Peeblesshire News | News | Town anger at loss of biking business

Friday, 5th December, 2008

Published: Friday, 8th September, 2006 12:09

Town anger at loss of biking business

By Hannah Jefferson

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VISITOR numbers at Innerleithen’s popular mountain bike trail have taken a downhill turn this summer.

And businesses in the town have been hard-hit by the sudden loss.

Access to the cycle route, which normally attracts flocks of visitors, became limited after the Forestry Commission introduced new health and safety regulations in April.

And the hub bike centre were told they would not be allowed to continue using their current facilities to transport bikers and their equipment to the top of the track.

A Forestry Commission spokesman explained: “The situation is that the Commission places rider safety as a top priority and in a recent safety review we found that some of the uplift facilities being provided at downhill centres across Britain were not meeting with health and safety regulations.

“To take things forward we are to meet British Cycling in November to agree how we proceed with a permanent solution across Britain in 2007.

“In the meantime, arrangements through the interim safety measures at the Red Bull site are proving trickier to resolve because of the larger number of riders being transported.

“We hope a solution can be found soon.”

The Forestry Commission are currently in talks with the Hub to try to solve the problem of access for bikers wanting to use the Red Bull run.

But Chairman of Innerleithen’s Community Council, Ross McGinn has been outraged at the lack of communication received from the Commission and the loss of income for the town.

He told the Peeblesshire News this week: “The community Council are disappointed that the Forestry Commission didn’t tell us about this and the goodwill we have developed over a number of years has been lacking here.

“Innerleithen has lost a summer of mountain biking and the impact of that on our local businesses is huge.

“All the hundreds of people that were coming and using our local facilities are now not coming.”

The track has previously been rated as one of the most popular in the country.

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