In reply to TobyA:
That feels like a fairly measured response Toby - though not all response on this thread are.
I cannot help but detect an odd tone from some - "Us climbers have the right to rub Magnesium Carbonate all over the rocks in the national park .. but it's quite outrageous that some NED on a bike might dare to ride past my chalk covered boulder!"
I get their point and I fully understand the comments re: ROW (or lack thereof for bikes) in England - you are of course correct. I am commenting only upon the tone that some of the replies have been delivered with on this thread.
I would encourage everyone to reflect on how it is done up here in Scotland. In Scotland we have our glorious Outdoor Access Code [1]. With the exceptions of back gardens, greens on golf courses and a few others ... we can go where we want. We can walk, run, ride, paddle climb and camp where we want (notably not inside the Trossachs camping management zone). There is 1x key thing though ... no recreational land user has rights above another recreational land user. i.e. There is absolutely nothing to stop the MTB'ers riding their bikes past the boulders or the horses riding upon the MTB trails for that matter. And there is no plans to change that.
Purpose of my comment is to suggest that we avoid attempting to create a hierarchy of recreational land users upon which some can and some cannot use the land. That's not a productive route to take this down. It pits 1x group against the other.
MTB'ing has exploded. MTB's have become massively more capable in almost every measurable way. eMTBs will likely cannibalize traditional bikes in the next 20 years (if not sooner). Modern MTB's are machines that can be ridden in all conditions, all year round and on almost all terrain. AND ... MTB'ers are a fantastic source of income for the local areas that invest in MTB'ing - just look at what they've done for Innerleithen. My advice would be not to chastise MTB'ers .. but embrace them. Let them (help them even!) build their trails in appropriate spaces and watch as they all turn up at the wknd ready to pay to ride and/or pay for uplift and/or funnel their money into the local communities (MTB'ers need feeding!).
Innerleithen, for those unfamiliar with it, was basically put back on the map because of MTB'ers. I was there last Friday and it was heaving. It is particularly famous for the Enduro World Series events held there and across the road at the Golfie.
Perhaps a chit chat with the team at PeakDistrictMTB might be fruitfull: https://peakdistrictmtb.org/about-us/aims-and-objectives-of-peak-district-m...
Outdoor users are not meant to be against one another. One team - one dream.
[1] https://www.outdooraccess-scotland.scot/
Post edited at 13:18