this summer.

However, we have hit a snag – a very vociferous anti bike park online campaign organised by a local NIMBY.

So, I’d like to ask you to give us some support by liking our FB page and signing our online pro- bike park campaign.

Now, I won’t ask you to take it on faith that we’re right and they’re wrong, so I’ve got links to their claims and our info.

In summary they say there has been no consultation, we’re destroying wonderful greenspace, cutting down all the trees and a bike park will be a haven of crime from youths and antisocial bikers.

Our side is that we did lots of consultation, the woods weren’t too nice – lots of garbage and needles etc, we did cut down 70 trees (out of 500) but are planting 200, and that a bike park is a positive, healthy place for young people to hang out.

If you can like our page and sign our petition it would really help us out as we’re in some kind of battle of the bands, who’s got the most mates war now. If you can share the page and petition with your friends it would help massively too.

Please sign and share:

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/support-the-skelf-bikepark-on-the-southside

Anti bike park page: https://m.facebook.com/Stop-Skelf-bike-track-Preserve-our-green-spaces-Dumbiedykes-Edinburgh-1522226694748912/?rc=p

Our info page: http://theskelf.org.uk/faqs/

Our FB page: https://m.facebook.com/skelfedinburgh/

Signed and shared.

One comment, 5 seconds into this. The image on the petition page is like yoof graffiti. Fine, I get it. But it won’t help the NIMBYs who view it as a place where yoof hang out and do stuff like graffiti (and play yoof music and drink yoof drinks etc). If it were, say, woodlands with a kid looking enthusiastic on a pump track it might come across as bit more wholesome.

I shall now read the rest.

That there looks like a good plan to me!

Liked…
Signed…
Shared…

😀 😀 😀

Oh, the image I describe is the cover photography your facebook page. But the profile photo is the yoof bit.

Wow, very clever use of the word ‘developer’ by the NIMBY in question, technically I guess you are trying to develop something but that makes you sound like some sort of heartless corporate monster…

Good luck, I’m sure emotions will be running high if local folks see any change whatsoever to their local forest, I guess I’d feel the same rightly or wrongly.

Thanks guys.

Here is a pic of the woods:https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOuPnOWcortARhYzu-x1vfhsr4x-GGNbc9HLTODlrMD0dBRhxu4hstdSaQzzbwCSg?key=TlRMYWhyR2hBZUc0Qk85TkhRd3JHaGtkc0R0YjhB

Can somebody embed? Can’t sort it from the mobile

All for this!

Nice one! I love this! Signed and shared

Don’t destroy our green spaces! 😕

Signed and shared too. There’s some rabid folks on their page.

Same here. Signed n shared.

I’m guessing all that outdoors work makes people peckish.

Email me tomorrow on markdownie@2pure.co.uk and i will have some yummy in your tummy Honey Stinger goodies sent your way for thermos tea times.

Stick at it, we need more things like this happening.

^ cheers. Had one of those gels last ride I was on, really liked them!

So stoked about this project, and now this happens. Signed (and sharing tomorrow)

Article in the local paper comes out tomorrow. We’ve given all our info – interesting to see their take/spin on it

Signed and shared.

Signed.

Signed

We’ve now managed to get everything in place with the lease, planning and cash and are on course to get it built this summer.

If this is the case then it would appear the NIMBY’s actions are too late? What are your specific concerns about them?

If you want any advice on noise issues I can help

Signed.

2 questions for those more involved; they bang on about tarmac, how much actual tarmac surface are we talking about here? And how local/homegrown is the group? Just for countering the claims.

The nimbies are nutters, tbf. But as above, not the usual screeching nutters, they’re manipulative and cynical and clever. “developers” “sweetheart deals”, it’s all the language of community vs big business. Unhappy dogs, deny the consultation, selective quotes of the skelf facebook site (ie, taking a post about one volunteer session and pretending it represents the big picture), trying to make it sound like the entire area is to be tarmacced over

Oh and most of all, THIS WAS THE ONLY GREEN SPACE NEAR HOLYROOD PARK!!1!

On the plus side, they become more screechy and unpleasant when faced with polite comments and facts.

Signed.

Really looking forward to using the bike park with my kids – Edinburgh really needs this!

