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Cycling City? Not on our land

Bristol City Council stops all cycling activity on council land; other sports unaffected

Remember when Bristol was championing itself as the first Cycling City? Seems that cycling's out in the cold nowadays: the City Council have take it upon themselves to suspend all cycle events on council sites, effectively cancelling the Western League cyclocross series in the process.

We spoke to Craig Denning of Dream Cycling, whose Western league event, scheduled to take place at Hengrove Park in Bristol, has had to be moved at short notice. "the first event at Hengrove went ahead as planned," he told us, "but when I didn't receive a license for the second, I had to chase and chase to get through to someone at the council. Eventually I was told that a decision had been made by the new manager of parks to suspend all cycling events on Bristol-City-owned sites."

So much for a cycling city, then. When pressed by Denning, the Council stated that a wet summer, coupled with budget cuts, meant that they weren't prepared to put cycling events on and risk damage to facilities. When asked whether the suspension would also apply to football and rugby, the Council unsurprisingly confirmed that they'd be going ahead as normal.

"It's ridiculous - Hengrove is a sports facility, not an area of outstanding natural beauty," Denning told us. "There used to be crit races held up there on the old Whitchurch Airport runways, and there's a car boot sale held there every week that does more damage than a cylocross race ever could." Initially reports were circulating that the Council would be asking for a £2,500 deposit ahead of each event, but even that route – which cyclo cross organisers wouldn't have been able to afford anyway – is now seemingly closed. The reason for the suspension, that appears to affect cycle events and nothing else, is unclear. Recently the Bristol Bikefest events have encountered problems with access to, and restoration of, fields used as campsites during the summer and Oktoberfest events, but there's no campsite at a CX race.

All this from a City council that was happy to take £11m of Government funding in 2008 to become the first designated Cycling City in England. "Cycling clearly plays a big part in that and is central to Bristol's vision of the future," states their website. That's presumably so long as that cycling doesn't take place on their land...

Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.

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Chuffy replied to sean1 | 11 years ago
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seanbolton wrote:

I have emailed Gary Hopkins and Tim Kent about this issue. Maybe some lobbying from the Bristol area cycling clubs can reverse the decision.

It could just an over cautious reaction to perceived damage to the parkland. If those involved can be persuaded otherwise then maybe they can reverse the decision or at least reach some compromise.

Yup. Sensible reaction and I suspect you're right about the perceived damage thing too.

Councils are often open to discussion, although they'd do better to avoid getting themselves into this kind of mess in the first place. Sadly, once it gets to the media it usually ends up with uninformed people shouting, the council in defensive mode and the media stirring things in pursuit of a headline. None of which is helpful or constructive.

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therevokid | 11 years ago
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Contact details for those who want it  1

councillor for Parks and Open Spaces is Gary Hopkins, the Lib Dem councillor for Knowle:
Gary Hopkins
0117 922 2879
Gary.Hopkins [at] bristol.gov.uk

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davidtcycle replied to zanf | 11 years ago
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Could try their Twitter feed - https://twitter.com/BristolCouncil

A few comments on there might wake them up

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Chipps | 11 years ago
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My council park officer lets me use the town park every year for a New Year 'cross race. It's always wet and muddy (when it's not frozen) and we do make a bit of a mess of the park. However, after a good rain and a month or so, it's already started to heal and you'd not know it had happened. (I've some before/after pics if anyone needs - and it's never as bad as the mess after the summer agricultural fair...)

I got in touch with the Council to ask to use it after seeing the park criticised in the paper due to the football pitches always being waterlogged, or having poor quality turf. In contrast, we get 300 or so riders (from 6 to 70) from all over the north coming to race in the middle of winter, loving the park and being really positive about it. Can you imagine the organisation and mess that getting 300 footballers to turn up for one day of matches?

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Mombee | 11 years ago
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Just recieved this from Gary Hopkins... It does seem that there's been some misunderstanding and/or a badly handled decision relating to a small number of events...

Dear all

I have received a number of e-mails of varying tones,varying from the ultra reasonable enquiry to the aggressively accusatory, regarding a report that has been passed out claiming that a ban has been put on cycling events in parks.
LET ME FIRSTLY BE CLEAR THAT NO SUCH BAN EXISTS and that in fact parks dept. are looking to develop further BMX facilities building on the success of fairly recently installed courses and that in general encouraging physical activities in parks is encouraged and is increasing.

