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Peace and play plan for moor
Reporter: RICHARD HOOTON
Date online: 18 January 2010
COUNCIL chiefs are pressing ahead with plans to improve Crompton Moor.
Residents who use the Shaw beauty spot to walk their dogs have been sceptical whether the proposals will bring improvements and fear their views are being ignored.
But Oldham Council says the majority of people who took part in the consultation commented positively about the proposals.
Findings from the consultation on a family friendly cycle track and other alterations have now been published.
The work proposed follows a successful bid in 2007 from the Big Lottery Adventures in Play fund that has earmarked £30,000 for the developments, due to start next year.
Councillor Mark Alcock, cabinet member for environment and infrastructure, said: “A great deal of work has been done this year to consult with local citizens and other users of Crompton Moor. Part of that work has helped to ensure that this money is spent to best effect and to ensure that as many people as possible can make use of this area.
“The council has a duty to balance the requirements of all users of Crompton Moor and improve access while at the same time ensuring that the environment of the area is protected. I am confident that through this work there will be an acceptable balance that will benefit all.”
The proposals include a 1km cycle trail, easily accessible from Brushes Clough car park, aimed at families and entry level mountain bikers to experience off-road cycling in a moorland environment. Also planned is a short skills track used for developing off-road cycling techniques and a purpose built adventure play trail.
Comments
What is Mark Alcock going to do about the illegal mountain bike tracks, off road motorcyclists and wanton vandalism? I think spending the 30k on repairs to the natural state of the moor would be a start. There is no point whatsoever spending money on Crompton moor when the authorities cannot manage it in its present state.
timberwolf the motorcycles where there before the walkers, dogs or mountain bikes even bothered going up there in their masses. so really they should be allowed there too!
off road motorcycling up there stretches back some 60 years. and as a country we produce some of the best riders in the world. so why do we not encourage the future talents with somewhere for them to practice legally?
As for DaveWarby's comment, maybe a few quid on a dog waste bin 25 yards up from the quarry would solve this? There are a minority of users that venture no further than 25 yards from the car to exercise and toilet their canine companion. I am surprised, however, that Dave felt no need to comment on the Vandalism and destruction caused by the illegal mountain bike trails?
Opening up a new cycle trail is just going to be an open invitation for the motor bike riders to use it too! It is going to be a free for all up there! And where will the Rangers be? Anywhere but Crompton Moor!
I agree with you Timberwolf, but like FedupOldhamer I too remember in the 1960s the scramblers up there on a Sunday morning. Alas, the bikers today are a different breed and care not a jot about what they are destroying. So, yes, dog excreta bins are a good idea, providing the bikers don't knock them over by going too fast on the footpaths!!
Fedupoldhamer, Illegal motorcycles have illegally been ridden on the moor for years. There are two words in that sentence that you need to understand. If you knew what you were talking about you would know off road trial bikes may legally be ridden not far away at Cowm quarry for a small fee.Now,I have lived next to and walked the moor for 40 years, its worth protecting and many of us intend to.
Q. Who would buy an off road motorcycle if there's nowhere legal to ride one ?
A. Either an idiot or someone with criminal intent.
So, after all the public monety spent on consulatations, adn the formation of a puppet, toothless'user group', OMBC get exactly the result that they wanted.
Strange coincidence that...isn't it?
The way that they have underwritten and condoned the vandalism that is the illegal trails is a disgrace. The rangers and their managers should be brought to account.
Oldham council commissioned an independent user survey of Crompton Moor by a company called Pathways. This report seems to have been buried because the results were not the positive response they had hoped for. The committee of CMUG were even sworn to secrecy about it's content.
The survey they are now using was compiled by the council themselves and was full of questions that were difficult to answer in the negative. To make sure they got a positive response they launched this survey in a tent next to a mountain bike display, while most people were filling in the Pathways survey in different tent.
The total number of respondents in this survey was just 41 people, although several people who filed their surveys at the library say that their replies have not been recorded for some reason.
The proportion of surveys that “commented positively about the proposals” was just 61% so that amounts to 25 people out of the hundreds of users of Crompton Moor and even they were not positive on all counts.
For the council to say that this totally inadequate survey gives them a mandate to stomp all over the legitimate objections of people that use and care for the Moor every day, is a yet another disgraceful example of their utter contempt for anyone who does not think that all green spaces should be developed.
I should be surprised that a reputable newspaper would print such flimsy and spurious claims, without subjecting them first to some journalistic scrutiny, but I am starting to lose my ability to be shocked by the twisting of this sorry story.
Ahem... apologies for all the typos in my earlier post.
£30K is not a lot of money for all the schemes that Alcock gleefully burbles on about, and I don't see a lot to '...benefit all' in there - unless he means 'all bike riders'. I wonder how much more public money will be wasted to top up this tiny sum?
timberwolf i do know what im talking about. its actually reads like you dont know what you're on about really. for a start why are they illegal motorcycles? are they banned? no? if you bother to look alot of them where actually transported up on the back of pickups, on trailers or in vans. nowt illegal about that. also ombc only took charge of crompton moor back in the mid 1980's. before that it was common land and therefore nobodys. so what was illegal there?
Fedup: It's not the motorcycles that are illegal, it's the use of them on Crompton Moor. Whatever happened in the '80s when the land was not owned by OMBC is irrelevant - the fact is that under the current owners, the use of motor vehicles on the moor is prohibited.
Wayland: you say that the Crompton Moor User Group committee members wer sworn to secrecy about the Pathways survey findings; To whom do they have allegiance? If OMBC are deliberately suppressing this report, then CMUG should be yelling from the rooftops about the fact, not allowing themselves to be bullied into silence.
Fedupoldhamer, You may not ride any uninsured/unregistered/untaxed motorcycle anywhere other than privately owned land and with the owners express permission. End of story
As nobblysan says, I would be interested in unearthing the pathways report findings? If its not what Vink etc hoped for then it must be used against them to protect the moor from any further vandalism.
Have Your Say
Had a walk up there yesterday and encountered at least 50 different species of dog excreta - so anything the Council can do to improve it may just be knocked to smithereens by dog owners who do nothing to help the environment by not clearing up after their canine friends!
By DaveWarby27Duchess @ 18/01/2010 13:35:50