A little light reading before the Winter Social!

With the Winter Social coming up shortly, we wanted to make sure we didn’t spend all night talking at you this year – we really want to hear what you’ve got to say.  Where have we got it right, where have we got it wrong and what else would you like us to be doing?

With that in mind, here’s a quick run-down of what’s been happening on the access front this year which should save a lot of time on the evening.  Lots of Ride Sheffield volunteers have been involved including Martin Clist, Sue Duke, Steve Hardcastle, Henry Norman, Cy Turner, Adam Wiles, John Jones and probably loads of others, so apologies for anyone I’ve missed!  Please have a quick look at what’s been going on and let us know if you’ve got any thoughts/queries/compliments/criticisms!

Stakeholders meetings, discussing plans with other user groups and the management team

Site Meetings regarding Moss Road, Curbar/Froggat and Ramslye BW’s

Two volunteer days on Wimble Holme Hill

Producing Barbrook Valley ‘Meet the New Trails’ film (used subsequently at Cliffhanger)

Meeting to discuss the new BW’s (which look like they will be delayed until next April!)

High Peak Moors Masterplan –

Involvement in producing the draught masterplan, schmoozing various National Trust staff at various meetings in order to get mountain bikers as good a deal as possible

Blackamoor:

Reserve Advisory Group meetings

Bridleway maintenance

Dealing with a number of ongoing issues with the Wildlife Trust

Dealing with the fall-out from the Lenny Hill affair

Derbyshire County Council:

Taking the fight to them following the Stanage and Wigley Lane cock-ups by various means including telephone conversation with DCC staff including Peter White, emails aplenty, press articles, RS website, Facebook, etc etc

Numerous meetings including one with Simon Green in an attempt to get the City Council to take outdoor pursuits more seriously and give them more support.

Meetings with the  Rights of Way Team both in the city and at Hounkirk, Wigtwizzle Woods and Lady Cannings

Meeting with health professionals trying to embed exercise in Sheffield’s culture.  Possible useful allies when seeking funding for further trails

Ride Sheffield is one of the founder members of PASA, a group formed to use the collective might of all adventure sports to fight for better access, no charging, resources etc etc,  including meeting with Jim Dixon (Chief Executive of the Peak District National Park Authority), liaising with the BMC, attending Peak Cycle Summit, etc etc.

We are well represnted on the local acess forum with one of us now is the vice chair!

Press:

Ride Sheffield specific content on The Grough, UKClimbing, UKHillwalking, Outdoormagic and other websites, national exposure for RS on Countryfile, articles in the Derbyshire Times, Matlock Times and radio programme on Sheffield Live devoted to cycling.

Liaising with Vertebrate Publishing and National Trust to produce a rider friendly code of conduct that can be handed out by members of Ride Sheffield to new riders and by employees of National Trust, Wildlife Trusts, Eastern Moors Partnership, Peak Park etc etc

Stanage Forum:

Meetings where, again, different user groups get together to discuss the management of the North Lees Estate

Working with the Wildlife Trust, using money from Peaty’s Steel City Downhill (run with This Is Sheffield) to pay Bike Track to construct the trails and using our fantastic volunteers to maintain the trails up there, we are slowly moving towards a signed and mapped circuit in the woods

We have also run several volunteer maintenece days in the woods

Not too much to mention that you cant read on other parts of the site: But we have already raised 0ver £9000 thanks to the generous donations from you lot towards building a series of trails in the woods in conjunction with Sheffield City Council

We have also worked with the Wildlife Trust, SCC and the LAF over the development of the new Bridleway