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CafesideMTB CIC has been formed by 6 local riders and trail builders who have ridden and maintained the Cafeside site for years, to bring it under official, staffed and insured management as a pay-to-ride trail centre.
We have registered ourselves as a Community Interest Company (CIC) to reflect that we want to run the site for the benefit of the community and the area, and re-invest as we grow to the advantage of all.
We continue to maintain and test-ride the existing trails ahead of our official, insured opening to the general public. (Important: the Cafeside site remains open to the public, but the trails themselves are closed to non-members until that opening is announced — please don't ride or build on the trails outside of this authorised use, to protect them and the future of CafesideMTB!)
We have now signed and begun a 10-year lease with Forestry England for the Cafeside site. We have our liability insurance in place to cover building, volunteers, staff, riders and the other site visitors. Please don't turn up with your bikes quite yet though!
We will soon be getting our dig days going again - watch this space and our Facebook page for more updates very soon.
In order for us to run the CafesideMTB site as an official trail centre we submitted a full planning application to Teignbridge District Council for the site. This was seeking planning permission for a car park, start ramps, and for the existing and future mountain bike trails.
As part of this planning application we submitted a full ecological impact assessment compiled by Richard Green Ecology in order to ensure that we are protecting and enhancing the biodiversity of the site. They have also presented us with a list of best practices in order to minimise the impact on the ecology of the site going forwards, which we will use in combination with Forestry England's own ecology guidelines.
Following a request from TDC to remove our application due to issues arising from changes TDC requested we make during the validation process, we have now submitted a new CLUED and Permitted Development application in order to get change of use and permission for building and maintaining of trails on the site.
Unfortunately, this initial application was refused after a significant delay; Rather than go through the prolonged appeals process, we have worked with Base Planning Consultants to revise and strengthen our application and this has now been re-submitted to Teignbridge District Council.
Please see our planning updates page for more information and updates!