Seems like the forest NIMBYs have been at it again.
- Thread starter Winnershsaint
- Start date
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Rohloff_Brompton_Rider
Formerly just_fixed
Why is it upsetting people to the point of mass sabotage?
OP
OP
Winnershsaint
Guru
Not sure. Having grown up there as teenager all I can say is that it is a very complex place to explain the workings of. For a start it owes its existence to William the Conqueror who created the area as a Royal forest specifically for deer hunting, having been previously been colonised by various Anglo-Saxon tribes. The inhabitants at the time of the Norman Conquest (commoners) had pre-existing rights to graze cattle and horses/ponies on the forest and this is something that has been upheld even to the present day. It is place where traditions are taken very seriously because they are the backbone of what makes the place special. You could say it is place which is very resistant to change as a result. In addition to this you have some seriously expensive property attractive to wealthy 'Escape to the country' types and they have have become protective of their perceived rural idyll as the commoners have of their rights and traditions. Chuck thousands of lycra clad cyclists on their carbon fibre steeds in the mix and there are bound to be conflicts of interest. What is clear is that there is an unwillingness on behalf of many locals to welcome cyclists as anything else other than a menace and gross inconvenience particularly when taking part in an organised event. Recently on the Cancer Research UK Dorset Bike Ride I hooked up with some riders who told of riders being threatened and verbally abused on a frequent basis whilst riding there.
Berties
Fast and careful!
I rode some of the wiggle route as part if my commute on Saturday and got abused trying to put a sign back up at a sharp junction ,
Grid iron next week has a ruling no more than 14mph will that be enough to not upset the locals, litter left was bad on Saturday gel wrappers all over the place and bottles,that up sets the locals as well,
I did a litter run up the Clarendon way for 10 miles and picked up a load of gel wrappers after the marathon at the weekend so it's not just cyclists that litter, but it's not good practice
Grid iron next week has a ruling no more than 14mph will that be enough to not upset the locals, litter left was bad on Saturday gel wrappers all over the place and bottles,that up sets the locals as well,
I did a litter run up the Clarendon way for 10 miles and picked up a load of gel wrappers after the marathon at the weekend so it's not just cyclists that litter, but it's not good practice
OP
OP
Winnershsaint
Guru
Indeed
Indeed the postponement of 'the drift' which was to take place last weekend seems like a cynical attempt to portray cyclists in a bad light.
Fab Foodie
hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
- Location
- Kirton, Devon.
So that's mass cycle events pi55ing-off people in Surrey and now the New Forest ... oh and somewhere in Scotland last year (Etape Caledonian?) ... Where next?
Littering is inexcusable.
Seems mass events are becoming victims of their own success.
Littering is inexcusable.
Seems mass events are becoming victims of their own success.
Rohloff_Brompton_Rider
Formerly just_fixed
I do often wonder who picks up the crap after events such as TdF or ToB etc etc. the riders just chuck bottles and wrappers wherever they feel.
In the ToB there was a wagon following behind clearing up all the rubbish.
Most, if not all the bottles were picked up by the watching public as souvenirs anyway.
mcshroom
Bionic Subsonic
- Location
- Egremont, Cumbria
I remember working on the Isle of Dogs during a London Marathon Sunday. Just before the roads were due to reopen there was a team of litter pickers combing the route and chucking massive quantities of rubbish into two dustbin waggons (though they were chucking everything in and not sorting out the 1000s of bottles for recycling as the went. I wonder if the same sort of thing is done for the ToB.
Gel wrappers are annoying everywhere now. I've seen them on fellside paths and I noticed them all over the road-verges of the Cheshire Plain a few months back. If people can carry these things full when they are cycling/running/hiking then how come they become so difficult to keep hold of when empty?
'Leave only footsteps, take only memories'
Gel wrappers are annoying everywhere now. I've seen them on fellside paths and I noticed them all over the road-verges of the Cheshire Plain a few months back. If people can carry these things full when they are cycling/running/hiking then how come they become so difficult to keep hold of when empty?
'Leave only footsteps, take only memories'
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Rohloff_Brompton_Rider
Formerly just_fixed
Fair enough, that's good as well.
winjim
Smash the cistern
The 1st instruction on the info sheet for the sportive I was on this weekend was to not litter; my riding partner and I were discussing how superfluous it was as an instruction because everyone must know that, and how we'd never dream of littering and surely everyone got taught that as a child and so on and so forth.
Seems not then.
Seems not then.
mcshroom
Bionic Subsonic
- Location
- Egremont, Cumbria
I think that is probably about as successful
DRHysted
Guru
- Location
- New Forest
I honestly can't work out the round up problem (it wasn't called a drift until the London imigrants flooded the area). The cycle event used the two main road entrances, which no sane person would ever run the round up through. To start with they couldn't get the horses there unless they rode them over cattle grids. In previous years the round ups are done on weekdays and not weekends to minimise the risk (it is bloody scary to be caught in the middle of a round up, I've experianced this, it is the only time I have ever permitted my dogs to bark at the ponies and I seriously gave the riders a piece of my mind).
Brockenhurst is now mostly populated by moneyed imigrants, who want the "rural" life, and I believe it is these people who are making all the fuss.
UK cycle events booked the event in 2012, the verderers informed them of the round up 23rd September 2013.
Brockenhurst is now mostly populated by moneyed imigrants, who want the "rural" life, and I believe it is these people who are making all the fuss.
UK cycle events booked the event in 2012, the verderers informed them of the round up 23rd September 2013.
slowmotion
Quite dreadful
- Location
- lost somewhere
The roads in the New Forest are not that great for getting about, judging by a few brief visits in a car. Neither are the Surrey Hills. If there are large numbers of tarted-up cyclists clogging the roads on a regular basis, I'm not surprised that the locals get a bit miffed. Let's put it another way... if you lived in a community of cyclists, would you like it if 300 middle-aged men on powerful motorbikes roared down your country lanes every few weekends? (Go to the Meon Valley). No, I don't live there.
Just another NIMBY really.
Just another NIMBY really.
