Just glanced at the report. Have they really take. Usage statistics based on use from February to May?

Those stats would have proved this to be a far more popular route during the warmer months. A lot of mountain bikers avoid this trail in the wetter months due to the boggy condition of Rushup.

I am stunned at this ‘sanitation’. You will never please everyone but this trail was already down to bedrock. Maybe a little maintenance on the sides was needed but this is unbelievable. A genuinely iconic natural trail, used by several groups of people filled in.

I would like to think most mountain bikers are considerate but, like anything, if you take away the available facilities, it will get to the point where early morning footpaths are the the only natural trails worth riding.

Was talking to the farmer who lives near that sanitised bridle way near The Little Mill descent and he said it is now more dangerous because cyclist are going faster. He also said the drainage was terrible and they refused his offer to do it.

Just got back from a great day riding the Long Mynd. Seems that there they like to convert footpaths to concessionals and bridleways and encourage riders to go there. In future I can see a lot more Long Mynd days out and not so many Peaks days out. Unfortunately, this is what the vested interests at DCC want, but there you go.

Just look at the state of it. Top dressing to come, oh brilliant, that’ll look great as well, no doubt. No one who actually enjoys the Dark Peak as a piece of rugged countryside could possibly want that abomination. The question then remains, why? To my mind it is simply a campaign to force mountain bikers out. The Kinder Circuit is now a waste of time. Only Hollins, Coldwell Clough and the Jacobs Ladder descent remain as worthwhile riding sections. I suppose Middle Moor and Snake Path have some attraction as they bring you out above the Oaken Clough vandalism, but that’s about it. Not worth the candle any more I’m afraid.

Goodbye Rushup Edge, you have gone to join your friends Stanage, Roych, Jagger’s and Oaken Clough in fond memories, but nothing more. Where next? Potato Alley? Lockerbrook? Cut Gate? The Beast?

My three year old is showing a real interest in mountain biking. I was hoping to be able to take him up to the Peaks in about ten years and show him how much fun riding a bike off road can be. Now all I’ll be able to do is show him YouTube videos and wax lyrical about this trail and that trail that still lurk beneath eighteen inches of shit.

**** the council that have done this.

I admire some of you guys who are still going to try, but honestly, the council have shown their utter disregard for you here, it is as plain as the nose on your face. All that time and effort and then this betrayal. As above, **** them. I’m going to be looking up some cheeky stuff for the future. DCC, if you push me off the legit trails you’ll find me riding footpaths and unmarked stuff. Ultimately you will win, but I’ll have a good time sticking my fingers up at you.

@singletrackjenn – that’s great news about RS their work on the Eastern Moors is exemary. Sadly DCC seem less willing to enter into dialogue. What about getting behind PDMTB and helping preserve whatever we can from this campaign of destruction?

Put my 2 peneth on their Facebook page and will email the robots now.

Oscillate Wildly – Member
i was also going to add, it now looks way more accessible to vehicles, so no doubt the mx’ers will be hooning down it soon

talk about destroying natural beauty, what an odd odd contry we live in,

cant imagine them doing this in the alps, or even scotland come to think of it

it was part of its characteristics those slabs/rock, great to look at, and has been like that for no doubt thousands of years, and now its basically a sandy path with a few randow baby head rocks strewn across it

well done council, i salute you

I’m sure many of us on here also occasionally go walking with the missus/kids etc and you can’t beat a bit of natural terrain to hike up, i’d certainly avoid a walk with smoothed out sand all the way to the top 😯

So exactly who is this targeting? The missus also prefers natural trails on the horse, previous harder surface with steps is perfect for hacking up.

It’s not just mountain bikers who are disgusted by this. Let’s make sure we work with he other user groups to express our disquiet.

Indeed, Birthday Boy, it would be great to have allies standing with us.

Can we get local business owners involved as well – bike/outdoors shops, B&B owners, cafes?
And how about non-locals emailing to say that they are now unlikely to visit the area because of the damage done to some of the best-known trails?

