Danger Mouse and the BMX

It was a morning like any other morning.  I was having a coffee in a quiet cafe while enjoying the morning sun. The conversation was free and easy when suddenly an informational bomb was dropped. 

Dorset City Council is looking to build a BMX park on the Chewton Bunny in Highcliffe. The words sank in slowly, the absurdity of the idea washing through my brain, calling and waking my inner Danger Mouse.

I had to find out more so I started digging and this is what I found.

The above image is from Dorset's City Council website.  They pitch reasons why they think a BMX park would be a good idea. They have a link for an artists impression of the proposed site. I'm including it here. There's another link for a consultation response form which has to be in before Feb 3rd, 2012 to be counted.

While they pitch a very persuasive argument for the BMX park, I felt some points mentioned might have been misleading and other valid points of consideration were left out. The way the issue is being handled seems rushed. For instance, If you would like to write a letter of objection to the development, you will have to get it in before December 22nd. I don't know about you, but I always get suspicious of someone who's trying to rush me about stuff. If after reading my post you're local to the Dorset area and you object to the park being built, which I truly hope you do, you must write your letter and include the words
"RE: SOUTH SHORE BIKE PARK- CHEWTON BUNNY APPLICATION REF: 8/11/0497 OBJECTION"
 to be counted and have it in before December 22nd. I'm just going to keep repeating the DECEMBER 22ND deadline because that seems to be a fact that's easy to lose on their pages. Those are very nice, conveniently rushed dates and hoops to jump through at a time when most people are occupied or out of town with Christmas.

Let's look at some of the statements from the Dorset City Council website that I feel might be a misrepresentation:

"The South Shore proposal aims to channel informal and potentially hazardous bike use into an exciting, safe and challenging new bike park."

It sounds like a well intentioned statement doesn't it? But for those who are residents in the area, the cold hard truth is that there aren't that many BMX bike users doing any type of hazardous bike riding in the area. Let's look at the demographics according to Dorset City Council's own website:

{Here's a link to their pdf where I got the figures from if you'd like to take a look}

I have no idea why they've decided to break the population into the segments as they did. The first segment spans people of a 15 year age difference. The next segment spans people of 45 years age difference. And then once again, they go back to breaking population down in 15 year spans. When dealing with statistics it's easy to skew the results of a study or poll by the way information is broken down. Therefore, I find the inconsistent break down of age segments worthy of scrutiny. They do however acknowledge that over 43% of the people in this area are 60+ years old. Let's get more specific to the Chewton Bunny area its self. Chewton Bunny is adjacent to retirement flats. Lots and lots of retirement flats:

Retirement flats adjacent to the Chewton Bunny

Retirement flats across from the Chewton Bunny

I can just about guarantee you, that 90% of the population within 1 mile of this proposed BMX park location are retired and over the age of 60 years of age. Just how many BMX riders does anyone think we have in an area of retiree's over the age of 60? Of all the photo's I've included so far on this page, how many BMX bikers have you seen? The green is indeed a beautiful place. People come from far and wide, mostly to walk their dogs or have a nice nature hike. But more importantly, the retiree's living in these flats, scrimped and saved their whole lives and bought their retirement residence alongside this beautiful location.

I'm fairly sure if they'd wanted to spend their last days looking out on a BMX park, they would've picked another location.

Let's take a look at their next statement:

"There are no other mountain biking facilities in Christchurch."

That's the webpage for the Bournemouth BMX Track.
Do you want to see the really interesting part to this website? Let's zoom in:

Nearest town: Christchurch. Maybe someone should let Dorset City Council know about that.
There was another interesting section I thought worth sharing:

Those distances are from the Bournemouth BMX park to the others. The Chewton Bunny where the new park is proposed to go is roughly 2.5 miles from the New Milton Skatepark listed above. All in all, there are 10 BMX trails and parks in the local area. Is anyone else wondering why we need another BMX park in this particular area yet?

There are serious environmental impacts to consider by choosing to develop on this Nature Reserve. I would love to see what environmental impact studies have been done before this decision was reached. As of yet, I haven't been able to find any. Soil erosion has been a serious concern for all residents for many years and those who are familiar with the Nature Reserve, will know that sections of it flood and stay relatively boggy for lengthy periods. Again and again, it seems an imprudent choice of location for this type of facility.

The Council just spent a good deal of money to give this Nature Reserve some needed attention. Improved walking paths and stairs all along the Chewton Bunny from the Chewton Glen Hotel to the sea front were relatively recently completed. Instead of the beautiful sea front these lovely revamped paths and stairs will open up onto a fenced off BMX park. How fiscally sound is it to invest in protecting and nurturing a Nature Reserve to then decide to develop it into a BMX park? In such trying economic times with austerity measures on the table, one would hope for more fiscal responsibility from their public officials. Surely, there are more appropriate uses for these funds or at the very least, a more appropriate location for this proposed park.

I know this might be a bit off the beaten path for some of my readers. Even if you're not local to this area and it won't directly affect you, I would love to hear your comments. I'm also considering sharing this post with one of the local papers. It would be interesting for them to see what the world thinks of this local political happening. If you're local to the area and would like an example of an objection letter, I have been fortunate enough to have a few from concerned citizens shared with me. I'll gladly email them to you. Just let me know in the comments below.

xoxo

See UPDATE!