PLEASE help to stop closure of Manly Dam Trail!

General
1

Hi guys,
If you have a couple minutes to help out from the city closing one of the best MUni tracks in Sydney, please keep reading. They just informed the community that they are closing sections of the Manly Dam Bike Track. See here for more details on it: http://nobmob.com/node/13024. Basically they say they are closing the fun and really cool single track sections due to safety for hikers and will force riders to ride on a very busy road instead. This will make the trail boring and much more dangerous riding on the road. It is one of the best mountain unicycle trails around Sydney and only a few minutes drive from North Sydney. I try and ride this trail once or twice a week. This is devastating for the biking and unicycling community so any help would be appreciated.

The first goal is to do a protest ride if you live in the Sydney area. It is scheduled for 9am on March 6th so please show up with a bike or unicycle to help support our cause! See here for details: http://nobmob.com/node/13025. If it is your first time, it will be a great time to learn the trail at a nice casual pace!! If you don’t live in the area please do the below option.

The second goal is to send emails to the councils and try and flood them with complaints so on Monday they have 1,000’s of emails. If you have a second, please write a short letter describing how you disagree with their decision and how they are in turn making it more dangerous. Any other info you can include stating how biking or unicycling is a good form of exercise, etc. would be great.
Here are the emails to send a letter to:
mayor@warringah.nsw.gov.au; michelle.ray@warringah.nsw.gov.au; jfalinski@warringah.nsw.gov.au; vincent.deluca@warringah.nsw.gov.au; bob.giltinan@warringah.nsw.gov.au; christina.kirsch@warringah.nsw.gov.au; helen.wilkins@warringah.nsw.gov.au; virginia.laugesen@warringah.nsw.gov.au; julie.sutton@warringah.nsw.gov.au; conny.harris@warringah.nsw.gov.au; manlydam@nobmob.com; dp.office@tebbutt.minister.nsw.gov.au; office@firth.minister.nsw.gov.au; office@greene.minister.nsw.gov.au; manly@parliament.nsw.gov.au; council@warringah.nsw.gov.au; manly@parliament.nsw.gov.au; mayor@warringah.nsw.gov.au; michelle.ray@warringah.nsw.gov.au; jfalinski@warringah.nsw.gov.au; vincent.deluca@warringah.nsw.gov.au; bob.giltinan@warringah.nsw.gov.au; christina.kirsch@warringah.nsw.gov.au; helen.wilkins@warringah.nsw.gov.au; virginia.laugesen@warringah.nsw.gov.au; conny.harris@warringah.nsw.gov.au; julie.sutton@warringah.nsw.gov.au

THANKS in advance to anyone that helps! I really hope that their decision to close it will be looked at and overturned! Please forward this on to any other bikers or unicyclers that may be able to help. And if you have any input or will be able to join the ride, please post below…

Cheers,
Jamey Mossengren

2

Ive ridden this track quite a few times.Its an excellent track as it is.I sincerely hope it is not changed.Will do my part to protest.

3

What a pathetic and brainless decision,I’m sick of this can’t do attitude we have to fight it!

john

4

I sent an email out yesterday afternoon to all the contacts supplied.I’ve so far had 7 councillors and 1 member of parliament reply.3 of the councillors replied late on Sunday night.Basically they say it is a bureaucratic bungle coupled with a bit of a power play.As far as the track itself goes there have been no incidents and no complaints.It should be able to be fixed with a stroke of a pen but no action can be taken until the next scheduled council meeting on 6pm 23-2-10.Until then keep complaining.

john

5

Thanks to anyone that helped out and sent out an email or phone call! Apparantly it worked as the council meeting I went to the other night, they reversed their decision and have now re-opened it to mt. bikers. Unfortunately, they have now banned bush walkers due to liability issues, but at least we can ride it now. None of us wanted them to ban hikers but after an hour of the councellers arguing, that was the only compromise they could come up with. Also, the protest ride has been cancelled due to this reversal. It shows you that we really can make a difference! Thanks again.

6

Oh wow, excellent work everyone! This is the first i’ve heard of the situation. Glad to hear it’s staying open. Been riding mtbikes there before. Yet to muni it!!