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Blue Mountains Draft 2012-2013 Operational Plan
NB: Originally posted elsewhere on the Global Riders Network and appears via syndication.
Blue Mountains City Council has released there Draft 2012-2013 Operational Plan for public review and submission.
I feel like Mountain Biking should be part of the plan. But not sure how to address it.
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Part of The Council's Service Delivery - Section 2? They are talking about
1. Having a strong Local Environmental Plan in place / managing impacts on the environment and town and village character
4. Enhanced sporting facilities
6. Increased focus on economic development
8. Continued development of cycle/ pedestrian infrastructure (bike plan)
9. Tourism development
10. Asset maintenance and renewal
13. Provision of new facilities
15. Enhanced community consultation
There should be something about mtbing in the Sport & Rec section on page 19, but there isn't.
In Principal Activity 3: Social - Looking After People the document discusses walking trails but doesn't mention mtb. MTB could just as easily be discussed with walking trails.
I do find it quite amazing that an area that receives a significant number of "tourists" because of the activity of mtbing, doesn't try to take advantage of that and plan for it in this document. My thoughts after a quick scan anyway.
I read some stats recently that hiker and MTB cyclists are roughly of equal numbers right now, but this is trending heavily towards MTB.
In other words, hiking is declining and mtb is growing, and they really need to be planning for that.
Being left out of the management plan brings back ominouse memories for anyone involved in the short but futile effort to have MTB included in the Lake Parramatta POM. At the council meeting where the vote was held it became clear that the NIMBY's and HOPU's had successfully lobbied both sides of the political spectrum to have MTB left out of the POM and thereby excluded from the park. There was not a single dissenting vote and we were critisized as group!
IMO the best thing to do is to cultivate contacts in the council and get a feel for the concensus of opinion about the attitude to MTB. If it is not negative then it's time to make representations about the positive aspects of MTB. IE - Cost / benefit to community, Health benefit, Participation, Environmental sustainability etc that we are all so well versed in. But don't expect to get honest answers from anyone in there who is not an MTB'r.
Good Luck with it.
& remind them that council elections are on in Sept. & that if you want our vote-go MTB!!!!!!!!
From memory we do get a good mention in the cycling and tourism plans as well as the 2020 future plan.
To be fair on the council in question they have always been open to dialog and when Soren was there (I'm a bit out of the loop now) he was actively driving outdoor rec opportunities. As far as I know they were the first council in NSW to have a draft dirt jump plan that approved 5 of the then existing sites. budget and focus constaints means that draft is well and truly out date now but the remaining sites still run under it.
They also took a front foot lead in sorting out the Mt York trails which up until that point were (mis)managed by various land managers along their length. Soren engaged the consultants and made sure we (CTMBC as BMROC didn't exist at the time) had input and were regularly consultated.
Same goes with Knapsack with the originals trails approved in the POM after consultations with us and WSMTB.
Soren had even asked us to supply supporting letters towards funding proposals which were to go towards a umbrella MTB plan, unfortunately he missed out on the funding and had to proceed site by site as funding and pressure allowed.
My experience is that Blue Mt tourism has been keeping a keen eye on MTB opportunists and council is willing to listen to riders so write in, your voice will be heard.
Soren did a lot, which is interesting as well because he was certainly not what could be called pro-mountain biking. He is very cautious about any damage and effect on the bush and he always took a lot of convincing and evidence to make a decision. Luckily is was a good bloke and open to discussion so he is very approachable.
Also as Flynny points out the POM for knapsack was in existance which made the other decision possible because of the solid groundwork. A POM is a reasonably strong document but council were within their rights to overide what it says at anytime even though it would have meant some paperwork. I think anything in the Operational Plan is a useful tactical piece of information but in the end it really doesn't have any clout.
In the end just lobbying and a strong relationship will win out. I think any further developments as Flynny also points out are going to come from pushing the tourism value through those people rather than any emotive arguement riders can put together asking for their piece of the pie.
2020 is mainly about active transport ... making it safe to ride on the road, additional lockers and parking spaces ... as opposed to recreationally focused or off road.