(As an aside, I’m waiting for a major accident on the Long Causeway when someone hits a drainage gully at speed, especially given I’ve seen people about to go down it with no idea of what’s ahead and a baby on the back of the bike…)

@ phunkmaster

“Was talking to the farmer who lives near that sanitised bridle way near The Little Mill descent and he said it is now more dangerous because cyclist are going faster. He also said the drainage was terrible and they refused his offer to do it.”

Is this laneside road to briargrove road descent if you climb up the steps from Little Mill pub? Absolute skittery fine grit dressing, of warp factor 20 fame? Like cornering on butter now!

I reckon this black fine grit coating is what they’ll finish Rushup edge off with. While there at the the little mill descent has too much natural bedrock so that will need doing too FML

I know they’re only a Parish Council but can I suggest people write to the Edale Parish Council too. Ask them if they were aware of it and if they knew £70k was up for grabs and what they would have liked the money for in the Village.

edaleparishcouncil@gmail.com

I’m not suggesting we have a go or accuse the Parish. I’m suggesting that they, like us, knew nothing about the impending work, and will be equally as annoyed because they’ll have plenty of things they genuinely NEED £70k for, and they’re reportedly not happy with the treatment of Chapel Gate either.

Janet Street Porter was moaning about it from a walkers point of view a couple of years back.
This thread needs to be made sticky and keep the ball rolling.
The “man” knows our weak spot and will apply the pressure.
I really fought Surrey Council about this but eventually gave up as I just ran out of people to moan at.
One thing I was going to do is laminate signs and tie them to lampposts at areas of road with lots of potholes. Basically saying why are the council smoothing out the countryside and not the roads.
Might be a plan for the area in question.

rogerthecat: can you drop me an email, please? jenn@singletrackworld.com

Janet Street Porter was moaning about it from a walkers point of view a couple of years back

You’ve just broken my hate-o-meter!

Frankly, who gives a shit what that muppet thinks?

Only just got chance to catch up on this.

£70,000! That’s a lot of potholes. 🙁

I’m going to do my best to be there on Monday, will bring a camera.

Just read the CG report
http://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/227862/MP0912-Chapel-Gate.pdf

Some gems, seems DCC are from another planet…

“Comments:
All user groups would, in our opinion, find certain sections of the route difficult, PDNPA
staff have seen motorbikers and mountain bikers fall and risk injury and it is our opinion
that use for many groups whilst the route remains in its present state of repair, is not
only difficult, but dangerous.
“

“Comments:
Most of the route crosses a designated area, to avoid damaged sections of route users
are straying from the legal line, some erosion of the route has caused sub-base and
surface material to wash onto nearby protected land.
“

They don’t like people straying from the legal line, they’ll be a lot of this is they carry on! 😯

“The highway damage is highly visible from some distance, and as users of all types
have tried to avoid the worst sections the width of the route has spread, exposed
bedrock is frequent and spoil from earlier repairs is still prevalent.
“

Bedrock is the devil incarnate!

“Comments:
Parts of the route are steep (in exposed areas of bedrock several shallow drops occur),
and visibility in the upper reaches can be poor, this section is also narrow. “

Shallow drops in the peaks!!!!? Ban all shallow drops.

“3. Have there been any complaints about vehicular use conflicting with other
uses?
3 points – Yes many complaints from a variety of sources, “

They give a full danger/urgency score of “Total Score = 15 / 15”

“Cost to repair :- £ 200k For a metal / tarmac surface (If approved) + £85k
Estimated annual maintenance cost. £20k”

£200,000 😯

“Demand from other Users
The route appears to be popular with mountain bikers (see table above).”

So why not cater for MTB’s?

“4. Saw 5 motorcycles, 30-35 cyclists, 15-20 walkers. (cyclist rally?) over 1 hour. Signs
of occasional horse use and rare agricultural/motor use. The erratic routing of the
various paths and their poor condition is likely to create safety problems from the
different speeds of the various users. There is a byway signs at either end, a footpath
signpost at junction with Mam Tor path but no guidance on vehicular use”

State speed is an issue, lets make it even faster!

