Goverment Public Consultation on Sale of Woodland

[kedge]

WIM have had a very good working relationship both with the Moors Valley Visitor Centre and their staff and also with the local FC over the years. We hold monthly introductory coaching sessions for the public there and have also assisted in the provision of coaching courses so that some of the rangers are now Level 1 coaches.

This also means that we generally get access to the forest for events when we ask for it. This is especially important during the spring/summer months when our mapped areas of Dorset heathland and our New Forest areas become unavailable to us between March & August because of ground nesting birds etc. We've got a schools championships event there next month.

Whether it helps develop the sport locally is difficult to say. We've picked up the odd new member from the coaching sessions over the years. But Moors Valley gets huge numbers of visitors from a wide area in the south and often we find ourselves explaining to interested parties that their nearest club is not WIM but some other club in the south.

The permanent course gets well used and there is also permanent MTBO course which extends into the neighbouring FC forest of Ringwood North. In general terms, WIM do the mapping, the FC source the permanent posts for us, we paint them up and then they plant them for us. The posts also have an SI base plate fixed to them, which is very useful when we've got coaching & training sessions, and someone on a bike,with a bag of control units and some cable ties can put out a course pretty quickly.

The posts however, although pretty sturdy, do suffer from vandalism from some of the locals - the squirrels eat the plastic of the clips!http://www.mjk2.net/waffle/articles/vandals2.html

[SeanC]

Good stuff.

Does that mean orienteers don't have to pay the high car park fees at events?

[kedge]

The parking fee is a variable thing: its actually quite cheap on a weekday in the middle of winter. On the other hand, on a Bank Holiday....

When WIM have large events in Moors Valley, like for instance the 2011 Boxing Day Canter, which always get around 250 runners, we arrange parking elsewhere in the forest, on forest roads, well away from the Visitor Centre and its car park. But we do have to pay the standard FC charges to use the forest.

For other events, such as the MTBO event we hold in summer during Bike Week in co-operation with the park authorities, we keep the entry fees low so we make a small surplus, but competitors have to pay the car park fees as well (although WIM officials usually get in for free). You could say we have a symbiotic relationship with the Country park management.

And for evening training,once the Visitor Centre and its facilities close at 6.00, the barriers go up and parking becomes free.

[King Penguin]

And for evening training,once the Visitor Centre and its facilities close at 6.00, the barriers go up and parking becomes free.

Wow ! I can think of other FC areas where the opposite happens - the barriers come down and you are either locked in or locked out.

[Red Adder]

£ 8 parking fee is extortionate - I can get my car well washed at Sainsbury's or Asda whilst shopping for less ! And they have a cafe and clean loos.

Seriously though some of these rural parking fees are getting ridiculous and I suspect when it goes over a couple of quid most casual visitors like me drive on and soon find a free roadside place. Surely counter-productive all round.

[kedge]

I should perhaps point out that Moors Valley Country Park is run by East Dorset Council, rather than just by the FC.

We've got to enjoy it whilst it lasts. Unfortunately, about a third of the country park, the bit over the Hampshire border, on land in private ownership, has been identified in a Hampshire CC plan as a possible site for future gravel/mineral extraction, followed by landfill: the so-called Purple Haze site. The residents of Verwood, adjacent to it, have been in uproar about it.

And part of the northern end of the adjacent Ringwood North forest, again forested by the FC on land owned by Lord Normanton, is due for felling followed by gravel extraction within the next couple of years. The next WIM events in Ringwood North may be the last chances we get to use the whole area of the forest.

[Red Adder]

Proof in pint - Havoc's event on Sunday is at a large country park run by Essex County Council. The charge a reasonable £ 2.20 for a beautiful area along with loos, cafe and shop - not suprisingly it is always well used.

PS Havoc always put on a good event there - so if you haven't been here's a good opportunity.

[King Penguin]

the so-called Purple Haze site.

Which came first - the area name or the music ?

[SeanC]

Yes, our experience too at Shorne (owned by Kent County Council), reasonable parking fees and nice facilities.

I guess country parks run by local authorities are often subsidised, with votes to be won and lost if the facilities/car parking charges are right or wrong for the locals. With no local accountability, the FC must be tempted to turn some of their best sites into regional tourist attractions with prices to match.

[kedge]

king penguin wrote
"Which came first - the area name or the music ?"

Rather prosaically, the Purple Haze gravel extraction was so called because the existing landfill site on the other side of the road is called Blue Haze: apparently nothing to do with Hendrix!

The Ringwood Forest South forest, incorporated into the Moors Valley Country Park, is two thirds in East Dorset and one third in Hampshire. The country park is run by East Dorset. It has the best part of a million visitors annually: the second biggest tourist attraction in Dorset according to the county council website.

Yet Hampshire is considering the land in their part of the county for mineral extraction/landfill, which will considerably reduce the area available for the park, as well as making it a much less attractive visitor attraction.

You might think that if the park was entirely in Hampshire, they would do no such thing - I cannot possibly comment.