Lady Cannings – January 2015 Update

WE DID IT! Lady Cannings trails are happening, and this is the first of a series of product updates keeping you all informed about what’s happening with the build.

Those new to Ride Sheffield should catch up with our unique, first ever in the UK, crowd funded trail project by clicking on the “Lady Cannings” tag down there on the bottom right of the page, or at least have a read here.

The really exciting news is that with the help of Jon Dallow at Sheffield City Council the trail plan has been steered through hoops and jumped over ropes and we have an agreed build schedule for Phase 1. Here’s the map for this phase.

Lady Cannings – Stage One Map (download 2.1Mb PDF)

It will all begin next month (February) with tree felling and marking out on the trail corridor. After that Biketrack will get building in earnest in late spring with the aim of opening in May. Yes!

Exciting times indeed, but they do come with a word of caution. With great power comes great responsibility, and one really REALLY key thing is not to ride the trail until we say so. In a couple of months there will be sections on the ground, unfinished, not bedded in, and as fun as it may look we HAVE to stay off until it’s all ready. Experience from the Parkwood Springs build show riding too early causes a lot of problems. We will set the build back and burn up funds which are for other things if it get ridden mid-build. We will be making a BIG noise about this when it is ready to ride. There will be no “oh it looks done but they musn’t have mentioned it” excuses. It won’t wash. We know it’s tempting, but “just one” will hurt, so please don’t!

So taking my School Master hat off again, lets be excited about this, and look forward to our new trail this summer. We want to say a huge thank you to every single person who has donated towards the project, as well as the generous local businesses Norton Architects, Avante Conveyors, Cotic who all made big contributions. And don’t forget that all your donations, good work and effort, digging in your pockets to make this happen, that all attracted Go Outdoor to the project. With the £60k over the next three years that they have pledged, it not only guarantees completion of phase 1 by pushing us over the line on the budget for that, it also makes the dream real for the entire plan. We will have trails throughout the woods by 2018. How good is that?!!

We did it! We should be proud of ourselves.