“4. Difficult to assess original cause but cyclists/motorcyclists will have played some
part in the erosion of the original track and continue to damage new ‘bypasses’. “

Cyclist damage really?

“1. Temporary TRO until surfacing carried out, then possibly a one-way permit to reduce
use”

One way permit in the peaks!!! Is it April 1st?

” shoring up banks
(safety issue) is needed for the existing users as bikers are frequently dismounting
and it isn’t very walker friendly either. “

After reading that, I don’t even!

To rogerthecat.

It’s a pity the picnic protest was not last Monday as I was off work and would have driven the 70 miles to help register our displeasure. Unfortunately I definitely cannot make next Monday, but I really, really wish you all the best. Is there any lobbying of the local press that we can do to get them there?

One way permit in the peaks!!! Is it April 1st?

That track forms part of one of the longest unbroken stretches of RUPP (or BOAT?) in the UK (or at least it did until they closed Chapel Gate) but one of the measures they put in place years ago for 4x4s was a voluntary 1-way system.

4x4s coming up out of Roych towards Rushup were ripping the track to pieces in places so they made it one way to go down Roych and up to Mount Famine. So yes it’s been done for 4x4s, no idea how it would work for bikes and what the point would be given that bikes cause less erosion than walkers…

Email sent to East Midlands Today. Hopefully they’ll pick up a good opportunity to do a bit of ‘right on’ TV. You never know……

How long is the path out of interest?
About 1.5km?

How long is the path out of interest?
About 1.5km?

Have a look here.
The bit they’ve resurfaced is the western end from the main road. Not sure how far up they’ve got but I assume the plan is to go to where it meets Chapel Gate.

http://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=410605&y=383155&z=120&sv=410605,383155&st=4&ar=y&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf&dn=602&ax=410605&ay=383155&lm=0

@cruzcampo that’s the one. Terrible.

Yes plan is to go to Chapelgate, I read that on a Facebook post somewhere
It’s shorter than I thought then, less than 1km
£70,000 is around £70 per Lin m
That’s a criminal price to be paying for those works
As a comparison we are currently getting tenders in for access roads to electricity pylons – 4.5m wide, 200 to 500mm deep type 1 (imported not recycled road planings) geogrid and this is fresh install not upgrading, with drainage channels etc in similar terrain between, so twice as much material and work involved for around £45-60 per Lin m okay our volumes are much greater but that is a construction to get massive plant like piling rigs down, not some horses and bikes

It’seems clever cleansing of mountain bikers. They show they care by allocating budget to cycling then flatten everything to stop the fun in the name of it being accessible to all cyclists knowing full well that the real MTB’ers will hate it and go elsewhere. The bobblehats win under the guise of cycling for everyone.

Can we just hold off with the negative comments regarding other user groups, we are in dialogue with several of them and they are as surprised and disappointed as we are with what is happening. Let’s focus on challenging the arbitrary manner that DCC has gone about this process and some of the absurd notions in their rationale.

If we can get other usergroups onside rather than attacking them we will have more chance to stop them continuing past the small gate and also starting on other routes.

@SingletrackJenn – you have mail.

@Crazy-Legs – there’s info on the PDMTB website.

@dannyh – unfortunately, I’m sure there will be other opportunities

I’m going on Monday. No bike. I’ll walk up as I have my wee girl for the day.

Shocking stuff.

@dannyh – unfortunately, I’m sure there will be other opportunities

Yeah, but you never know. Some spiky young researcher might want a shot at a BAFTA!

Currently bombarding DCC Facebook page. Remember guys, we need to emphasize the £70,000 on there, that is what will piss off the tax payers of Derbyshire the most. Always get the figure £70,000 in the first few words, then it is visible without clicking ‘see more’.

