Hi everyone,

It seems that there are a lot of you out there trying to get the Manly Dam track reinstated which is obviously what we all want, but I havent seen any discussion on proposals we could make to the council that would be a "compromise" to their current decision. Whatever happens lets be honest, it doesnt seem like there will be any decision made until after the March 23rd meeting, and the current notice on the council website says that a full consultation process may take up 6 months . . . . . .

There has been some confusion about the extraordinary Warringah council meetings coming up but have had these clarified:

February 23: This meeting is only to cover the items that were missed on Feb 9 in their famous, meeting of disarray. The motion to re-instate volunteer maintenance days at Manly Dam is on the agenda, but the recent closure is not.

March 23: In this meeting council will discuss options for the future of riding at Manly Dam (ie. the recent closure).

Given council need to be shown immediately what a mistake has been made, and how many riders are effected, and as others have suggested it would be a very good idea to show up at the Feb 23 meeting for a silent show of support. Speakers are not allowed at this meeting and rowdy, insulant or other petty behavior would not help our cause one bit.

http://www.warringah.nsw.gov.au/council_then/meetings_council.aspx

I reviewed the full Plan of Management quoted in the press release, and found that they have mis-quoted the source document. The Plan gives council the right to designate particular areas accessible by mountain bikes, and the wording does not exclude singletrack.

In other words, they have used a technicality to close the singletrack, but the technicality is WRONG. So unless there is a document I haven't seen, it suggests to me they are compelled to re-open the closed sections.

What follows below is a technical argument - read or glaze over as you will :

Phone contact is good because the recipient is obliged to listen to you and it takes as much of their time as yours. You can spend an hour writing an email which they spend 10 secs responding to. With a phone call you'll know in a couple minutes if they are not interested.

1000 mountain bikers taking up 10 minutes each equals 4.4 full time work weeks of time. They also personally hear the views of 1000 different people who use council facilities. Any issue causing this degree of concern from people who normally don't bother coucillors is important enough for council to address.