Oxford Falls DH - Meeting 7 October

Dear all, I have just received the following email and thought I'd better spread the word.

Basically, a meeting will be convened @ 7:30pm 7/10/08 at the Christian Covenant School (Dell St, Belrose - off Forest Way) to discuss the future of DH at Oxford Falls. Alas I can't attend since I'll be overseas for the week, but the meeting is between a group of MTB riders, Oxford Falls residents, and the local State member John O'Dea. The *common* push (from both riders and residents alike) is for the development of a MTB park (possibly shared with equestrians) in the area. This is a very positive development guys. Email is as follows:

Hi all,

Been a long time coming I know but here is the first installment of the oxford falls email list. The idea of the list is to provide an additional means of communication (other than net forums) for those who are interested to discuss oxford falls trail issues and to organise/plan trail maintenance days etc. I will provide regular updates of the contacts list as new people wish to join or people wish to be removed. Please feel free to get others who may be interested in being added to the list to email me their details. Alternatively, if you would like to be removed from the list or like an alternative email address added, please let me know.

Just to recap where things are at.... We agreed at the riders meeting a few months back that we would take a more active role in management of the downhill tracks. This included developing an unofficial riders 'code of conduct' and displaying this on a sign at the trail head, and contacting local residents so we could try to adress their MTB related concerns. I have contacted the residents by means of a letterbox drop and the 'code' is in the process of being prepared - we aim to finalise this after we have met with the residents to we could incorporate their ideas.

It took a while after the letterbox drop for the residents to contact me - apparently they all got together to discuss the MTB activities first and agree on a common approach from their end. The outcome is that they would like to meet with us at the next Belrose Rural Community Association meeting (most of the locals belong to this group) to discuss. The preson I spoke to praised us for being proactive with regard to trail management and being cognisant of their concerns. I was advised that the residents agree there is a need for more MTB trails in the local area given the popularity of the sport, however, I get the impression they would like to see us move on from oxford falls to an alternative venue, this being the Belrose tip site. Therefore, I suspect the MTB related discussions at the meeting will be two-fold; to discuss the use of the existing tracks in the short term and to discuss the need for an alternative venue. I have also received word that the local resident Connie Harris, who has just been elected to Warringah Council, will be campaigning hard for the tip site to be developed as a DH MTB venue and equestrian centre (this has come from an email she sent that I was forwarded).

Initially only a couple of us were invited to attend the meeting, however, I have since been advised that the residents have organised for the local State member, John O'Dea, to attend and they would now like us to trun up in numbers. The idea will be to demonstrate to him that there is a real need for the tip site to be redeveloped as a MTB park, which is likely to require some degree of state level funding to reach its full potential (think Stromlo on a smaller scale). The meeting is on at 7:30 pm next Tuesday 7 October, to be held at the Christian Covenant School (Dell St, Belrose - off Forest Way). Sorry for the late notice on this people, but I only found out about this change this morning. Please let me know if you can make the meeting, would be great if you could.

Regards,

Dave Yonge

DH Coordinator

MWMTB