Thanks for your time.
Read on.
Reatin,
I did try to respond on your blog, but for some reason it doesn't love me, so perhaps you would do me the kindness of posting this response up for me.
The fact is that the FC do not make money out of High Lodge, in fact they lose it. Most of the other centres that charge less do so because they are heavily subsidsed, often by European job creation schemes, and thus don't reflect anything like reality.
At this point people in this neck of the woods usually point at Brandon Country Park and do a reasonable impression of
Well it might surprise you to find that BCP which belongs to Suffolk County Council has been up for sale for a long time ,and in fact would now be closed were it not for the simple fact that a lottery grant would have to be refunded if they closed it. Why? ...................... It loses a fortune.
Add to that the fact that MTB contributes pretty much sod all to the FC coffers in this forest, (most riders choosing to park elsewhere and ride in), whilst at the same time being amongst the most vociferous user group in moaning about the place and you'll understand why until recently that the prevailing sentiment at FC towers was to close trails rather than invest in them.
That being the case you might then appreciate the monumental job we have done in turning that perception around, and in recent times getting the FC to invest well in excess of £60,000 into the trail network. Not only that they have also recently invested a further £20,000 in making TIMBER into the premier volunteer group in the UK doing what we do. In that vein we are now the only volunteers in the entire FC estate who are allowed to work with powered plant. This will increase our ability to restore and maintain trails exponentionally.
So moving on to the Techncial Trail Features (TTF's) Myth.
The fact is the features we built were crap. They were poorly designed, poorly situated and dangerous. In the final analysis several extremely serious incidents occurred on them, the final one being an individual breaking his back in 5 places. Personally I fully support their removal, and am only surprised that the FC didn't rip them out before.
In the wake of that, we made a decision some time ago that out priorities were as follows:-
1) To turn the Red Route into a sustainable, and well maintained loop before it degenerated into the rut fest that the black had already become.
2) Once that was done to move onto the Black and do the same to that.
3) Then and only then to concern ourselves with the creation of TTF's on both trails.
We are close to completing the work on the Red, and we intend to start on the Black very shortly. Incidentally the black will soon be downdgraded to a red grading. In this you should note that Thetford was the first forest in the UK to embrace MTB, and that fact is clealry reflected in some of the outdated trail definitions and so forth. However, thats about to change and here again you are looking at some £40,000 worth of investment just to bring that signing and waymarking into line with your observations and current expectations.
That aside we are also engaged actively in planning and delivering a Pump track, and furthermore if we can pin the little bleeders down long enough we would also like to develop a Sudbourne Jumps style jump site in partnership with the local jumpy herberts.
These are not pie in the sky ideas, they are all very much reality and they are also receiving very active support from the FC.
So whats holding us back?
Well contrary to common belief its not the FC......... Far from it.
Its the lack of people who are prepared to roll their sleeves up. As riders we can make Thetford Forest Park into whatever we want it to be. There is absolutely nothing standing in our way other than our own imagination, and motivation. So rather than moan like a cheap Russian whores about whatever happens to annoy today, I would always encourage people to come and see what we do and get involved. Its actually a lot of fun.
We will be about over next weekend at High Lodge (Bike Week) and it would be great to have you pop in to see what we are about and to shoot the breeze. We are friendly, passionate about what we do, and we won't bite.
Cheers
G
TIMBER chairman
PS: Attendance at three full TIMBER build days in a year will secure you a free season ticket to High Lodge. So there really is no excuse to moan about parking fees or the trails at all, when the reality is its only your own lack of motivation thats causing you these problems.
