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A sad day for mtb, the loss of OBR
Damn despite a positive report and encouraging recommendations BMCC Councillors last night voted to close down the long established trails along side Old Bathurst Rd, Blaxland.
Standing alone in support was Clr Luccetti.
The construction and continued use of "Candy bar", a poorly constructed and thought out trail at Mt Riverview condemned by senior riders since it's creation, was a contributing factor in this decision and those riders responsible need to take a long hard look at themselves.
Considering councils report stated that a search for alternate sites had already been conducted and nowhere was found more suitable than Old Bathurst rd the motion from Clr Greenhill to establish new DH trail away from the eastern escarpment can only be viewed in a cynical manner as an attempt to appease riders whilst robbing them of somewhere to ride.
Where to from here.... Continued letters to the councillors, General managers and Blue Mt Gazette expressing our disappointment at the decision is about the only thing we can do
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As I said on Rotorburn, let me know if I can help with anything. You guys all helped out with the recent Dam closure so I'm more than happy to repay the favour.
I've never ridden there but we're all in the same boat.
Is it possible to start up a campaign again similar to what we did when Manly Dam got closed down, the only way to get it reversed is continual email/letter writing by hundreds of riders.
Let us know what we can do
Discouraging news, but in no way irreversible
Keep up the good work
Are you able to provide contact details and a run down of the main points that need to be addressed? One of the main things that assisted with Manly Dam was the deluge of well addressed arguments that were basically consistent from all involved. I have not ridden OBR but appreciate everyone coming to the party with the Dam and have just started branching out to areas outside of our own insular peninsula (Currambene/Nowra State Forests on the weekend were awesome) so also appreciate that we need to fight for and protect what little we have out there.
Unfortunately one of the problems faced here and not at Manly dam is a xenophobic attitude of mountains for mount residents and that hords of "outsiders" are coming to the pristine Blue Mountains to wreck havoc on the bush.
The staff report from council was in favour of formalising access
an expressions of disappointment in the decision to go against the recommendations and encouraging council to act quickly on the promise of finding an alternated location would be appreciated
Full list of names and address can be found here
http://www.bmcc.nsw.gov.au/yourcouncil/councillors
Email list for simplicity:
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Please CC council staff responsible for the report: [email protected], [email protected]
and rider rep Allan David: [email protected]
Or click this mailto: link.
And they wonder why young blokes get into graffiti and pinching cars.
Short sighted decisions, robbing young active people of an extremely wholesome pastime. What could be better than riding a pushbike in a natural bush environment?
Crazy stuff.
Incredible. And really sad.
Craig, having lived in the upper BM for 15 years, I realise this decision stems from the militant, anti-development attitude of the local Council. Those people have no real understanding on the issues and simply block ALL development in order to appease the ultra left-wing hippies and militant environmentalists that seem to grow there.
As some have stated already, what could be better than having people (both adults and kids) participating in a fun, healthy and socially liberating past-time like bike riding? Just totally astonishing that others just don't get it.
I hope you guys ultimately get a good result for your riders.
If people are emailing councillors can we also include Blue Mt tourism [email protected]
Yeah Diity I know what you are saying. I know Al is devastated that this one fell through but we have to remember resident campaigns have been able to stop big business of the likes Mcdonalds from developing in the area. They are well connected and very savy.
To be honest their complaints about the trail at Nichols pde were well justified. That trail as abysmal from day 1 and should never have been constructed. That some riders continued to ride it through this whole process was a big blow for us and having 1 car load of people seen leaving the area with shovels and saws shortly after council had dropped branches across the track in an effort to close it was a rallying point of sort.
It's a shame. Nichol pde was never ever ear marked for approval. The whole focus of this push has been Old Bathurst rd. Residents of Nichol pde area did a fantastic job in blurring the two into a single over riding anti bike trail push. At the end of the day they have so far out played us.