Last night at the Milton Keynes Council planning meeting, approval was given for the construction of a new Trials practice area.

The land will be developed to "produce one of the best facillities in England" and it can be ridden by members of the Milton Buzzard MCC.

Fair comment was made with residents fears of the noise issues paramount but at the vote the planning was granted 5 to 1.

Long Live the Buzzards!!!!

Top marks mate! That's really good news! I might even dust the cobwebs off me and the bike and ride again one day!

It would definitely be worth sharing the tactics used by the Club to gain rare approval. It may benefit others going through similar processes.

Seems like this is a landmark project.

I know you guys involved will be well ahead on this one, but if this is the reference project for the trials world, and concerns have been raised over noise, the 4rT's need to be policed heavily. Other bikes too obviously, but nobody can dispute the fact that the 4RT has raised the bar as far as noise pollution is concerned in trials.

Last night at the Milton Keynes Council planning meeting, approval was given for the construction of a new Trials practice area.

The land will be developed to "produce one of the best facillities in England" and it can be ridden by members of the Milton Buzzard MCC.

Fair comment was made with residents fears of the noise issues paramount but at the vote the planning was granted 5 to 1.

Long Live the Buzzards!!!!

Excellnt News. Well done to all involved. A fantastic effort by a small group of dedicated MB members. After losing Bleak Hall you all kept the faith. You should all be very proud of yourselves.

Fair Play to MK council as well. The town gets a lot of stick, but they are pretty forward thinking and provide excellent facilities for most leisure interests, be it shopping, rock climbing or trialing.

It is a good place to have on your door step.

What sort of setup is it likely to be? Is this in the middle of an urban area? Is it all manmade type stuff or all natural or a mix?

Is it likely to be manned/policed/charged by the day or by annual membership etc?

Did you buy the land/rented/owned by club member?

Just nosey :-)

Well done by the way, it's reassuring to hear these positive things for trials where councils are concerned. Always annoys me that the government and councils don't seem to recognise the need for sports and leisure facilities. Sometimes you feel like the whole country is turning in to a museum, stopping anybody moving forward in any way, so it's good to see the other side of it.

Will give detailed answers to all, as alot has happened in the years since we were evicted from an ideal site.

Needless to say we are chuffed to bits about it.

Well Done guys.....!!

Martin

Needless to say we are chuffed to bits about it.

And so you should be !!

Well done MB nice to here a good story about a Trials Venue, especially a new one, good luck for the future

It would definitely be worth sharing the tactics used by the Club to gain rare approval. It may benefit others going through similar processes.

Bit of background.

Milton Keynes is a new 'city' formed as a government directive of the seventies and every aspect being planned. On the original plan was an area designated noisy sports and a 7 acre site was rented with no complaints for nearly 25 years by the Milton Buzzard club. The big asset to the club was this 7 acre practice area open 24/7 for members. About 6 years ago we were given notice to quit and if fault lies anywhere we perhaps did not make enough fuss then. With the loss of the land the club membership has dwindled from 200 plus to 50ish.

The committee right from the loss of land have worked really hard on trying to find somewhere to go and although we found a few local farmers willing to allow trials, banks and ditches and logs have not provided much. Whilst the club has money in the bank, like so many (why not use it?), we were loath to buy land then have no planning permission, or to develop a farmers land and not have access or he could put up rent etc etc.

Then

Initially we contacted councillors (sports development officer) english partnerships and any other intrested parties, john prescotts office who really helped by getting a meeting with an ep, bbc local radio interviews and so on, but nothing really happened till we met a middle managment field officer from an organisation called the parks trust. A trust which is probably a multimillion pound chairty which was given land (from the government ie yours and my taxes) in and around milton keynes upon which they have either built offices/industrial units to generate income, built parks, or used for nothing. Because they own or lease land we were shown bits and pieces which were not that suitable, one next to the sewerworks, nice in summer(!), and we were almost about to give up when I stumbled on a little parcel of land near my house adjacent to the busy A5 trunk road and industry.

Although small it had some gradient on it and with amazing good fortune it had a 999 year lease assigned to the parks trust, although it was designated for a possible slip road.

You can imagine that the next few years were taken up establishing whether it was needed for the road a reassignment of the lease made possible and so on.

That was the first hurdle. Now we need it developed for trials diggers and spoil (dirt) and this was the method used to generate the money ie

Good to see some forward thinking going on in the trial's world.nice catch.

So what roundabout are you on.

Impressed to see the complete opposite of the normal 'head in the sand' mentality associated with problems like this! Great job to everyone involved Hopefully other trials clubs with similar problems (and enough money) can read this and use it for inspiration

excellent news well done

And good to see you could manage it without 30 grand to bribe the local councillors. That's the way things get built round our neck of the woods. You either know someone in the council or you pay someone in the council.

You got no money and no influence you've got no chance.

Thanks for the rundown Dabster. I'd love to visit it some time, not particularly on my bike, just interested what you've got going there.