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Planned bike track will lead to noise, traffic, parking issues, anti-social behaviour, and “more children cycling through park”, say angry residents

Local cyclists, however, have argued that the proposed pump track will reduce anti-social behaviour and promote “exercise and well-being” for young people

Proposals for a children’s bike track in a park in Nelson have attracted criticism from some outraged residents, after a petition which attracted over 200 signatures claimed the track would lead to anti-social behaviour, parking issues, and the “disturbance of a tranquil area” due to the potential for an increased number of children riding bikes through the woodland.

In 2022, Pendle Borough Council and the Nelson Town Deal Board first proposed the creation of a BMX track, which would be built through the woodland within Marsden Park in the Lancashire town, which is undergoing a series of improvements including the building of a new playground, refurbished tennis courts, and a new multi-use games area.

However, plans for the BMX track were soon scrapped and replaced by a proposed junior pump track, after the board concluded that the potential for “BMX or other bikes crossing footpaths within the park” posed a serious health and safety risk.

The planned location for the track has also changed twice over the past two years, after proposals for it to be built on the site of a former outdoor pool area were kiboshed by residents, who argued that it would be “too close” to nearby houses and a narrow road, and that “the area would be better served as a picnic site or orchard or growing space”.

> Councillor claims planned Surrey Bike Park could attract child molesters

According to Pendle Borough Council, officers then proposed that the track should be built on the site of an informal football area in the centre of the park woodland, due to its “contained” location “away from houses”.

However, that change of location still failed to satisfy local residents who, during the council’s consultation process, lodged a petition against the pump track scheme, which attracted over 200 signatures.

The petition argued that the pump track would lead to “parking issues, anti-social behaviour, the disturbance of a tranquil area, an increased number of children riding cycles through the park, and a lack of access for emergency vehicles”.

Finally, the petition concluded that “pump tracks should not be in a park”.

However, a counter-petition, supported by local cycling campaigners and attracting 133 signatures, argued that the track would instead “provide alternative activities to reduce anti-social behaviour”.

The petition also pointed out that the infrastructure, aimed at children, would promote physical exercise, well-being, and skill creation among young people, while also providing a feeder group to the large cycle hub at nearby Barrowford.

> “It will be like living next to a motorway!”: Residents oppose school’s BMX cycle track project out of fears that they’d lose their “peace” and “privacy”

Meanwhile, the residents opposing the scheme called for several other sites to be considered, all of which were deemed unsuitable by council officers. Nevertheless, a third location was identified within Marsden Park, on the corner of Marsden Hall Road and Hallam Road – the council said earlier this month that it has informed the lead petitioner of the new plans and is yet to receive a response.

And in a meeting of Pendle Borough Council last week, the local authority’s deputy leader, Liberal Democrat councillor David Whipp, dismissed the initial opposition as a “storm in an open-air swimming pool”.

"I don’t want to belittle the legitimate concerns of residents. But I also can’t help feeling this is a storm in an open-air swimming pool,” he said.

“[Town Board chair] Stephen Barnes and I were both involved in closing it, which alienated people at the time. But time moves on. I think it was appropriate to consider a pump track. It’s also important to listen to what local people feel.”

However, Whipp also noted that the need to maintain the pump track must be taken into account before any plans are finalised.

“Pendle Council has no money for maintenance of the track or Marsden Park generally. So would maintenance costs be picked up by Nelson Town Council?” he asked the meeting.

“It’s all very well to spend millions on facilities but if there’s no money for maintenance, it’s a waste of public money.

“We, the council, might have to slash £1 million from budgets next year. If the town deal is not supplying maintenance money, we should do something different that won’t have these consequences.”

> Surrey Bike Park row: campaigner opposed to bike park takeover explains "what is really happening"

However, Phil Riley, a park manager at the council, pointed out that the track’s proposed tarmac surface, with the exception of some moss treatment, would not require much maintenance.

“It will be tarmac because it will have bikes and electric scooters going on it, being realistic. But the Pendle Panthers BMX club has offered help,” he said.

“Regarding anti-social behaviour, Marsden Park is challenging, as many parks are in Nelson. I wonder what engagement is like with young people and with other organisations?

“I think we have a good model about engaging with neighbourhoods. This issue is about maintenance but also how we support young people, and potential and perceived anti-social behaviour.”

Of course, local fears about the perceived potential for anti-social behaviour on pump or BMX tracks are not just confined to Pendle.

In June, we reported that a bid by a school in Folkestone, Kent, to build a BMX track for its students was met with opposition from nearby residents, who claimed the “noisy bikers” would disturb the peaceful atmosphere of the neighbourhood and make it like “living next to a motorway”.

And back in 2021, a councillor in Surrey claimed that a planned bike park near Dorking “could attract child molesters” – though she later claimed her comments were misinterpreted.

After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.

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17 comments

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OldRidgeback | 7 sec ago
0 likes

There were similar calls to stop a BMX pump track near where I live. "It'll bring crime," were the claims. Actually, it's done the opposite. The area was notorious for drug crime and muggings but the increased numbers of families there to ride the track mean the drug dealers have moved soemwhere else.

