Double Trouble

The more we complain about the unsightly clutter of management notices the more of them appear. There are now 7 of them and at the current rate of increase will be double that number by the end of next week.

It gives them something to do of course. When you're floundering around implementing an incoherent policy in a disfunctional organisation almost anything is acceptable in order to show you're not standing idle.

I say nothing about the well-hyped international cycle event. But there's a serious problem about SWT's attitude to mountain biking. The wildlife trust and Ride Sheffield need each other. Both the MTB crowd and SWT are generally unloved by many people so they naturally cosy up to each other.  SWT giving the bikers what they want and having a relaxed attitude to enforcing regulations gives them friends and those friends in turn are reluctant to rock the boat and join in the criticism of SWT's management.  It's a case of  '.....at least we've got some friends somewhere even if we are useless at what we're supposed to be doing'. Anyway SWT staff  are MTB riders themselves and probably see that activity as more important in their lives than being custodians of a site of natural beauty.

A recent encounter with a mountain biker was typical. He was racing along off track - not even on a public right of way. When challenged he came up with the same tired and discredited argument that the Kinder Trespass won rights for walkers by breaking the law, therefore bikers like him were right to ride where they wanted irrespective of the present law. The argument, and it's repeated almost parrot fashion, goes on that walkers ( who in his eyes are some different species) have double standards. The nonsense of this is well known - nobody's stopping him accessing this area - he just has to leave his vehicle behind as others leave their cars etc. In my experience mountain bikers can be vociferous in their insistence that motor bikes should be kept out of tracks and bridleways. Double standards are in the eyes of the beholder.

There are some balanced and sensible people who ride mountain bikes but the 'debate' is carried on by obsessives for whom the activity gives a special kind of meaning to  their lives. The group identity becomes more important than their identity within humanity itself and it helps the cohesiveness of the group to have a cause and a common enemy.

As for SWT this kind of thing comes before their obligations to the wider community who have engaged before in their Reserve Advisory Group in order to develop a mature view of what's appropriate in a site which is there for wildlife and natural beauty.