That’s hardly a lesser known corner of GT in your photo though… :wink:

Err it says narrowly escaped serious injury on the footnote. :wink:

Oh and get well soon!

Lots of snow around last night starting about the bottom of spooky wood climb. Fairly grippy though and not much ice around. Seriously wet further down so it will depend how cold it is on Friday night as to the ice situation.

Edit: Forgot to say it was immense fun! Also even if it is icy there are plenty of other routes nearby that will be fine (take a look at the peebles route guide)

Nope, here too!

Classifieds separate again too! Yay and boo!

Zedsdead, That barryboys site is genius!! :D Think this is my favourite:

Shed of the year 2007!

Numplumz calendar here

Can’t have your Granny looked after for free without finding the money from some place

Think its got more to do with the 2 year freeze on council tax and abolishing of all road tolls. Both popular for sure, but have to be paid for somehow…

There’s one here for the Scottish Parliament too:

Fight for our forests petition

Is there really a serious risk to us losing out?

40% less money to FC = 40% less money to potentially invest in mtb trails or maintenance.

FCS mission statement:

“Our mission is to protect and expand Scotland’s forests and woodlands and increase their value to society and the environment.“

A N other commercial operator:

“Our mission is too make as much money as possible“

Clear enough?

Main issue is it represents a 40% cut in income for the Forestry Commission. So jobs will have to go and as pointed out a commercial operator does not have an obligation to promote recreational use of the forest. Or as Jim Hume puts it:

“The Scottish Government plans to lease out 25% of Scottish forests for up to 75 years, but the Minister has said that that the most commercially viable land will be up for grabs. That 25% represents in real terms 40% of production for the Forestry Commission so that will significantly diminish the Forestry Commission’s income for investment in maintenance of woodland initiatives such as the 7stanes network and investment into new initiatives.”

http://www.dirtworker.co.uk/%5B/url%5D

Take your own advice maybe? :wink: From the casual relationships thread a week or so ago…

project – Member

Mr gibbons, perhaps your “freind” may be gay, or possibly haveing serious thoughts about his sexuality, if so, let him be, not everyone wants to come out of the so called closet, so he looks a normal lad, so what, if hes gay the women will flock to him , if hes straight , he needs to attract them, some men dont want women as girlfreinds , but as freinds, just because you and you male freinds all have giorlfreinds doesnt mean that he has to, just be his freind, not his social daying agency.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the Forestry Commission a commercial company?

Nope, they are a directorate of the Scottish Government. More details on FCS website here.

This states: Our mission is to protect and expand Scotland’s forests and woodlands and increase their value to society and the environment.

Which doesn’t sound like the mission statement a commercial logging company would have to me!

Kit, fair points, although apart from Carron Valley which has many issues that few know the ins and outs of (least of all me!) I’d say on the FCS have been pretty encouraging to mountain biking to say the least. You just have to look at the situation in Northern Ireland to see what they could have been like.

Whilst its fair to say they might not all be ‘money grabbing bastards’ I doubt they will be as happy to accommodate mountain biking at the expense of forest operations when their sole purpose is to make money.

Main reason I’m against it is that it sounds pretty daft to lease out the best forests (that account for about 40% of FCS income) for 75 years for a pretty small amount of money – for others to make more money on it. Surely these are the forests you’d want to keep! Also there is no guarantees to what the money raised from this will be spent on.

Oh and Golspie ask for a donation to the trails, they don’t and can’t ask you to pay for access.

How much money is there in timber production?

SNP reckon about £200 million for the 75yr lease, or a small portion of a new bridge depending on how you value these things ;)

Was wondering how long it would take for Carron Valley to be mentioned. Fair point, but it also shows how whoever manages the forest can have a strong influence in what happens in it.

Another private one I’ve just thought of is Drumlanrig which is much more expensive to visit (in the summer at least) as they have to pay for all the trail building themselves.

…or alternatively, putting some of these forests into the hands of commercial operators may result in a more diverse range of forest trails developed on the back of properly researched requirements.

Possibly, but its unlikely to be the private companies first priority. How many trail centres are in private ownership? I can only think of Llandegla off the top of my head.

Also interested if anyone has been round today? Pentlands on Tuesday night was extremely ‘interesting’, thick sheet ice sprinkled with snow is not great on normal tyres!! 8O

Nope, not just you, don’t think they have managed to put that bit back together yet! :wink: Hardly surprising given all the rest of the stuff that’s still being done! I’m sure they will be back at some point soon!

Massive jugs! :lol:

Are they trying to p1ss those of us with savings off so much that we just blow the lot?

In my uneducated (in economics) view then that’s exactly what they appear to be doing. Makes no odds to me since my mortgage reached its floor at the last cut. Can’t see how it helps the banks either, since they will make less money on loans and there is less incentive to save money in them.

Crazy!

Nope, I now have no need for a surname! yay!

Apologies to whoevers name I nicked, snooze you lose! ;)