National Trust High Peak Moors Masterplan

Ride Sheffield has been helping the National Trust formulate it’s long term plan for the High Peak Moors which includes Kinder and the Derwent watershed.  The masterplan has now been published and is available to read at http://www.high-peak-moors.co.uk either in its entirety or in summary form.

It is refreshingly inclusive recognising and engaging with mountain bikers in a way that wouldn’t have happened in the past which is only to be expected as the National Trust returns to its roots and encourages people to enjoy our great wild spaces.  Of particular interest to mountain bikers is the following passage:

Mountain bikes

Some concerns were expressed about bike users riding on and damaging footpaths (as opposed to bridleways) and about increases in mountain bike numbers having a negative impact on other path users. We’d like to tackle this in 3 ways:

By communicating to riders (via various media, and probably increasingly via social media) why we don’t want them to ride on footpaths in the first place

By an increased presence of rangers and volunteer patrol rangers to talk face to face to riders who are not riding legally or responsibly

We’d like to improve options for riders so they don’t feel the need to ride on footpaths in the first place.

We are well aware that we can only achieve all of this with the help and support of the mountain bike riders themselves.

We’re always on the lookout for ways to improve the public access opportunities we can offer and will gladly look at increasing or developing mountain bike and horse riding routes where this doesn’t impact on other users, wider land management or on the special features of the moors. We’re currently consulting on extending and improving such routes on the NT’s Longshaw Estate and hope that experiences here will help inform future management of the High Peak Moors.

Ride Sheffield will continue to forge close links with the National Trust who are one of the biggest land owners in the Peak District.