Welcome to forward thinking belfast

chucky · 9 Apr 2009 at 17:06

Over the past few months a few guys decided to build up some nice dirt jumps in belfast.

Heres a nice video of the jumps in action:
http://vimeo.com/3964319

All was good until the council found out :mad:

................

Viper² · 9 Apr 2009 at 17:11

Great effort from the council.

Ben M · 9 Apr 2009 at 17:12

How nice of the council...

They could have used those JCBs to build the jumps in half the time!

Edit: just watched that video and that trail looks really really nice... such a shame

Nix · 9 Apr 2009 at 17:22

Do you think some self-righteous dog-walker complained or something?

Gerard · 9 Apr 2009 at 17:52

Whereabouts is that?

semi-pro waster · 9 Apr 2009 at 18:15

Nix said:
Do you think some self-righteous dog-walker complained or something?

I don't know about who complained but councils tend to get very antsy about the insurance (or lack thereof) for such places unfortunately. It would be much better if there was an implicit disclaimer attached to riding one of them - something along the lines of "if you wreck yourself by being a tool it isn't our fault".

Scuzi · 9 Apr 2009 at 18:21

Is that down at Mary Peters?

chucky · 9 Apr 2009 at 18:24

Is that down at Mary Peters?

Yea.

The cycle of building them/council knocking them down begins again....

At least the soil is nicely broken up now..

Scuzi · 9 Apr 2009 at 18:25

chucky said:
Yea.

The cycle of building them/council knocking them down begins again....

At least the soil is nicely broken up now..

One of my best mates was involved in building that. He'll be gutted

chucky · 9 Apr 2009 at 21:38

I may well know him, or at least recognise him.

BlackDragon · 9 Apr 2009 at 21:47

Looked very good, such a shame.

Whoever did it should build it all again.

Scuzi · 9 Apr 2009 at 21:47

He's called Adam McG, from Moira. He's big into the whole down hill mountain biking and the road racing. I was supposed to go see that track when I was over in March but I never got the time. Shame now as it's gone!

taliesyn · 10 Apr 2009 at 16:31

semi-pro waster said:
I don't know about who complained but councils tend to get very antsy about the insurance (or lack thereof) for such places unfortunately. It would be much better if there was an implicit disclaimer attached to riding one of them - something along the lines of "if you wreck yourself by being a tool it isn't our fault".

Unfortunately in a legal sense, a disclaimer doesn't mean a thing. It's sad that they had to ruin all that effort, but if someone had broken their neck or even worse, then a distinct possibility these days is that their family would have gone after the council for compensation, and then the council would have been slated for allowing it to be there in the first place.

Also, I shouldn't imagine there was an application for planning permission pending either, nor an offer to buy the land

semi-pro waster · 10 Apr 2009 at 19:05

taliesyn said:
Unfortunately in a legal sense, a disclaimer doesn't mean a thing. It's sad that they had to ruin all that effort, but if someone had broken their neck or even worse, then a distinct possibility these days is that their family would have gone after the council for compensation, and then the council would have been slated for allowing it to be there in the first place.

Also, I shouldn't imagine there was an application for planning permission pending either, nor an offer to buy the land

I know the disclaimer would mean nothing, that's why I didn't even attempt to couch it in 'legalese', you cannot and should not be allowed to derogate out of certain obligations regarding peoples safety on your property if you are negligent but people have to understand and accept that dirt jumping is inherantly a dangerous activity. You can try and make it safer by wearing appropriate protective gear and riding appropriate to your skill level but that is about it, if they don't accept the premise that it is a relatively high risk sport then they shouldn't be doing it, simple as that.

I'm sure you are completely right about not requesting planning permission or offering to buy the land, that would be partly because in the (almost) inevitable case of refusal the council would bulldoze the site since they now know of it. By not informing the council they probably got an extra couple of months use out of it; dodgy - yes, understandable - certainly.

6thElement · 10 Apr 2009 at 19:32

The same thing happens the world over when the spot isn't legal.

taliesyn · 10 Apr 2009 at 22:15

semi-pro waster said:
I know the disclaimer would mean nothing, that's why I didn't even attempt to couch it in 'legalese', you cannot and should not be allowed to derogate out of certain obligations regarding peoples safety on your property if you are negligent but people have to understand and accept that dirt jumping is inherantly a dangerous activity. You can try and make it safer by wearing appropriate protective gear and riding appropriate to your skill level but that is about it, if they don't accept the premise that it is a relatively high risk sport then they shouldn't be doing it, simple as that.

I'm sure you are completely right about not requesting planning permission or offering to buy the land, that would be partly because in the (almost) inevitable case of refusal the council would bulldoze the site since they now know of it. By not informing the council they probably got an extra couple of months use out of it; dodgy - yes, understandable - certainly.

I agree absolutely about responsibility, and I would think that there would be some way for the council(s) to be able to accomodate this. There are council skate parks and bmx tracks, and they can be potentially just as dangerous, and they somehow seem to work around the liability issue.

Unfortunately, much as I sympathise with the dirt jumpers and the people who spend hours building and maitaining them (and that looked like an excellent track too), they're going to get nowhere without going through the proper channels.

6thElement said:
The same thing happens the world over when the spot isn't legal.

They'll keep building them and the authorities will keep knocking them down

6thElement · 10 Apr 2009 at 22:31

3 of the city parks where I live have legal MTB trails, dirt jumps and pump tracks

red11 · 12 Apr 2009 at 13:59

It certainly looks more fun than the Mary Peter's track. They should have bulldozed that instead. My school used to have our sport's day there.

Scuzi · 12 Apr 2009 at 14:04

Linoge said:
It certainly looks more fun than the Mary Peter's track. They should have bulldozed that instead. My school used to have our sport's day there.

Ummm.... it is/was the Mary Peter's track.

CliffyBiro · 12 Apr 2009 at 14:18

Annoys me when they do things like this.

I live in an area between two towns. About 5 miles from both so there is just a few housing estates etc. around here and the amount of people you actually see outside is ridiculous.

A few years ago, I was outside every day with friends finding anything to do, not causing any problems.

One summer, because the council had removed the football nets from the tarmac surfaced park, we decided to make our own and took them down to one of the few green areas that was sort of half flat and doesn't have a hedge or house on it.

All that was there was 1 tree.

One of the local residents called the council and asked about having the tree removed so we would have more room.

Suprisingly, the council obliged and removed the tree but for some reason, also dug up the ground and sloped it. They also broke the nets with their JCB.

This was 2 years ago now and the grass still hasn't grown back and the only kids you see outside anymore are those under the age of 5 who have been taken to the swings in the park by their parents.

Thank God I've got fishing and golf to keep me sane.