from VORB
http://www.vorb.org.nz/help-letters-support-needed-t99684.html
Hey everyone, Mountainbike Tauranga is in need of help from the greater
mountainbike community right about now. Why? I hear you ask - well let
me explain.....
For the past two years our club has been working
towards securing an area of around 350 hectares in the newly formed
TECT All Terrain Park, that sits halfway between Tauranga and Rotorua.
This park was envisaged to cater towards many different sporting
interests, including (according to the website) "mountain biking,
rallying, motocross, firearm sports, 4x4, equestrian, tramping and
orienteering." We have several members of the club who have dedicated
hundreds of hours of their time following the procedures asked of us by
Western Bay of Plenty District Council and Tauranga City Council -
obtaining an MOU, developing an in-depth management plan and creating
highly detailed maps of the area we wanted to develop (believe it or
not, our mapping is by far much more accurate and detailed than the
councils' maps) including around 100km of trails of all grades, picnic
and BBQ area, skills area, pump track, and a dirt jump area.
We
have just recently obtained a grant from the Tauranga Round Table
(thank you VERY kindly) that we were to put towards new trail tools and
machine time to start cutting the initial trails for the mountainbiking
area of the park.
You will note I used "were" in that sentence....
I
have just received an e-mail from our Park Development Team Leader
(Marty R, very fine and dedicated man that he is) informing me that due
to lobbying by another user group, who have, up until now, had NO
involvement in the development of the park, our area has been
reallocated to them - not only that, but the decision was made without
ANY consultation of the appointed park manager, who has been given the
job of organising the park's user groups!
To say I am gutted is an understatement.
How
can you help us? Well, what we are hoping is that the decision can be
reversed, but to have that happen we NEED support from as much of the
mountainbike community as humanly possible.
If you could spare 10 minutes to send an e-mail to me at info@mtbtauranga.co.nz
letting the councils know that you support the work of MTB Tauranga,
and you would be outraged if a carefully planned MTB park was to be
binned in favour of a sport that has a much smaller following than
mountainbiking, much less in terms of attracting tourism to the area,
and a much larger environmental footprint.
Thanks for your support in advance.
Steve, MTB Tauranga