Signed (using my folks postcode…) Interestingly the NIMBY leaves a mobile number on their page – it would be a shame for that to be written in some public toilets somewhere….

Aaaand signed.

Signed. We’re following your model to try and build one in Hawick. Good luck guys.

Ah yeah, think we got chatting at Glentress last year while taking a break from puffing up the hill! Stay in touch and we’ll give you as much help/info as we can

Northwind – only tarmac is the pump track, everything else is gravel single track.

About 50% of us live within 1/4 mile of the woods, but everyone stays in town.

Signed. You’ve done really well to get this far and it must have involved a lot of effort. I’ve tried and given up a few times to organise something similar near to me so well done for sticking with it and I really hope it comes to fruition.

Signed/bumped.

Shame it’s come down to a petition competition given the amount of effort that has been put into consultation, planning and seeking consents for the Skelf project over the last few years.

It’s amazing how the anti-skelf stuff makes it sound like this is the only greenspace in the area and fails to mention the 260 hectares of public parkland just the other side of the wall.

I love how the NIMBYs, by way of explanation of what a pump track is, link to a video of some people using a pump track which appears to exist quite peacefully in the middle of a residential area, with nice looking apartments all around and a kids playground next door. Probably in some more enlightened corner of Europe.

Signed. Good luck!

There is a guy I know in Northumberland who works with schools and helped one organise a pump track build, yes a school with a pump track!

Whoooop whooooop pic.twitter.com/Huz1jqWJGp

— Dave Buchan (@BikeDoctorDave) January 28, 2016

If you get in touch he might have a some publicity material you could reference to support your build.

There has also been a pump track built in a North Tyneside park so this might help you also…
http://www.northtyneside.gov.uk/browse-display.shtml?p_ID=562797&p_subjectCategory=23

Pic here from twitter.

#allparksshouldhaveone #morekidsonbikes well done Northumberlanpark #bike4health pic.twitter.com/OdCVKZS75t

— Dave Buchan (@BikeDoctorDave) March 4, 2016

Signed. Good on ya OP.

Liked.

I *nearly* liked the NIMBY FB page you’d linked to in a haste fueled clickfest.

Might be worth adding a “Do not like this” disclaimer to the post 🙂

Thanks for all the support guys.

While we’re not worried about this that much – we have planning permission and funding, we’d still like to keep the local community onside. I feel we come across as the more reasonable side of it.

It’s funny really – the anti bike park people say “Hey, there’s loads that could be done with the woods”… well yeah, why didn’t you do anything then? We did. We love bikes and that gave us the motivation to go through all the hassle doing something like this entails. No-one is getting paid!

Local newspaper article came out today: http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/our-region/edinburgh/city-centre/edinburgh-mountain-bike-park-plan-hit-by-protest-action-1-4077699

Think it’s actually pretty reasonable!

A rare glimpse of NIMBYs in their natural habitat.

Pretty good article and better than usual comments off the bottom half of the page.

Judging by the comments it seems most are happy with what you’re doing. The opposition appear a lot more measured in that than they do on their Facebook page though.

It’s looking a bit close at the moment – 360 against versus 376 in favour. Need some more folks to sign!

Why does the STW news article link the antis’ petition but not the pro petition?

Signed.

I usually walk or picnic with friends in Holyrood park when I’m up in Edinburgh, and suspected those woods round the NW edge might be the site. The NIMBYs are really over-egging the amount of space it’ll take up, those woods have never seemed inviting, and I think trails there will be a real asset to the park.

Signed and shared

As with any planning thing, it’s not actually about the numbers though. It’s about what the valid case is. From what I can see the objectors don’t have much of a valid case – lots of stuff about loss of things when the plan is actually to replant and provide a better space for what they want.

The funny thing is them complaining about lack of consultation when presumably the usual planning notices were posted at the site in question. Personally anything which concerns me I’ve seen the planning notices posted at the site – if they haven’t seen the planning notices that suggests they haven’t actually visited the site before they got upset about it!

I suppose it just proves that people will object to anything, even if it’s something which objectively is unlikely to make anybody’s life worse.

Actually I’m curious – given you already have planning permission and own the land, exactly what could their petition result in even if they got thousands of signatures?