“Kids need somewhere to ride”: Cyclist’s campaign calls for pump track to stop young riders digging up woodland and damaging ancient archaeological sites

A local cyclist is leading a campaign for a dedicated pump track in Oswestry, arguing that giving young riders a safe, legal place to ride would be a “sensible” way to stop them digging up woodlands and even riding at a nationally important Iron Age hill fort — after “heartbreaking” damage sparked concern among heritage groups and local residents.

Theo Merchant, who works at Mule Bike shop on Salop Road, has launched a petition calling for Shropshire Council to transfer a piece of land next to Oswestry Leisure Centre to the town council so the facility can finally become a reality. He told the BBC that children and teenagers had been forced to build unofficial tracks themselves, leading to what he called a “backlash from locals.”

“Local kids need somewhere to ride, they need somewhere safe to congregate and build their confidence and social skills,” he said. “How has Oswestry not got a pump track when Shrewsbury has got six and other smaller towns in the local area have better facilities?”

Merchant’s petition, set up alongside former mayor Olly Rose, has attracted over 400 signatures. Rose told Shropshire Council’s Communities Overview Committee on July 10 that outdoor sport facilities could be life-changing for young people — and said Merchant himself was proof of that.

“At 14, living in a council estate in Wolverhampton with high crime rates where his life could easily have taken a different direction, he felt he was saved by going to the newly-built skatepark there, along with lots of other young people,” Rose said.

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One of the areas affected is Llwyn Coppice, north of the town, where up to 100 young people are said to have been riding regularly. A local resident warned that riders were unknowingly damaging ancient woodland and added: “They’re doing this because they’ve got nowhere else to go. They’re continuing to expand [the tracks] and new kids keep turning up so it really would be sensible to give them a place [to ride].”

The problem reached the nationally significant Old Oswestry Hillfort in March, when the BBC reported that the scheduled monument had been damaged by people digging jumps, riding bikes over the site, and even ripping gates off their hinges. Win Scutt, curator for English Heritage, said: “When you see this kind of damage, it just breaks your heart.”

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Scutt called it a criminal offence to damage a scheduled monument and said he believed the culprits were local teenagers who didn’t understand the significance of the site. “It’s kids, teenagers apparently, so we’re told. It’s not serious mountain bikers,” he said. “It’s great they’re out getting exercise, but this is the wrong place to do it.”

He said some damage appeared to be caused by riders trying to make the hillfort “a bit more exciting for bikes” and stressed: “Often kids just need a quiet word if that’s who it is and kids do generally respect the past if they know about it. But sometimes they just look at a hillfort like this and think ‘well that’s just a whole load of lumps really and that’s great for riding my bike’ – but actually it’s a really important site.”

Planning permission for a BMX track on the site next to the leisure centre was first granted in 2008, but the project never materialised. Oswestry Town Council has said it can fund the pump track using money from the sale of the old Smithfield site more than a decade ago.

Olly Rose pointed out that Oswestry is the second largest town in Shropshire yet lacks such a facility, unlike Shrewsbury or even Ellesmere — which recently secured £20,000 from Shropshire Council for its own track.

“Planning permission was granted for a BMX facility back in 2008 on this site, demonstrating its suitability for this type of facility. But it didn’t materialise, and a generation of young people missed out,” Rose said. “We are hoping the new administration will show leadership and help bring this project to reality. The town council has both the money and the will to complete it.”

The Communities Overview Committee gave general support to the idea on July 10. Councillor James Owen, portfolio holder for housing and leisure — and also an Oswestry town councillor — said the land transfer could happen through a lease of part of the site rather than the whole parcel, with conditions attached for its specific use.

Councillor Chris Naylor said: “It has wider ramifications to the council for listening to young people on particular projects. Do we need to be reviewing how good we are at listening to local requests and working with young people to help meet their needs?”

Councillor Donna Edmunds added: “I am curious: if planning permission was granted in 2008, why [has] nothing gone ahead? There’s space, there’s a public need, and there’s money.”

Councillor Ed Potter said that if the facility ended up unused, there might need to be provisions for it to revert to Shropshire Council for other community uses.

Councillor Alan Holford warned that some pump tracks have ended up underused and suggested that Oswestry Town Council should involve local people in the design process.

The committee agreed to pass the petition on to the relevant portfolio holder to explore the most appropriate route for transferring the land.

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Oswestry-born downhill mountain bike racer and coach James Anderson is also among those backing the plan. Anderson, who runs a mountain bike club at The Marches School, said demand far outstripped capacity.

“It’s limited to 10 pupils but there is demand from nearly 50 kids. There are so many kids riding in Oswestry, but facilities haven’t kept up with the pace. They need something based here locally so they don’t have to travel to access it.”

A local resident told councillors that “thousands of bluebells” had already been lost at Llwyn Coppice due to bikes and digging.

Across the UK, rows over unsanctioned bike trails and young riders have played out in woods, parks, and public spaces — often pitching conservation groups, councils, and the police against children with shovels and second-hand bikes.

In Sheffield earlier this year, conservation volunteers dismantled a homemade mountain bike trail in Trippet Wood, claiming it had caused “significant damage” to the ancient woodland. Locals hit back, accusing them of leaving the area in a hazardous state and targeting children unfairly. One resident described the move as “vindictive,” while others questioned why no official bike facilities had been offered as an alternative.

In May, police in Baschurch — less than 10 miles from Oswestry — taped off a grassy bank used by schoolchildren as a bike ramp after a near miss with a driver. Officers branded it “anti-social behaviour” and warned that cutting through temporary fencing could count as “criminal damage,” a response some locals criticised as disproportionate.

Other incidents have made headlines across the UK, from children in South Wales fenced out of a woodland they had cleaned up to use as a bike track, to young riders in Lancashire accused of causing “serious” damage to a nature reserve after digging jumps in a wildflower meadow.

Even official pump track projects have proved contentious. In Worcester, a city councillor accused cycling campaigners of “bullying” after lobbying efforts in support of a pump track in Battenhall. Despite the claims, demand for the facility was so high that a second, larger pump track was later approved for a different site in the city.