Trails for Wales

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gaz
Posts: 14649
Joined: 9 Mar 2007, 12:09pm
Location: Kent

Trails for Wales

Post by gaz »

CTC and others are seeking to open up cycle access to the Welsh countryside, calling for the adoption of similar rights of responsible access as enshrined in Scotland’s Land Reform Act.

More here. Happy to give the idea my support.
High on a cocktail of flossy teacakes and marmalade
reohn2
Posts: 45158
Joined: 26 Jun 2009, 8:21pm

Re: Trails for Wales

Post by reohn2 »

Yes,me too.
The soon the Scottish example is adopted throughout the UK the better.
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"All we are not stares back at what we are"
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Flinders
Posts: 3023
Joined: 10 Mar 2009, 6:47pm

Re: Trails for Wales

Post by Flinders »

They won't attract people into Wales on bikes if they do things like closing the Barmouth bridge.
ferdinand
Posts: 376
Joined: 31 Oct 2014, 6:59pm

Re: Trails for Wales

Post by ferdinand »

CTC seem to be supporting an online click-spam email campaign on this one.

http://e-activist.com/ea-action/action? ... n.id=41461

As a member of CTC I think that is a terrible idea.

Such emails and responses will be grouped together and devalued or ignored. I'd urge anyone wanting to respond to this to do it themselves so that individual comments have their full and deserved weight.

Come on CTC. You are better than this.

Ferdinand
MikeF
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Joined: 11 Nov 2012, 9:24am
Location: On the borders of the four South East Counties

Re: Trails for Wales

Post by MikeF »

"Responsible recreation" :roll: :roll: Yet another buzzword to make things sound good just, as housing developments are now called "villages".
Responsible vehicle driving is what's needed.
I'm not sure this idea has been completely thought out.
"It takes a genius to spot the obvious" - my old physics master.
I don't peddle bikes.
Flinders
Posts: 3023
Joined: 10 Mar 2009, 6:47pm

Re: Trails for Wales

Post by Flinders »

ferdinand wrote:CTC seem to be supporting an online click-spam email campaign on this one.

http://e-activist.com/ea-action/action? ... n.id=41461

As a member of CTC I think that is a terrible idea.

Such emails and responses will be grouped together and devalued or ignored. I'd urge anyone wanting to respond to this to do it themselves so that individual comments have their full and deserved weight.

Come on CTC. You are better than this.

Ferdinand


I gather that MPs and other people who get this sort of thing just don't give it as much weight as an individual letter. IMHO it's always best to write personally to anyone if you want anything. I don't even bother to respond to business requests that are clearly bulk mailings, so I can see why they don't give them as much weight.
ferdinand
Posts: 376
Joined: 31 Oct 2014, 6:59pm

Re: Trails for Wales

Post by ferdinand »

Flinders wrote:
ferdinand wrote:CTC seem to be supporting an online click-spam email campaign on this one.

http://e-activist.com/ea-action/action? ... n.id=41461

As a member of CTC I think that is a terrible idea.

Such emails and responses will be grouped together and devalued or ignored. I'd urge anyone wanting to respond to this to do it themselves so that individual comments have their full and deserved weight.

Come on CTC. You are better than this.

Ferdinand


I gather that MPs and other people who get this sort of thing just don't give it as much weight as an individual letter. IMHO it's always best to write personally to anyone if you want anything. I don't even bother to respond to business requests that are clearly bulk mailings, so I can see why they don't give them as much weight.


Sometimes they filter it as spam and just delete it.

People who use that kind of site are often those who aren't interested in thinking about their opinions. If individuals can't get off their backsides enough to spend 4 minutes writing a personal email then imo their opinions deserve the weight equivalent to the time they have spent.

I first tangled with this in about 2008 when Greenpeace were trying to spam MEPs into submission, and I asked a few of the MEPs what they thought about it. The emails were just being filtered and "filed".

The other issue is that some of these organisations are simply boneheaded. There was a case on (I think) the Third Runway at Heathrow when 38 Degrees were sending 10s of thousands of emails complaining to politicians who agreed with their opposition to it.

If you look, MPs have commented in the Commons about 38 Degrees putting out lurid misinformation about eg mental health services and frightening patients of those services. Not thoughtful people.
Roger Geffen
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Joined: 7 Dec 2012, 3:22pm

Re: Trails for Wales

Post by Roger Geffen »

Just to respond to the concern that MPs etc just 'file' this type of mass email campaign, in the electronic equivalent of that circular filing cabinet in the corner of the room...

That is true to some extent - and therefore this type of campaign has to be used sparingly when targetting MPs.

However this campaign isn't targeted MPs, nor even at Welsh Assembly Members (but even if it was, AMs don't see anything like as many campaigns of this kind, so targetting them is less of a problem).

This one is aimed at generating responses to a Welsh Government consultation.

I should add that, in doing so, we are pushing at a relatively open door - i.e. we are broadly supporting what the Welsh Government is minded to do anyway. We need to generate a weight of numbers in response to the consultation, so that land-owning groups who might oppose any opening up of countryside access rights can't try drowning us out.

However, given that some of the proposals will require Welsh legislation following the Welsh Assembly elections next May, we will also look to mobilise support from election candidates in the spring. We need to make sure that there is political support for increased cycling access to the great outdoors, whatever the outcome of those elections. There is a real opportunity to make a difference by mobilising the 'cycling vote' ahead of those elections. (And incidentally there is also a similar opportunity to mobilise political support for cycling among candidates in the Scottish and Northern Irish elections too).

Roger Geffen
Campaigns & Policy Director
iviehoff
Posts: 2411
Joined: 20 Jan 2009, 4:38pm

Re: Trails for Wales

Post by iviehoff »

Flinders wrote:They won't attract people into Wales on bikes if they do things like closing the Barmouth bridge.

They won't attract people into Wales by any mode of transport if they do things like closing the Barmouth bridge.
Labrat
Posts: 245
Joined: 3 Mar 2014, 11:58am

Re: Trails for Wales

Post by Labrat »

Such emails and responses will be grouped together and devalued or ignored. I'd urge anyone wanting to respond to this to do it themselves so that individual comments have their full and deserved weight.


I thought they clearly called for people to do that, but sometimes you have to recognise that a lot of people simply don't do it when you do ask them to - and like it or not, its exactly what the 'opposition' were doing - the Countryside Alliance did something very similar

It seems that there were over 4000 supporting emails sent form cyclists - anecdotally I've heard that that far outnumbered the anti's, and that it turned into the most successful consultation that the Welsh Government have ever run under this format!

It also seems that the Ramblers response was completely contradictory, saying that footpaths shouldn't be opened for cyclists, but that Wales should have a right of responsible access the same as the Scottish one - I'm really not sure how that works (?)

Anyway - as far as I am concerned, its great to see CTC doing more for offload/mountain biking again!
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