GT & Inners XC Trail Deterioration…

They look like they were fixed quickly, but nobody has bothered  to remove the signs- its been 6 months!

Trail centres are still massively popular, they’re brilliant especially for kids and getting riders into the sport.

I think that’s the problem. They have become places for family days out with a bit of exercise rather than places for mountain bikers to go. This is certainly where the development money seems to have gone both at Cannock and CyB. This change in focus means they are become less attractive to the people they were originally targeted as ie your average mountain biker

Took a trip down to GT for the first time in about 2 years yesterday – lots of changes, not all of them to my preferences, but lots of people riding, and the car parks were all pretty full. Spooky Woods and the other red descents feel a bit chunkier and less flowy than when they were rebuild a few years ago, but still fun to ride. Cafe is dire, both in terms of quality and speed of service, and the infrastructure has a ‘corporate’ vibe that’s night and day compared to Comrie Croft. It did make me wonder if the future of trail centres lies more with a proliferation of independent organisations, rather than through the FLS behemoth with ‘suits’ and master plans?

Are we sure this is a master plan though? It feels very much like a fag packet quick scribble…I struggle to see what is ‘master’ about it? Master, to me suggests it is 1 large plan that is going to last for a very very long time, none of what seems to have happened or is happening seems to be long term stuff…

Its years (decades!?) since I’ve done the Scotland option, and I have considered going back a number of times in the past 3 years but I keep putting it off – and to be blunt – the reason is that I keep reading on here that its all a bit of a state.

I totally get that if you just want to ride the marked trail centers but if you like your enduro type trails, the wider Tweed Valley is absolutely amazing and definitely worth the visit. If I was taking someone around the area the only trails I’d show them in GT are the off-piste and new ones, but there are days of riding in some amazing places, all on Trailforks. Basing opinions of the valley on the FC trails is a mistake IMO (if you have green/blue trail level riders with you I’d agree with your assessment!)

The GT off piste trails are amazing fun, best in the whole place imho. Thunderstruck is getting some work done to it hopefully to improve the drainage by the looks of it…one of my favourite trails for a “not quite golfie” experience.

Master, to me suggests it is 1 large plan that is going to last for a very very long time, none of what seems to have happened or is happening seems to be long term stuff…

Disclaimer – not been to GT for years although I’d love to go back there.

Master plan is (supposed to be) a long-term look and they can take years to come to fruition but they are also incredibly vulnerable to funding cuts and changes in management / political will. Long-term funding is near non-existent now in lots of public sector, it’s all bidding for scraps of funding pots that then have to be used immediately with no clear indication that you’ll get more so, while you can have the best Master Plan in the world, it’ll fall to bits if – 2 years into it – whichever body is providing the funding suddenly ceases to exist or redirects funds elsewhere or has its own funding cut off.

I’ve no idea what that situation is at GT in terms of funding but that summary ^^ is happening in public sector all over the country.

You really need a 4yr funding cycle with absolutely committed funds split between capital (new projects so things like new trails, new infrastructure) and revenue (which is for maintenance of existing infrastructure. Even that can be screwed by one big storm or bad winter which wrecks a new bit of trail that’s just had £100,000 spent on it and you need to go back and spend another £70,000 making it good again; that’s £70k of your revenue funding that was earmarked for elsewhere that now no longer exists.