Redlands Trails

Goings on at Winterfold and Hurtwood

there's been a lot of speculation in the usual places about some things going on over at Pitch and Holmbury hills. There's three main things: a recent survey of mountain bikers, rumours (from one source, as yet unconfirmed) of a local resident's campaing to ban mountain bikers and another (also unconfirmed) rumour of a freeride park in Winterfold woods.

The survey was undertaken by Hurtwood Control. The Control's main remit is to encourage use of the land it manages by lots of people - and that includes mountain bikers. A ban on mountain biking would be very difficult to set up and even more difficult to impose.

Guildford BC's planning department has not received an application for change of use for Winterfold Woods. The planning bod for that area, Tim Dawes, very kindly checked for me and confirmed this.

As for a local resident's campaign, we're not aware of one, and the only source of this so far has been one person who hasn't added any information to their first report. We'll have to wait and see. That said, a ban on mountain biking would essentially be impossible to implement and completely unenforcable, as we've said above. There are other ways of managing trail conflict that work far better and also help maintain the economic benefit that mountain bikers bring to the area.

Give Chrysler/5 Ways a rest, please

Last week I rode on to the increasingly popular trail at the top of Holmbury Hill known as either Chrysler or 5 Ways. Having entered the trail I immediately regretted it. The recent rain we have been experiencing on the North Downs has really soaked this trail and it is rapidly turning into a mud bath.

I regretted entering the trail because I knew I was damaging it and as a result it would soon be, frankly a crap ride. It is beginning to look like Parklife/Yoghurt Pots did when too many people rode it all year round, especially after wet periods. Chrysler looks shockingly like Parklife did before it was damaged too much to be worth riding.

If we stop riding it now for a few months it will dry out and repair.  I hate asking people not to ride trails, it is so much like asking not to ride your bike, but it will be worth leaving this trail alone for a little while.

More grazing animals in the Surrey Hills

Grazing animals are to be re-introduced in 25 sites across Surrey, some of which are popular haunts for mountain bikers. The Old Surrey Downs Project has £1.4 million in funding and will introduce sheep and cattle to White Down, Box Hill and other sites.

The project will run over the next five years and aims to restore the ancient grasslands of the North Downs using the funding, which comes from the Heritage Lottery Fund and English Nature. Objectives of the project include grassland habitat restoration and to secure the future of these areas.

Most of the sites are SSSI status, sites selected include Sheepleas near Epsom, Hackhust and White Down, Box Hill, Reigate and Colley Hills. Most are sites managed or belonging to the Surrey Wildlife Trust, others belong to Reigate and Banstead Borough Council, National Trust and Guildford Borough Council.

The National Trust, moo cows and you

  Aug27^43 
  Originally uploaded by bacchus2323.

We've been sent the files below by Paul Redsell, the head warden for the National Trust at Leith Hill.

The long and short of it is that the Trust wants to introduce grazing cattle to parts of the Hill. The reasons for this are sound - and they're contained in the documents below. Of the two .jpg images, the one called projectmap illustrates the proposed fenced off area more clearly.

Download intro.doc

Download NTconsult.doc

Download cattlefence.jpg

 Download projectmap.jpg

How will this affect mountain biking?
As far as I can see, there will be some more gates around the area that the Trust will fence off for the cattle. There will be fences; they may cross over unofficial mountain bike trails, but until we work out where the fence will be, we can't say which trails will be affected. Looking at it at the moment, it looks like a few trails we know of will be affected in this way. You may also be approached by curious cows, or chased by them.

Why should we care?
Well, the Trust wants to get users' opinions. It wants to find out what problems might arise from fencing this land off, and it wants to work with the local community and the various groups that use Leith Hill to get things done right.

When?
There will be a meeting at 7.45pm on Wednesday 29th November at Coldharbour village hall, and guided walks at 10am on Sunday, 3rd, December from Coldharbour cricket pitch.

Make you opinion count - seriously, let the Trust know your thoughts on this. It's gone to a lot of trouble to make sure all kinds of users are catered to, and it does want to know your thoughts on this. You can do this by contacting Paul Redsell at paul.redsellATnationaltrust.org.uk (replace the AT with an @), or make your thoughts plain on our forums.