British Cycling and Welsh Cycing have responded to the Welsh Government’s consultation on Improving Opportunities to Access the Outdoors, saying that giving the mountain bike community access to cycle responsibly on footpaths and other land will see a “positive rise” in tourism.
The consultation, which closed in October 2015, received nearly 6,000 responses, 4,000 of which were submitted by the cycling community, the significant majority of whom were made aware of the consultation through its promotion by British Cycling, Welsh Cycling and consultation partners OpenMTB and CyclingUK.
Overall it received the highest number of responses of any Welsh Government consultation to date.
The consultation sought views on reducing the cost of looking after public paths, how to better meet current and future recreational needs and ways to tackle some of the difficulties in extending access, beyond walkers.
"We believe that this responsible access model should be explored for the whole of the country – it could lead to a positive rise in tourism in Wales.
“We applaud the Welsh government for their foresight in undertaking this consultation and hope that they will respond to the weight of public opinion, especially from the mountain biking community, and undertake to implement an entirely new access settlement allowing much greater use of land for responsible recreation.”
See the summary of the consultation outcomes produced by the Welsh Government.