HELP - £1.5 MILLION FUNDS COULD BE LOST WITHOUT FORESTRY SERVICE SUPPORT

Feb 05

HELP - £1.5 MILLION FUNDS COULD BE LOST WITHOUT FORESTRY SERVICE SUPPORT

£550,000 of pledged funding, plus further funding of up to £1.5 million for a Mountain Bike Centre of Excellence in the Mournes is set to be lost because the Forestry as of yet, will not pledge their support for the project.

£800,000 of funds already lost

Over the past 2 years Forest Service has consistently raised issues relating to the project. This has delayed project development and has resulted in almost £800,000 of funds being lost. The Countryside Access and Activities Network has attempted to address these issues through consideration of good practice from Scotland and Wales, applied with local factors

However, the Forestry Service have raised major factor against such a proposal such as, Harvesting/ Impact on forest and harvesting operations, Maintenance & Management, Forest Size – and resulting impact on amount of forest, Soil instability and Felling.

The Forestry Service, who should not to be confused with the Forestry Commission, who has given full backing to these projects in areas such as Coed Y Brenin in Wales and Fortwilliam and Innerleithen in Scotland. Forestry Commission in the UK has encompassed mountain biking as one of its core recreational activities and has incorporated mountain bike trails into harvesting plans. Forest Service Northern Ireland is unwilling to do this.

Proposed Funding includes

• Rostrevor Forest Park, Downhill MTB Forest £270,350
• Rostrevor Forest Park, Cross Country MTB Forest £274,850
• Ravensdale Forest, Downhill MTB Forest £157,000
• Carlingford Forest – Cross Country Forest - £257,000
• Tollymore Forest Park – Cross Country Forest £257,750
• Castlewellan Forest park, Cross Country Forest £245,183
• Castlewellan Forest park – Family Off-Road Cycling £29,950

Altogether totally £1.5 milllion

Following previous articles in this website, £132,000 pledged to Kilbroney Forest for the development of a permanent downhill facility has been placed on a reserve list until evidence can be provided that the project will go ahead. In addition there are 2 local companies keen to manage the facility as a business.

Similar funding of £150,000 from the Mourne Heritage Trust, towards developments of trails at Castlewellan Forest Park had also been put on hold.

It has been concluded by international experts in the field of trail development "Northern Ireland has the potential to meet – and exceed – all riding urges, whether the preference is singletrack, freeride or downhill .. the country has the potential to be one of the best MTB sites in the world "

Other organizations that support the project include:

• Northern Ireland Tourist Board
• Coillte
• Environmental and Heritage Service
• Mourne Activity Breaks
• Tollymore Mountain Centre
• Private outdoors activity provides
• Local cyclists
• Governing bodies for Cycling

Following numerous meeting with CAAN, solutions have been developed for all the issues raised by the Forestry Service but despite this the Forest Service has stated that the preferred option would be the development of a ‘Centre of Excellence’ in Fermanagh.

If solutions cannot be reached up to £555,000 will be lost in the next few months. An application to Interreg IIIa for approximately £750,000 was declined in Oct 2004; this decision may have been influenced by awareness of the issues relating to the project delivery.

What can you do?

1. Please, please, please sign the petition in the Forum with Your Name and where your from (to give the Forestry an idea of how important this is to the whole of Ireland and afar) and any other comments you might want to add. – Also encourage your friends and family to do so.
2. Go to the meetings organised by CAAN. These meetings are as follows:

Glenariff Forest Park, Co. Antrim - 26th February at 2pm
Castlewellan Forest Park, Castlewellan, Co. Down - 5th March at 2pm
Belvoir Forest Park, Belfast, 12th March at 2pm.

OK, all three may not suit, but for the cause, please attend one

3. Contact your local Council. These are the bodies that are elected on our behalf to deal with issues like these – lets see them do their job for a change