Many of you on the Manly Dam trail closures mailing list will have already heard the bad news that over two kilometres of the loop are now closed to Mountain Bikes. The reason given by Manly-Warringah council follows that these sections of trail have never actually been technically approved for Mountain Biking and must be re-assessed before they can be re-opened.




The council said in its Press release:

It has come to Council’s attention that parts of the shared track around Manly Dam are not technically approved for bike riding and as such, Council has no choice but to close those stretches of track to riders until the Plan of Management has reviewed bike riding in the park.









Many groups have calling for the trails to be quickly re-opened and NoBMoB (Northern Beaches MTB Social group) have been acting swiftly with a group ride organised for the 6th of March at 9am to show support for the loop and the number of people affected. Apparently the media will be there, so even if you can only be there for the start to show numbers would be helpful.. More details can be found here




NobMob (and OzDirtCast) is also recommending we get down and write letters to the Councillors expressing our concerns over the closures. Here is a list of Councillors’ email addresses you can copy and paste in. Remember though that the current Councillors probably all had nothing to do with the trails not being technically approved for biking, so hold the rant and remember they are there to help. Explain your usage of Manly Dam and what it means to you and our community..




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




Our letter to the council has received a response from four of the Councillors already and particularly from Councillor Virginia Laugesen who included a statement she sent to the media about the chain of events that led to the closure.




According to Councillor Laugeson the whole thing started as a discussion about allowing volunteer trail maintenance to take place and quickly became a discussion about the legality of Mountain Biking around the Dam and a technicality being discovered in the council’s Plan of Management. The track was soon closed without further discussion according to the Councillor.




The four Councillors who have replied to OzDirtCast’s letter Crs Laugeson, Giltinan Rayare all in support of Mountain Biking and seem confident that the decision will be discussed in a meeting on the 23rd of February when the volunteer issue will be re-raised, or more likely on the 23rd of March when an extra-ordinary meeting of the council will sit to discuss this matter in particular.




NobMob is asking Mountain Bikers to sit in on the meeting of the 23rd of March as a silent protest on the matter www.nobmob.com