Who doesn’t love a silver lining? Well, 2020 has taught us to appreciate what we have and we think we’ve found one hidden within the Redmires postponement news. Take a closer look and you’ll see why we think Ride Sheffield is now in a good position to make great stuff happen.
1. Reputation
We’re pretty sure that the National Park now knows Ride Sheffield is a diligent and responsible group to work with who understand the conservation value of every part of the Peak District, even a coniferous plantation. We may have questioned some of the objections they raised but we completely understand the importance of endangered species like the nightjar and always have done.
2. Building Relations
We’ve continued our excellent relationship with local conservation groups like Sheffield Bird Study Group. It’s crucial that user groups like us engage with conservationists and land managers – there is always much to learn. The increasing pressure on the Redmires honeypot has certainly had an effect on the resident wildlife. Maybe other user groups should be examining their impact?
3. The Outdoor City
Battling through the vagaries of a planning application in concert with Sheffield City Council has cemented an even closer relationship with the Outdoor City. It was a tough three years for both for us, a volunteer group and a city that believes in the value of the great outdoors. Working together pulls you closer and we have every confidence that, in the future, this will deliver results.
4. Greno Woods Facelift
Our corporate sponsors have stood by us throughout. Much of the funds raised for Redmires will now go to work on the Greno Woods trails which have been incredibly popular during Covid and are showing considerable signs of wear and tear.
5. New Energies
Lastly and, frankly, bizarrely, postponing Redmires has unleashed a tsunami of stored energy. Redmires was all-consuming for three years and in many ways prevented Ride Sheffield from pushing on. The last couple of months by comparison have seen a very successful raffle, a superb application for grant funding to the Santa Cruz Paydirt project and numerous suitably anti-socially distanced trail days.
There’s more to come so watch this space! We’re going into 2021 with optimism and believe every cloud has a silver lining….
Vulcan Engineering, our biggest sponsor, has been incredibly generous allowing us to keep £7,500 of the original donation. The remaining £15,000 is to be used to build a sand dam in Africa that will ensure that a huge number of people have a ready supply of water. It really is an amazing scheme that benefits those who regularly have to walk kilometres to find water. If you’d like to help out with the scheme, details are HERE.