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Beatnik69 | 1 hour ago
3 likes

- Kids these days, they never go out; just stay indoors, playing on their Playstations and XBoxes. Never getting any exercise. 

-Ok, we'll build a BMX track so that they can get out in the fresh air and get exercise

-No not that, it'll just attract kids.

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qwerty360 | 2 hours ago
3 likes

Makes me think about objections to one near me..

Loads of rants about how dangerous it was and how ambulances wouldn't be able to get there etc;

At least until the rep for the ambulance service pointed out they were actively campaigning for the skate park because the alternative to a professionally designed skate park is the kids building far more dangerous homemade jumps in the woods...

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Velo-drone | 2 hours ago
7 likes

What the hell is wrong with people who don't want children having fun in parks!?

Seriously, this country has some issues.. particularly with teenage children. They basically want them to cease existing, bar them from doing anything or going anywhere and then get pissy when they're roaming the streets making trouble because there's literally nothing they're allowed to do

Case in point - a new bowling alley opening in town, 10 mins walk from my house.

Fantastic, I thought - my kids will get tte chance to go bowling regularly and maybe get good - which I never had the chance to because the nearest bowling was 30 mins drive away

A month later - and they've introduced a policy of no under 18s after 8pm. They open at 7pm. So basically there's only one slot in the day that actual teenage kids are allowed to go to a *)!*"ing bowling alley.

Sorry for slight ragey tangent, but it's the same idiotic mindset with this comment about not wanting to encourage kids on bikes in the park. What a world.

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ALCA replied to Velo-drone | 58 min ago
0 likes

Better to have fun at McDonald's 😂

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anke2 | 4 hours ago
1 like

Right. These kids are going to grow up with the costs of global warming (including political instability) and increased energy cost anyway. Why should we invest money in them if they don't have the perspective that we had? And what a waste of tarmac and concrete - widen the motorway instead so we can travel further without need. And ban anyone not driving cars or mobility aids from parks. We've worked hard for it, we paid a LOT of money for energy and fuel during the oil crisis, and we have built up the road network with our road tax! <irony off>

Btw: Does anyone remember the reason for the oncle being arrested in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451?

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hawkinspeter replied to anke2 | 2 hours ago
3 likes

anke2 wrote:

Right. These kids are going to grow up with the costs of global warming (including political instability) and increased energy cost anyway. Why should we invest money in them if they don't have the perspective that we had? And what a waste of tarmac and concrete - widen the motorway instead so we can travel further without need. And ban anyone not driving cars or mobility aids from parks. We've worked hard for it, we paid a LOT of money for energy and fuel during the oil crisis, and we have built up the road network with our road tax! <irony off>

Btw: Does anyone remember the reason for the oncle being arrested in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451?

Anyhow, found this online:

Huh - just last night I discovered that I didn't have a copy of the 1966 Truffaut film and then had difficulty finding a copy as I spelled it with only one "h". The film's only readable text (apart from numbers) is the opening logo.

Quote:

My uncle was arrested another time—did I tell you? —for being a pedestrian. Oh, we’re most peculiar.

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Aluminium can | 11 hours ago
7 likes

The X in BMX stands for Satan. I know that after our council built a pump track there was an increase in the sighting of cloven hoofed demons with leathery wings. Also traffic congestion during school runs got worse.

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ktache replied to Aluminium can | 11 hours ago
1 like

Did house prices not rise as quicky?...

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Aluminium can replied to ktache | 11 hours ago
4 likes

The houses of the righteous rose in value.  The others were cast into the abyss.  The others; being Millenials.

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sigirides | 12 hours ago
6 likes

I'm so tired of people being stupid about bicycles.

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don simon fbpe replied to sigirides | 5 hours ago
3 likes

sigirides wrote:

I'm so tired of people being stupid about bicycles.

I'm just tired of people being stupid.

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Clem Fandango | 13 hours ago
4 likes

Yes, of course parking problems. Should've known. Bound to bring in loads of drivers apparently - not like the kids using it could, I don't know, just spit balling here, cycle there? Ah wait no, they don't want that either.

To be fair to the nimbys though they have correctly identified that drivists & motornomativity are a problem. Kudos. If only there were a solution......

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brooksby replied to Clem Fandango | 9 hours ago
1 like

Don't forget angry residents' fear that more children will start riding through the park, sowing chaos and fear or something.

You see - there's going to be parking chaos due to people driving there, or cycling chaos if people ride there: the angry residents are afraid of there being any change at all...

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burncpt | 13 hours ago
12 likes

There's a very good reason why pump tracks are often built in deprived areas - because, as the article mentions, they are excellent at reducing anti-social behaviour by providing an outlet for physical activity and skill creation, which has been shown time and time again. Why are the nimbys allowed to have such a say when their opposition is based on absolutely no evidence?

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C3a replied to burncpt | 1 hour ago
0 likes

NIMBY retirees and boomers will be the death of us all.

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HLaB | 13 hours ago
2 likes

FWIW, I've been in Peterborough 14 years and there's a BMX track in the middle of a housing area.  It probably had the similar NIMBY's when it was built.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/dLQKh7dtrkbjEJeo6 

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