As reported in a recent video by Flyup 417 Bike Park‘s on the site’s YouTube channel (shown below), this popular venue may be forced to close due to National Highways works. While it was hoped that the park would be safe from closure, and even benefit long term from improved facilities, it now looks like it may have to shut its doors. The original plan for National Highways to use the bike park’s car park for part of the duration of the three-year build has been pushed forward, with the park citing this as an issue for them to maintain insurance coverage.

What is the National Highways plan?

Flyup 417 sits right next to the A417 road (hence the name), in Gloucestershire, and National Highways has long had a plan to build a dual carriageway in place of a single carriageway on this road. The construction of the Missing Link Project, is a bypass project that will end up being a dual-carriageway between the M5 at Brockworth and the M4 at Swindon. It’s being built to replace a single-carriageway road near Birdlip – the construction of the ‘Missing Link’ is apparently being done to ease delays and congestion.

How does this affect 417 Bike Park? Well, it’s sort of in the way. Some of the land was to be bought to construct the road, whilst some was to be used temporarily during construction. The bike park’s car park was due to be used temporarily, with provisions of a new temporary car park and visitor centre being approved last year.

One of the trails at 417 Pic: Sim Mainey

Work on the project was due to begin late last year, with the car park being made vacant so that construction could begin. This is where things start to get a bit tricky. Flyup was told that the construction project was to be shortened by half a year, and that their promised car park and visitor centre facilities would not be built. It was around this time that staffing changes were made at National Highways, and this had led to a change in plans from National Highways.

According to Flyup, their existing car park size was set to be reduced, and construction access arrangements to be revised. According to Singletrack World, these new plans make it far more difficult for Flyup to insure their park. Their insurer’s main concern being the mixing of traffic of riders, vehicles and pedestrians.

Riding by numbers on the FlyUp 417 Bike Park

What is the current situation?

As you can imagine, having to deal with not only their own staff, but riders and now construction workers all mixing on site at the same time doesn’t make for a great safety recipe. Unfortunately for the park, if they can’t insure their operation, they’ll have no option but to close down – at least for the duration of the works which is set to last until 2027.

Speaking to Gloucestershire Live, the Project Director for the A417 scheme, Steve Foxley said:

“We’re working closely with FlyUp to address concerns and have agreed to delay the start of works on their land to allow for further discussions. We have suggested a list of changes that we believe will protect their facilities and allow them to keep trading, including site safety and reducing the land required for us to undertake our works.

“We are continuing to engage and we have further meetings planned to discuss these matters. We are working within our approved planning constraints, and we will continue to engage with FlyUp to minimise any impacts from this important and much needed project.”

Dave Webb, General Manager of Flyup confirmed conversations were now ongoing, “We are now engaging with senior members of Highways now, which is great but we are still waiting to find out the outcome so our position still remains similar to the initial video, but the fact [is] we now have someone listening.”

Hopefully the matter will be resolved with a positive outcome for Flyup 417 Bike Park, but if communications with National Highways breaks down, their only matter of recourse may be to apply to the High Court, which can be costly. Another option for the team is to appeal to the Secretary of State. If you want to voice your support for the park, and the team behind it, they’re asking people to email highways@flyupmtb.co.uk.