Over 90 organisations and trail groups have joined forces to voice concerns over planned cuts to trail centres by Natural Resources Wales.
The idea of an all-weather, ready-made mountain biking experience was invented at Coed y Brenin and proved a massive boost to tourism.
In an unprecedented show of solidarity, over 90 organisations have pulled together to highlight concerns over the fate of several much-loved trail centres due to proposed budget cuts at Natural Resources Wales. These include the birthplace of the trail centre, and the unofficial home of mountain biking in the UK, Coed y Brenin. Bringing these fears to the highest levels, the group has written a letter to the Welsh Government’s Minister responsible for Natural Resources Wales (NRW) ahead of a board meeting on 25 September, which will decide the fate of Coed y Brenin and a number of other Welsh mountain biking sites. The organisations include Cycling UK, Beicio Cymru (formerly Welsh Cycling), the UK MTB Trail Alliance, Mountain Bike Wales and the Wales Adventure Tourism Organisation among others.
Coed y Brenin visitor centre is under threat.
We reported earlier this year that the NRW faces budget cuts and has highlighted plans to close visitor centres in some popular mountain biking spots including Coed y Brenin for a period of time, while new organisations are found to manage the centres. The consequence of this will lead to a lack of management of the trails for an undetermined amount of time, with no staff to maintain or repair trails as needed. The potential impact on tourism and overall health and wellbeing of people in Wales is also highlighted in the letter to Huw Irranca-Davies MS, the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs.
The letter highlights the importance of funding the trails and their visitor centres, as well as working collaboratively with volunteer groups that are keen to help in the maintenance of the trails. It looks at 5 main points, which we’ll go into below.
Trails like these at Coed y Brenin could be put at risk if there are no volunteer groups allowed to help maintain trails
What exactly is NRW proposing?
Like every governmental organisation at the moment, NRW is facing a budgetary crisis. Essentially, they need to cut £13 million from their budget by April 2025, which they are proposing to do so by “removing 265 posts, of which 108 posts are vacant, from our structure.” These posts unfortunately include staff across Coed y Brenin, Bwlch Nant yr Arian and Ynyslas.
The plans to close visitor centres aren’t permanent, just until they can find commercial partners to run them. But, given bids will need to go through a tender process, it’s an undeterminable amount of time that the trails could be left unmanaged. So what does this mean for Welsh mountain biking?
It’s not good. In fact, it’s a pretty dire situation. Essentially these trail hubs could be left to suffer without proper management. Just last week we highlighted how Hadleigh Park has fallen into this trap, with several features and trails permanently closed and/or unusable as the council is unable or unwilling to spare the cash to keep them running. While that’s a more isolated incident in England, this could impact thousands of kilometres of trails within Wales – both ‘officially built’ and ‘community built’.
The meeting on 25 September could decide the future of trails like these in Wales
What do the UK MTB Trail Alliance and other organisations want to happen?
93 organisations, businesses and charities have now signed the letter to the Welsh government, which they hope will appeal to the minister enough to reconsider the proposals from NRW. The letter has 5 main asks:
- A sustainable, meaningful and ongoing investment in maintaining and developing NRW’s existing mountain bike trails.
- NRW to materially improve its approach to working with volunteer groups, so that they can help maintain and develop Wales’ mountain bike trails.
- To ensure that either NRW’s visitor centres are not closed, or that the tender and contract processes for them are expedited so they are closed only for a very short time.
- NRW properly consider local community groups as candidate partners to take on the running of these centres.
- That the Access Reform Programme be unfrozen, prioritised and included within the current Programme for Government.
We won’t go into detail on each point here, as you can read the letter in full for yourselves, but it does seem like 5 sensible, reasonable requests to keep Welsh mountain biking afloat. Beyond the obvious benefits to mountain bikers in keeping the trails open and managed (whether by volunteers or council-led teams), it’s a key area of Welsh tourism that could potentially be impacted if destinations aren’t up to scratch. Imagine if you turned up to BikePark Wales and half the trails were closed, and the rest were so full of braking bumps and ruts they were basically unrideable – you’d be pretty peeved, and unlikely to return.
Old school mountain biking it may be, but there are few better places to get ‘out there’.
Beyond the visitor centres closing, which is almost a secondary story here, the current situation sees NRW not being as proactive when talking to volunteer trail management groups. What this means is that although there are people willing to put in time and effort to keep on top of trail maintenance, they aren’t being given the opportunity. It also means that thousands of kilometres of community built trails aren’t recognised and/or being maintained, either.
There’s no magic money tree, and mountain biking isn’t going to be the top priority when council budgets are slashed, but the letter argues that it represents a wider importance to Wales from a tourism and public health perspective. And thus ignoring it or underfunding mountain biking will mean there are consequences further down the line not just for riders but for local businesses as well.
Volunteer groups are ready and waiting to take on trail management, but need approval from NRW to do so
So what can riders do to help?
A petition to stop Natural Resources Wales closing Bwlch Nant yr Arian, Coed y Brenin & Ynyslas visitor centres has now closed, but gathered over 13,000 signatures. If you still want to help, you can donate to the UK MTB Trail Alliance’s GoFundMe, which covers the organisation’s Year 1 costs and will help to give mountain bikers a voice over action such as this from NRW.
Robin Grant, the Chair of the UK MTB Trail Alliance commented on the letter:
“It’s amazing to see how Wales’ mountain bike community have come together to voice their concerns about NRW’s cuts and the devastating effect they would have on riders, communities
and businesses across Wales. Trails in Wales, and across the UK, face a crisis, with little to no money for ongoing maintenance or improvement. Volunteer groups are primed to help, but NRW and other public sector bodies need to radically simplify the way they work with volunteers to allow this to happen. We call on the Welsh Government to reconsider, and to implement our five asks.”
Balance bikes: a craggy stretch calls for a little trials-style poise.
Basically, if we don’t fight for it, we could lose it. And if NRW succeeds in closing the centres (however temporarily) and reducing trail management on 25 September, it could set a dangerous precedent for the whole of the UK. Not only will they be closing the visitor centres, but it means no trail maintenance will be able to take place – from volunteer groups nor commercial partners. Mountain biking isn’t just about hitting gnarly jumps and features, it’s about getting people outside, being healthy and fit and provides wider benefits to the local population. Of course, we’re biased, and we think it’s important. But from a public health or tourism perspective, it is important, and it’s worth trying to save for future generations as well as our own.