Ashdowncc
From BluWiki
Ashdown Cycling Campaign Wiki
Contents |
Next Meeting
See Ashdown Cycling Campaign Web Site
Erosion, landform change
View from above of supposed fire rides and impact of riding on King Standing area
General issues
- Byelaw and criminality Impacts of criminal record or caution
- Malvern Hills Cyclists second to dog complaints myth
From Malvern Hills Management Plan 2009-
3.41 Mountain Biking Mountain biking is popular on the Malvern Hills but there are no dedicated facilities, such as designated routes, for use by mountain bikes. There are reports of recreational conflict between mountain bikers and other users of the hills but the number of reported accidents is very small. Open access rights on Malvern Hills Conservators’ land do not extend to cyclists and some use paths and tracks that they have no legal right to be on. This problem may be compounded by a policy of minimal signage on the open access land, but the solution is not to increase signage to the detriment of the landscape. There is a shortage of hard data about recreational conflict and damage to the landscape. (TP2, TO2, TO4)
and from Official Malvern Hills web site
Under the Countryside Act 1968 bikes are allowed on Bridleways. An Ordinance survey map will show bridleways, as a general rule all paths on the northern hills are bridleways a legacy from the donkey trips, most of the paths on the east side of the middle hills are bridleways except for the path above Jubilee Drive. This is kept free of horse riders and bikes to allow elderly people a quiet walk.
- Giving something back
We all ride and take - how about giving something back via a donation to help maintain the bridleways (ok we all make this donation via Council Taxes so pick up some litter)?
Key documents
Quotes
I thought of that while riding my bike Albert Einstein, on the theory of relativity.
Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia HG Wells, A Modern Utopia.
The bicycle is the most civilised convenyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart. Iris Murdock, author, The Red and the Green.
A bicyle hides nothing and threatens nothing. It is what it does, its form is its function Stewart Parker, playwright, Spokesong.
Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live Mark Twain, in his article 'Taming the Bicycle'
Transport across the Forest area has always been difficult, forcing the routes to follow the drier and less heavily wooded hilltops. Even today, the roads follow the ridges. Ashdown Forest web site
If you make conditions right, there is a great future for cycling. If you make them wrong, there is none. Ernest Marples, Minister of Transport in the 1960s and himself a cyclist
Research Links
HighWeald Bridleway study (BHS sponsored)
A survey of cyclists in the Peak Districts National Park found that cyclists spent an average of £25 per day. The average spend of visitors arriving by car or other forms of transport was £7.30 a day. This is because cyclists tend to shop locally, whereas drivers can buy in a lot of their provisions in advance. no link available
War time usage seems to be one of the possible drivers for so few rights of way From the Napoleonic Wars onwards, the Forest has been used for training and mustering; there are remains of camps at Chelwood Corner, St. Johns and on the golf course (where there is a commemorative stone). There are rifle ranges near New Pond Cottages and over the Old Lodge boundary. There are the remains of the gas training school near King’s Standing and the training trenches, holes and tunnels near the Crow and Gate. There are concrete anti-tank bollards around Duddleswell and slit trenches scattered wherever you least expect them. It also seems that WWII was the start of the encrouchment of woodland on the heathland Hews commentary.
Habitat priorities Seems to indicate under statement of the contribution of Ashdown Forest to English heathland resources. 58,000ha total in UK with 55% in England gives 31,900ha of which AF is 2,500ha @ 60% heathland (1,500/32,000) = 4.6%. AFC website uses UK wide figure of 58,000ha (1,500/58,000) = 2.5%.
Cycling England Health Benefits Cycling is an easy and low-impact activity which can significantly improve individual fitness and which has the potential to have a major impact on public health. It can help to reduce the risk of a range of health problems, notably heart disease and cancer, the leading preventable causes of premature death. Cycling levels had been in long-term decline, down from 24 billion kilometres in 1949 to just 4.4 billion kilometres by 1996. This decline contrasted with a steep rise in car use and the Government’s transport policy was largely congestion-driven, focusing mainly on increasing road network capacity for motorists. This became known as ‘predict and provide’ – in other words predicting and providing the road space necessary for the rising number of motor vehicles.In a cross-sectional study from the US, where cycling was one of a range of physical activities included by the researchers, the results suggested that cycling has a protective function. It recorded that higher levels of physical activity were associated with lower risk for coronary heart disease compared to those who participated in low levels of physical activity.
Greensands Trust - modern conservation at work Mountain biking is now a significant countryside recreation. There are recently established clubs at Oak Wood, Aspley Woods and Rowney Warren with designated routes and cycling areas. There are permissive horse riding routes at Oak Wood, Rammamere Heath/King’s Wood, Maulden Wood and Tiddenfoot Waterside Park.
No riding without a permit visible and proof of insurance.
The rise of the car It has already been noted that most trips to the countryside are made by car. According to Liniado's examination of 'car culture' and its impact on the countryside, he concludes that "...since the 1950's and 1960's countryside leisure has become almost totally car-based" (1996:73). High car use brings with it the inevitable problems of traffic congestion reducing the enjoyment of the visit for the visitor, making everyday life more difficult for local people and causing damage to the environment through car pollution.
Link Farm
Access to Out of Copyright OS Mapping circa 1949
Nature Englands technical paper on access to spaces for recreation
Map Sources for Ashdown Forest
Another photo 1909 showing bikes, this time in Crowborough
Forget bikes look what cars can do
Research on cycling and increased life expectancy
Member pages
Other views
Singletrack World Forums
woffle - Member I was bought up about 2 minutes walk from Ashdown Forest and spent my youth until university knocking about on the trails until the rangers started cracking down. It could be amazing but unfortunately old bylaws have forbidden cycling. The argument they used to trot out was that allowing MTB's onto the forest would mean more erosion - which is utter garbage as anyone knows who's tried to walk on any of the paths that have been churned by horses.
Unfortunately those with the power to change it have a vested interest in not doing so - it's very popular with horse riders and the conservators all tend to be from the local 'horsey' set. They want to maintain the status-quo ie. nice and quiet with minimal people walking / cycling / using their forest. Recently there was a real effort to get the bylaws overturned arguing that it could bring a lot of money into the area with increased footfall. It was shot down in flames pretty quickly along the lines of not enough infrastructure, erosion etc etc.
slugwash - Member Back in the late 1980's I used to work for the Ashdown Forest Conservators. There was a 'network' of self appointed 'spies' spread around the Forest who'd be on the phone to report any transgressions of the arcane local bye-laws and demand the implimentation of immeadiate action against the 'perportrators' (sic).
Mountain biking was not so common in them days and most of the complaints related to people riding their horses on the Forest without a permit or campervans that had stayed too long in carparks and whose owners might be harbouring evil intentions to overnight on the Forest. Quite frankly, these snobbish, pompous, greengrassing, fcuk-wits made me sick. They reminded me of the despicable type of people who shopped their Jewish neighbours to the authorities when the Nazis invaded their countries in WWII. (Sorry, I've got strong feelings regarding access to Ashdown Forest).
Hew P said that this was in contrast to Ashdown Forest which hardly receives any income directly from visitors to the forest. It has free car parks and apart from horse riding permits visitors don’t provide any income. Liz Akenhead suggested that if the Forest dropped the riding permit it might get more income (£900 per kilometre per year) from higher level stewardship. Hew P wondered if the two could exist together