I’ve sent an email to the two DCC contacts as well. It really is time to be a pain in the ass.

Emailed the bods at DCC, copied in the local MP, local press etc. too.

Such a shame. 🙁

Can everyone also email these people:

Strategic director of economy, transport and environment
Mike Ashworth
email: mike.ashworth@derbyshire.gov.uk

Head of the council
anne.western@derbyshire.gov.uk

I think Peter White (who is in charge of this waste of money) is waging a campaign against us. He’ll only be stopped from those above him.

I suggest we request that the money be diverted to better use: e.g. childrens’ services

There’s always the petition
http://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/council/have_your_say/Petitions/guidelines/default.asp

Head of Council and local MP emailed asking for explanation as to why this is the best use of my council tax.

Anyone know how I do an FOI request? I live locally and I can not even change my windows with out getting permission so how they can do this with out consultation is shocking

Genuinely gutted, that was one of my favourite loops! Can’t understand why grants are given for trail centres and trail destruction. Sad that more and more of my riding will be at trail centres now.

A bit of an aside, but I went into the Ladybower Bike Hire place (operated by PDNP) at the weekend to enquire about mountain bike hire for some friends who want to come biking with us. I was told in a very abrupt tone that the bikes were only for families and schools to cycle round the reservoir (despite being advertised as “mountain” bikes….) Seemed odd that they didn’t want to capture that market but now I see the bigger picture – mountain bikers are not welcome in the Peaks! Feel sorry for palces like Eighteen.

It takes 5 days for them to publish it online. Too late for this work.

With six pages of replies it seems that a lot of people rode and enjoyed this bit of trail. It’s always a shame when a bit of trail goes but not having rode it and only going from footage and stills it looked pretty boring to me. Obviously it’s more so now but have a look at this pic…

A few feet to the left of the path is a potentially much more interesting trail. If even half of you rode a new line you’d have a decent trail in no time (you could even put a few corners in 😀 ) You’re on bikes made for it, so go carve yourselves a new one and ****’em

Email sent to the two ‘higher-ups’ mentioned above. Polite, but to the point.

Seriously guys, keep the pressure on, a few Facebook posts and an email or two every day for a week will start to become a serious pain in the arse if we all join in. You have to realize there will not be a eureka moment for these people. The only way they will register this is if we interrupt the quiet life they have mapped out for themselves.

Euro come on it‘s was a great bit of trail

[video]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ccfaEI3YjU4[/video]

Very sad 🙁

Seriously guys, keep the pressure on, a few Facebook posts and an email or two every day for a week will start to become a serious pain in the arse

Like Andy in Shawshank redemption. He gets his library doesn’t he.

Ok, this is the last from me. It’s late but can you complete this survey to show your support. Will help show how many people are upset. Yes, it’s a bit bias, but hey, so are we!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HLP6YZC

Are the DCC trying to ruin the very park they are meant to be protecting? I can’t see how any of the users would welcome this at all!! Too unstable for horses, horrible to walk on, too smooth and soft for 4×4’s and MX bikes, useless for family cyclists and terrible for MTBers. The first decent spell of rain and it’ll be a mess of rain gullies and pools. What goes through their minds!?!?

Won’t be able to make the Monday protest mentioned above but if there’s any more in the offering I’ll do my best to try and make it.

I’ve only ridden that bit a few times but it always put a huge grin on my face. It was just so satisfying to go down. The fact that I’d seen horses and walkers enjoying it too just made it even better!!

Change.org is a great site for setting up a petition, very effective with mass of twitter traffic to boot. Im off to bed but if anyone’s got a spare 10 minutes set one up :- )

Just a final note from me tonight to say a massive thanks to everyone who has taken the time and trouble to do something today – the groundswell of support makes getting sodden and muddy this morning to get some pics well worthwhile.

If we can keep up the momentum over the next week as DannyH suggests we may see some movement, but let’s keep it polite and not berate any other user groups.