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Exciting times for the tweed valley. Looks like the finding is going ahead! "£13 million will be attributed to the construction of the MTB Innovation Centre Building and £6 million will foot the bill for construction of a bike park." Seems like the amounts should be the other way around!
Wow!
Seems like the amounts should be the other way around!
Sounds enterprise based so probably not. This isnt a trail centre hub they're building.
Good news either way.
Fabulous!
Brilliant news.
Let's hope they pick a slightly more inspiring location than at the bottom of a hill next to a manky burn for the flagship building....
Have I got deja vu or do they not already have a building just up the road in glentress?
This looks like it will be more like buildings used for development rather than the office space and cafe at glentress
"Innovation center" sounds more like they want companies to startup or base themselves there rather than a cafe, i.e. the next Hope or Planet-X?
£13million would be a massive warehouse though so there must be more to it?
Sounds good pending more info 🙂
Fabulous 🙂
Borderlands Growth Deal.
Leading to a post-apocalyptic wasteland brimming with mutated, heavily-armed freaks?
Leading to a post-apocalyptic wasteland brimming with mutated, heavily-armed freaks?
Na, inners isn't in staggering distance of Lanarkshire really.
£13million would be a massive warehouse though so there must be more to it?
Architectural wooden cladding, fancy floor to ceiling windows with built in shades, interpretation boards dotted around the grounds and a few oversized twee quotes stencilled on the walls?
I worry that the bikepark will fall by the wayside and that the innovation centre could end up being a white elephant that torpedoes any future biking development funding in the Borders/Scotland. I guess 6m won't go that far in building a bikepark either. What did they spend at bike park Wales? Probably not far off that and it doesn't include a chairlift.
I think it's quite smart making it industry focused rather than just chasing tourist money again. And creating decent facilities to be used by locals and visitors.
So do I recall that this "bike park" is planned to be at the Golfie rather than where the uplift runs now?
Reread and changed my moan...
I'd also like to see money spread around but sometimes there is only a return if it's all spent at one location / hub. I don't know what unemployment rates are like in the area now but those were a major driver in the initial 7 Stanes investment.
They might have waited until after the Scottish borders cycling development group meeting tonight. That's the rest of the borders screwed.
How much to buy the golf course and turn it into a car park, got to make sure T5 drivers can park as close as possible to the trails.
Can anyone remember the original plans ? , Was it a chairlift to the top of the moor (Lone wolf) . I think Its great news personally as take into account the footfall at GT , Inners and the Golfie over a weekend theres a good chance it could be a success. Im sure the peel build total was around 8 million and gave you Alpine , A large but ultimately dissapointing cafe , toilet block , wildlife room and the forestry offices.
Still investment can only be good for the area as long as they dont butcher the brilliant Golfie trails.
IIRC it wasn't a chair lift, it was basically a roller coaster, and it wasnt golfie side, it was plora side.
A shame that inners faces North.
Also a shame that money is not going to be spread around the Borders.
Those concerns aside, this is a Good Thing.
The original plans were for that side. The latest plans suggest the golfie is the preference now for a chairlift/bikepark.
Some key points from that DMBinS link...
(Caberston = Golfie BTW)
Location appraisal considers a wide number of factors including; Elevation profile, ownership of land, suitable land for base facilities, relief – ability to get a return to base blue trail in place, trail conflicts and many more factors.
• The current site preference is the front face of Caberston Forest working in full collaboration with the Innerleithen Golf Club.
• A chair lift is considered the most sustainable uplift model due to a host of financial and practical considerations
• The bike park would likely employ 5 full time trail crew, bike patrol staff, operations staff and a full office team. It would also work closely with local businesses to collaborate and avoid competition.
• Full SOAC rights would remain to the site with open access at all times to the trails, only the uplift would be chargeable.
• The bike park would respect the heritage and design of Innerleithen’s trails but would add a handful of machine built bike-park style trails. These would be on a scale and technicality to compete with destinations like Whistler. If Caberston is to be the location early workings indicate no existing trails would need to be lost but some may be altered.
I think that was the aim:up project nobeer which i think isn't part of this .
A shame that inners faces North.
Caberston faces west.
Ok, I'm confused. Who are DMBinS in relation to MTBCOS? Is the £6M left in the pot after constructing a £13M innovation centre/building going to pay for a chair lift and the handful new trails to rival Whistler?
You wouldn't be the first person to be confused about Dimbits.
Caberston faces west
*Blushes*
I think that was the aim:up project nobeer which i think isn’t part of this .
Aye, it's the only fixed uplift I'd seen touted for the area though.
