Last weekend’s Steel City DH was a phenomenal success. An incredible atmosphere, huge crowds, great racing and above all the absolute confirmation that trail advocacy works.

The Steel City DH is the blue riband event in Ride Sheffield’s now very busy calendar. Held in Grenoside woods on the north of Sheffield, the event is only possible thanks to the great work Ride Sheffield, This Is Sheffield and of course a certain Mr Steve Peat have done in building relationships with those who can make or break an idea like it.

They’ve worked hard to build a good working relationship with the Rights of Way team at Sheffield City Council and the Wildlife Trusts who own Grenoside woods. This has opened the doors to allow them to run the event – now in its fifth year – and raise vital funds to support trail building and advocacy projects elsewhere in Sheffield.

It’s a domino effect which is delivering fantastically for riders; Lady Cannings is well under way, Bolehills BMX track has had a comprehensive facelift, Blacka Moor has been regularly maintained and the relationship with landowners goes from strength to strength.

There is a core group behind Ride Sheffield; a small cohort who have turned a desire to improve things locally into a nationally recognised example of how trail advocacy and campaigning should be done.

Without a few thousand riders behind them though, it would just be a bunch of mates tidying the local trails – precisely how they started out.

You are no doubt one of those few thousand riders. Without your support, Ride Sheffield won’t have the political clout to push for the great things we’ve seen so far. The same can be said for Peak District MTB or any other trail advocacy group up and down the country.

So buy a t-shirt, follow them on Twitter, attend dig days – do whatever you can to support the work of these groups.

It all helps show that we’re taking responsibility for places we ride, organising ourselves and seeking to work constructively with the powers that be to make a positive difference for all – and not just mountain bikers.

And that can only be a good thing.

Cheers Ride Sheffield. See you on the podium next year ;o)

Yesterday I went along to the Spirit of Kinder event, which celebrated the Kinder Trespass of 1932 and the opening of the Pennine Way 50 years ago.
One of the talks at the event was on the Scottish Model and how it could (or should) be implemented in England. Dave Morris is a former Director of Ramblers Scotland and was at the core of the group that pushed for access – supported by the Scottish Access Code.
The Code was adopted in 2004 and provides guidance on how people can access land and waterways responsibly either by foot or unmotorised transport. It’s been hugely successful, not least economically; where despite little investment, large numbers of tourists have visited areas and business has sprung up.

So could it work here? Well why not? If you were riding a path in the Scottish borders that crossed into England and became a footpath, would you be doing more damage? No – of course not.

And that’s the crux of the code – it’s all about being responsible. Taking care of what, when and how you ride. You’ll no doubt see the parallels with KoftheP.

So what next? Well I’m going to be talking with a number of the groups who were at the meeting: Peak District MTB, National Trust, The BMC and many more who have an interest; Ride Sheffield, the Ramblers, Peak Horsepower, Accesible Derbyshire, to see what there’s the appetite to do.

Keep following.

There’s not been much noise around Rushup recently. We’ve been awaiting Derbyshire County Council’s decision on what to do [quick timescale review: public responses were expected by Jan 16, Peter White was sending a report to Cllr Dean Collins – he with the money – by March], but that is as yet unforthcoming. So we decided to bypass Peter and send a note directly to Cllr Collins highlighting some of the key points we expected Peter’s report to highlight. Check out the campaigns pages to find out more,

The trail access rights riders enjoy in Scotland are seen as the holy grail of rights of way entitlement in the UK. A couple of years ago there was a lot of excitement when it was rumoured that Wales may too go for a real access for all approach – but sadly it didn’t come to pass.

Now, to commemorate the Kinder Trespass of 1932, the Spirit of Kinder event is holding a meeting to look at how the access model works in Scotland and whether it could work south of the border. The Edale Village hall meeting – 25 April, 2pm – will also commemorate the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Pennine Way, which starts in the village.

Of course, any discussion regarding ‘the Scottish model’ couldn’t possibly go ahead without the input from mountain bikers – after all, mountain biking investment has proved hugely successful in the seven Stanes and around Fort William – so i’d encourage you to go along and speak up for mountain bikers. I’m certainly hoping to get there.

We are an under-represented group so it’s down to us to make our voice heard  – responsibly – when the opportunity presents itself.

You can find out more on the meeting here:

http://www.grough.co.uk/magazine/2015/02/12/kinder-trespass-gathering-looks-to-scots-style-right-to-roam-as-election-looms

See you there!