I understand that there was some interaction between council officers in the events team and a club. Clearly any activity in a park,be it pop concert,fun day or sporting activity will have an effect upon the park and any group needs to take responsibility for any damage which could have a negative effect upon other users and contribute to the reinstatement costs.

This matter came up some months ago and I am surprised and disappointed that it has reemerged at this time. I trust that this is down to misunderstanding/miscommunication.I sincerely hope that nobody has been deliberately misled.

Gary Hopkins

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SideBurn replied to Mombee | 11 years ago
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Mombee wrote:

a number of e-mails of varying tones

Gary Hopkins

Who has not been playing nicely?

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Mr Agreeable | 11 years ago
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Even if there's no outright ban (and if so, why was an event organiser told there was?) then there's something seriously remiss when an event attended by 50 or so people has to stump up a four-figure damage deposit.

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sean1 | 11 years ago
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I have also received the reply from Gary Hopkins.

My email to him was positive and constructive and I was pleased he took the time to respond.

However I have emailed Gary back to seek clarification about the bond requirement of £2500 which I think is the stumbling block.

Gary states that there is no ban on cycling, but by imposing the requirement for a £2500 bond the council is effectively preventing this type of low key, grass roots event from taking place.

I can understand a large scale event in a park (e.g. a circus, a balloon festival, etc) requiring such a bond. But it seems disproportionate for a low key cyclo-cross race.

Whilst a cyclo-cross race can cause some superficial damage, and it can look a bit bad the day after, this type of damage quickly recovers naturally. I would imagine the worst case scenario is the park keeper has to sprinkle a bit of grass seed in some places. But this is probably a common task in a well used park.

It would be good if a representative from British Cycling could get involved and talk directly to Gary Hopkins and the parks managers. I still think with a bit of consultation and cooperation a solution can be found.

It would set a bad precedent if a local council starts banning cyclo-cross races. It then gives an excuse to the neighbouring council to do the same. And then it is downhill......  2

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neslon replied to danb | 11 years ago
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The Parkie – An extremely angry park keeper who abuses people that seem like they are breaking park rules, when in fact they are not - he even creates his own rules just so that he can abuse them.

Find him in old Viz comics

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euanlindsay | 11 years ago
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A similar thing happened with Glasgow City Council two years ago that effectively stopped two very popular races in King's and Bellahouston Parks. I think they were asking for £10k.

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Mr Agreeable | 11 years ago
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The local radio station interviewed me and series organiser Craig this morning, and also gave a response from the Council which mentions this here website! Which apparently is a "blog". From about 37 minutes: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01063tx

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AnalogueAndy | 11 years ago
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Thanks all who've (politely) emailed Bristol CC (Councillors and Officers).

There is more to this than might first appear, starting with Craig Denning / Dream CCs use of Hengrove but yes, extending to use of all the other parks in Bristol for CX (and there are lots - St Georges, Oldbury Ct, Conham Riverside Park, Purdown and Ashton Ct). All are currently in jeopardy. Negotiations continue between the Western League Organisers, the main promoting Club (Severn), BC and the Council.

I understand that part of the problem was that said Parks Manager googled 'cyclo cross' and ended up watching a Belgian vid which showed a crowd of 10,000+ watching a field of 100+ riding a completely chewed up course! (Oh we could wish for the same in Bristol but the reality is a maximum field of the normal 50-ish!).

I'm not riding at the moment as I'm injured but I've ridden Western League CX events for the last 20 years. At one point they nearly died out due to numbers (5 of us!) but like the rest of the UK they've been picking up in recent years and field sizes have been good.

As those who race CX will know, it's one of the most accessible 'fun' but 'serious' (Serious Fun?) forms of cycle-sport.

Let's hope we can resolve the current 'difficulties' in Bristol and get these venues back in the calendar  1

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AnalogueAndy replied to Mr Agreeable | 11 years ago
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Mr Agreeable wrote:

The local radio station interviewed me and series organiser Craig this morning, and also gave a response from the Council which mentions this here website! Which apparently is a "blog".

Thanks Mr Agreeable for getting involved. I'm sure we can get it sorted with your help  3

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sam_smith replied to AnalogueAndy | 11 years ago
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Having several friends in Bristol City Council I'm aware that the council is a large organisation and like any other big organisation not all it's departments sing from the same hymn sheet.

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