They mention a chairlift is the preferred option for the new Golfie project above too.
• Full SOAC rights would remain to the site with open access at all times to the trails, only the uplift would be chargeable.
• The bike park would respect the heritage and design of Innerleithen’s trails but would add a handful of machine built bike-park style trails
Those would cover my main concerns .
i would like to see the thinking behind a chairlift over an uplift , not saying it’s not the better option but surely it comes with its own issues .
Just out of interest does anyone know roughly how high and big BPW is compared to caberston forest ? I haven’t been to BPW but is that the kind of thing we’re talking about here ?
A chair lift at caberston would be tremendous tbh, fingers crossed.
got to make sure T5 drivers can park as close as possible to the trails.
ermagerd I hope you're not going to park your povvy T5 next to my T6
Just seen this news, a chairlift would be amazing
Just out of interest does anyone know roughly how high and big BPW is compared to caberston forest ? I haven’t been to BPW but is that the kind of thing we’re talking about here ?
It amazing what you can figure out looking at Strava!
Vertical drop at Caberston is about 250-300m for the majority of the trails. Priesthope Hill is about 540m and the Golf Club is about 200m above sea level. Most of the trails start a bit lower than the very top of the hill though.
BPW is pretty similar trails start at 500m and end down at 200-220M
For comparison to Fort Bill the trails there have around a 550m drop (650m down to 100m)
Whistler has 1000m+!
Interestingly I don't see any specific mention of a chairlift in this most recent announcement despite that being the original intent of this new initiative. Odds on there's no chairlift and it's multiple buses. No way can they build a chairlift and the new trails plus upgrading existing trails for £6 million if it's apparently costing £13 million for a new building.
Unless the 13 million 'buildings' are the chairlift part.
A chair lift is considered the most sustainable uplift model due to a host of financial and practical considerations
From that report
Buildings would be this lot?
moonsaballoon
Subscriber
Just out of interest does anyone know roughly how high and big BPW is compared to caberston forest ? I haven’t been to BPW but is that the kind of thing we’re talking about here ?
Surprisingly similar. But they feel pretty different just because of how they tend to use the hill (I'm pretty certain that Caberston is a steeper hill.
It really depends what you do with it. FOD's van uplift is on a fairly pathetic hill, but it still works fantastically as an uplift venue. I used to think you needed a big hill, before I rode there, most runs deliver more than an equivalent run at BPW.
Many people get confused by the mention of the Scottish Borders ie this does not include(excludes)Dumfries and Galloway.
Huge sums of money are mentioned. Remove consultant fees, planning fees, contractor fees and the usual f....... up fees and not a lot will be delivered
Hope it does
Would also like to see some Borderlands investment in the D&G trails rather than the rumours that some will be allowed to return back to nature.....
D&G needs as much investment in its tourism industry as the Borders.
Will end rant there.......
Trekster. You make a good point. Mabie, Kirroughtre, Dalbeattie, Glentrool Ae etc... Are all in D&G and not Scottish Borders. It's not like D&G is a tourist Mecca that can pull crowds regardless of investment and it's crying out for a pull factor. Would be nice to see some east west balance.
This is a problem with all investment in Southern Scotland in that it is felt to be Borders biased. I hope that South of Scotland Enterprise might help rebalance things but that's a big ask and too late for this sort of investment.
It's a great investment in Inverleithen and there will be a lot of envious bike businesses, riders and people generally in D&G who will be wondering when it will be their turn to see some investment on this scale.
My rant over!
John, As do many other areas of Scotland, but it also makes sense to have a centre of excellence.
It's a pain in the arse for me to get to, ho hum.
I'm not sure it is as the current thinking is the centre of excellence gets everything and there is nothing left for anywhere else.
The whole of Scotland is a centre of excellence so things should be spread around d to support a lot more than some place that hasalready had a massive slice of the pie.
It's chicken and egg though, innit? They need footfall to keep the businesses going that will be going into those buildings, and they have the numbers over there.
Lots of the other stanes and the likes of laggan n glenlivet struggle to even keep a cafe going.
sas78 thing is d&g feel it's borders getting the money most of the borders south of the ettrick feel it's the tweed valley getting the money.
Peebles and inners are both close enough to be Edinburgh (they have EH postcodes) so they have commuters who are willing and able, and may have more clout, to campaign for projects that will make their towns better and improve facilities. After all they moved there for the access to the outdoors. Once that ball starts rolling it gathers weight and draws more in.
I was at a borders cycling development meeting. And apart from me and a bloke from Berwick everyone else was valley. This group can access info and funds so guess where it ends up.