UPDATE: DCC Statement on Hollowford Road, Castleton

We’ve been in contact with Derbyshire County Council following the start of ‘surprising’ works at Hollowford Road in the shadow of Mam Tor.


    Annotated screenshot from DCC’s map, showing rights of way and adopted highways, 2/2023. Bing OS map location.

They’ve shared the following statement:

“The aggregate surface is temporary. We’re currently working on Hollowford Road and the footpath that follows on from there leading up to Hollins Cross known as Castleton FP21. “There are a number of springs and land drains outflowing onto the Hollowford Road section which have caused the path to become boggy and deeply rutted. “We had to manage this so we could safely transport materials along the path which included installing a filter drain surrounded with aggregate to aid drainage. “We’re currently continuing the existing stone flag path at Hollins Cross moving down the hill as we go and we’ll be completing works to the Hollowford Road section at the bottom of the hill once we’ve completed Castleton FP21. “We’ve use this method to avoid damaging the works on Hollowford Road while we transport the stone flags up the hill. “We use a variety of surfaces according to the gradient of an area and stone pitching is a technique using large stones to create a cobble-type surface often used on the steepest moorland paths as it’s more resistant to erosion. Aggregate is used on flatter gradients.”
Derbyshire County Council, 23 February 2023

We’re very grateful to DCC for the prompt reply to our questions and commend their team for their quick response.

So that’s good then, right? Well on the face of it, yes. The statement is certainly encouraging and sensible, and they’ve been clear on what’s happening There are questions though. Let’s have a look.

  • The aggregate surface is temporary.

This is clearly the most welcome news from their Derbyshire County Council. But what can we infer? It’ll be removed? Maybe. It’ll be topped with something else? Possibly. Ideally it would be removed. We’ll ask for clarity on what this means, and timescales.

  • “There are a number of springs and land drains outflowing onto the Hollowford Road section which have caused the path to become boggy and deeply rutted. “We had to manage this so we could safely transport materials along the path which included installing a filter drain surrounded with aggregate to aid drainage.”

As we always say, ‘water is the biggest cause of erosion’ so sensible water management is important. We’d question the assertion that the Hollowford Road section had become boggy; we’d certainly never seen any bogs on the hollow way. Yes, it flows with heavy rains, as do many other paths in the Peak and the only really boggy stuff we’d seen was after the top gate. If that’s being sorted and then this aggregate ‘access surface’ is being removed, then great.

  • “We’re currently continuing the existing stone flag path at Hollins Cross moving down the hill as we go and we’ll be completing works to the Hollowford Road section at the bottom of the hill once we’ve completed Castleton FP21.

That’s the footpath – if it’s going to be flagged, could it be permissive for horses and bikes?

  • We’ve used this method to avoid damaging the works on Hollowford Road while we transport the stone flags up the hill.

That reiterates the temporary nature of the aggregate surface.

  • “We use a variety of surfaces according to the gradient of an area and stone pitching is a technique using large stones to create a cobble-type surface often used on the steepest moorland paths as it’s more resistant to erosion.

Anybody who’s ridden the Hollowford Road up or down could tell you this is a prime candidate for stone pitching – the surface everyone was expecting and had offered support for. Nobody is debating that the route needs work – we just want it to be done as was widely understood to have been planned.

  • “Aggregate is used on flatter gradients.”

And we have miles and miles of ideal candidates that are crying out for it; that top bit of Roman Road anyone? The bottom of Long Causeway has just unnecessarily been done too.

As we’ve said all along in relation to these works, our frustration isn’t that they’re happening – paths need work, looking after and maintenance. Our concern is purely that the approach taken apparently wasn’t what people were expecting, so the suggestion here that what we’ve seen so far is temporary is welcome.

Trust is vitally important.

We’ll be going back to DCC with questions.

For volunteer groups like ours it sometimes feels like the trust we have in those in power to do the right thing is all we have. Our constrictions are

  1. Little recourse to challenge things officially, but perhaps more depressingly…
  2. No time in our busy ‘real’ lives to build the evidence case; to attend the LAF’s sub-committee meeting midday midweek; to just pop out to meet the Councillor…

Trust.

We at PDMTB try our best to present things with facts and evidence. We try our best to take a balanced approach to things. And we try our best to be fair. We’ll put our hands up and take the challenge that mountain bikes cause damage. We do cause an impact to paths. But then so does every other path user to varying levels (multiplied by their numbers).

If we challenge something, we’ll challenge from a legitimate starting point and do our damnedest to evidence our point, much as we’ve done with Hollowford Road. Such as we did with Pindale. And Rushup. But we challenge within the rules.

We have to trust that others will play by those rules too. Follow them. Not shut down the debate they may not like. Bring evidence, not just opinion.

It’s true mountain biking has made a sport out of riding unmaintained tracks, but that doesn’t mean we’re naive to think they won’t be repaired. As we’ve said all along, we just want a respected voice in the proper discussions around how.

But perhaps more than that, and truly the most depressing thing, instead of playing this stupid game of merry-go-round with DCC, we’d rather just be riding our bikes instead.

Top image photo credit: E. Procter

2 March 2023