The second consultation on the Rushup Edge work ends on November 28 and we need as many people to feed back to them as we can possibly get – riders, walkers, horse-riders, everyone.

It was really something of an achievement to get Derbyshire County Council to run a second consultation on the work on Rushup Edge – (technically Chapel-en-le-Frith-Byway-Open-to-All-Traffic-144).

Does it mean this campaign – a campaign which started over two years ago – has been a success? Well no. The campaign will only be a success when DCC listens to the overwhelming opposition to their intended work and works with interested groups to finish the job to everyone’s satisfaction. It doesn’t look like they’re intending on doing this anytime soon.

The revised consultation gives a nod to the campaigners but has scant committed detail to what they’re are actually going to do where. (Compare it to their Hurstclough Lane consultation to see the difference).

We have to be realistic. Are they going to remove the mess of a base layer they’ve put in already? No, probably not. The plans don’t really give any indication of what they are going to do.

They do give them a massive amount of flexibility to say they’ve consulted and received positive responses and then do what they want. For example, you could respond that because the Roych is a guide for the work you’re happy with the plans. The plans also show that crushed aggregate and huge drainage channels (to where?) could be used, so be careful how you reply.  The moral of the story: when you respond, be explicitly clear on what elements of the ‘plan’ you support and which you don’t.

If they are committed to consulting properly and more importantly – they act on the responses they receive (which they have failed to do thus far) then DCC has an opportunity to get a huge number of users on side. Who knows, they could then go on to consulting with this group effectively in future. In partnership. It’s happened elsewhere – and not a million miles away from Matlock. Or Sheffield.

I’ll respond directly after talking to other campaigning groups – but in the meantime please respond yourself. Only by having a huge amount of responses can we get the message across.

 

 

 

 

It’s come a bit out of the blue.

After over two years of campaigning, letters, meetings, arguments, emails and lots and lots of late nights, it finally looks like we may be getting to the end of the Rushup Edge saga.

On September 13th, DCC published their latest, revised plans for Chapel-en-Frith Byway Open to All Traffic – commonly known to us all as Rushup Edge. They’ve also opened up another period of consultation until November 28th.

So what do the plans show? Well you can see for yourself here . But if you don’t have time to do that, here’s my summary

• Roych Clough to be used as a benchmark for the rocky sections. Natural bedrock to remain where possible
• Long Causeway (Stanage)-esque drainage proposed
• Long Causeway style gritstone to be used on the bottom end (from what I can tell)

It’s seemingly ok. The big push from the collective opponents to the work – KoftheP, PDMTB et al was to look at the very least at Roych Clough as an example of work carried out that was welcomed by all. It looks like that’s got through.

But a word of caution. The plans are not that detailed. They leave room for DCC to still take whatever approach they want to the track with just a light nod towards the desired stone pitching.

I’m going to be working closely with Peak District MTB and other partners to push DCC for more details so we can see what they really plan to do.

Is it a success then? Well, yes. Without the campaign, without your support emails, posts and overwhelmingly backing for what we’ve been pushing we may have given up and seen Rushup as a sacrificial lamb to the gods of advocacy awareness. But we’d have been looking at another dump of aggregate to be washed away in the next heavy rain.

But that’s not what’s planned. It looks, by all accounts, like we’ve been listened to.

We can’t count our chickens of course. We need to see that further detail – and there’s still two months of consultation; the fors and againsts, amendments and revisions –  but it’s certainly a better looking outcome than we were expecting.

Let’s hold them to their promise. And let them know what you think via their consultation link.

 

KoftheP