News

Mon 2 Nov, 4:15 pm UTC

News archive

Still Wood in Bristol closed to mountain bikers

By James Costley-White

Mountain bikers in Bristol, England fear they are about to lose one of their best loved riding spots.

Signs have gone up at Still Wood, near the Ashton Court estate, stating that "all cycling must cease" because it is being redesignated as a working wood.

The notice goes on to say: "During November all ramps, jumps and associated groundworks will be removed." Reports suggest diggers have already moved in.

The wood, owned by Bristol University, is criss-crossed by a network of downhill tracks, dirt jumps and freeride stunts which are used by hundreds of riders each week.

A group of local mountain bikers have already set up a Facebook page campaigning against its closure, Save Still Woods.

Student Matt Horgan told BikeRadar: "The wood is really important for mountain biking in Bristol. Both universities – Bristol and the University of the West of England – have strong clubs that use it, and it's a great place for people getting into the sport. There's nowhere else in Bristol to go downhilling, and a lot of us don't have cars.

"This closure is a real surprise because there are a few guys who are regularly up there litter-picking and the trails are well maintained. We should be able to come to some kind of agreement with the university to keep the trails maintained and get some insurance."

It had been hoped that the biking ban was a temporary measure while essential forestry work was carried out. But when we contacted the university it sounded like the closure would be permanent.

A spokeswoman told BikeRadar: "The University of Bristol is concerned that cyclists are riding, and at some points jumping, across public pathways in woodland owned by the university at Long Ashton. This could lead to accidents involving pedestrians as well as the cyclists themselves. In addition, there has been a significant amount of damage to the woodland as a result of mountain biking.

"On Friday notices were put up at each access point, indicating that permission to use the woods (with the exception of the public footpaths) had been revoked. All ramps and ditches [jumps and berms] will be removed this week and a project manager will be working with contractors, and neighbours, to reinstate boundary posts, fences and footpaths. This will involve some scrub clearance along boundaries.

"In due course the woodland will be thinned, along the lines of good woodland management and with a licence from the Forestry Commission. New tree whips will be planted, within cordoned-off areas, in order to restore the natural habitat which has been lost."

User Comments

There are 16 comments on this post

Showing 1 - 16 of 16 comments

  • Name and shame the twunt(s) that approved this!

  • NOOOO!!! i live in bristol and there every weekend!! i know on of the litter picker guys!! i can'tt believe this is happening

    noooooooooooooooooooo

  • get use to it, people. All over the world forest, woods, wilds are being close to human traffic due to enviromental concerns. In 20 years the only mTBiking anyone will be doing is video games

  • The forests where i ride (Cannock and Swynnerton) look like they are being destroyed by the forestry commision to me. Where once stood many trees are now hacked up by the big mud plugging tractors cutting big swarths of trees down. Seeing there take 30 years to grow back its hard to see any environmental benefits that are being done.

  • Swinley forest is the same, Foresty Commision has cut down hundreds of trees all the way across part of the forest. I'm sure they are meant to preserve the forests, not destroy them.

  • Swagman, it's clear that you don't know how a forest works. They aren't there to look pretty - they're to provide timber for building, paper-making and other purposes. Clear-felling is all part of the lifecycle of the forest. As for Still Woods - if its privately owned and the tracks are unofficial, then there isn't a lot to be done.

  • "could lead to accidents" isn't will, or has.

    If this is a safety issue, then at least put forward the steps/measures that need to be undertaken to make this safer for all concerned.

    Otherwise, let's just ban MTB's, because they 'could lead to accidents'. And I'll go wrap myself/others in cotton wool.

  • its funny how they suddenly come up with all these health and safety issues now.when people have been riding there for years without any incidents.they make excuses when it suits them. the place is well maintained why not capitalize on that and develop the area.were so short sighted in this country.in wasnt that long ago they wanted to close the cafe in coed y brenin and look how popular the place is now.

  • If the Uni. could be made to see this area as a sporting/leisure resource that might help. It could be linked to Sports / Leisure management courses & outdoor ed. Most big Uni.s have their own outdoor sport facilities. My Uni (UCLan) has a centre in Llangollen with it's own fleet of MTBs! In other words if they could see the educational/financial potential of MTBing in these woods things might change. At the moment they are clearly just seeing potential law suits.

  • Hardly surprising. I wish people would have the imagaination to seek out their own trails, its all good when only a few riders hit one spot, but when hoards of people are hitting one place week in week out, thats going to lead to conflict from all different groups. Especially when people can not be content with natural trails and have to start trail building, you might get it, but others just think it looks a mess. Whatever happened to the outdoor maxim of 'leave nothing but footprints (tyre tracks)'.

  • Can Chicksands be used as a good example of where, in parts of the natural woodland, bikers have the right of way, the woodland is managed effectively and all necessary precautions are taken to limit injury/harm?

  • we had the same problem near to me, my advice is to burn the diggers...after a few have been burnt they normally give up...we burnt 3 JCB's and a huge thing with tracks on it...after that they just gave up...u got to totally destroy them...it really works!!!

  • jenine - are you joking - or are you really that stupid..??

  • softlad no im not...it worked the tress were saved and so was our down hill track..direct action is the only thing these people understand...

  • I'm all for the closure! Anyone that has seen still woods knows it looks like a bomb hit it! The builders have trashed the whole forest, with line after line after line, all over the hill. The biggest problem with this is that they've found somewhere else, in Failand, and they're messing with that too. Maybe this closure will teach them something about sustainable trail building, and working with the environment, rather than against it!

  • On the post I saw the other day it said "Forest conservation". So are they doing what the wood was designed for (getting chopped down) or is it being closed because of the MTB communuity building stuff over the roadways and chopping stuff down?

  • 1

Post comment:

You need to login or register to post comments.

Related links

BikeRadar is not responsible for the content of external websites

Also on BikeRadar