The park is known unofficially as the ‘home of Guernsey cycling’ and fundraising for a planned ‘pump track’ on the site is said to be going well, with the hope that construction will start before the end of the summer when planning permission for the project expires.
But a few weeks ago, holes were dug by young people on the public path to create a bike ramp, which was labelled as an act of vandalism by the douzaine.
Cyclists who are waiting for the new pump track to be built said it was because the facilities for them to use were lacking.
‘We are happy to go up there and maintain the trails that are already built.
‘They were built with douzaine permission and it seems a shame to see them falling into disrepair, and now kids are going up and digging chunks of ground up to build ramps,’ said one cyclist who attended this week’s parish meeting just to raise the topic.
‘It’s being seen as vandalism, but if we were able to maintain the trails that are there, they wouldn’t be doing that. We hope that when the pump track is built, it will divert their attention and they’ll be riding on a purpose-built facility.’
The douzaine said it had not prevented the Guernsey Mountain Bike Association from maintaining the tracks, but had requested a proposal from the GMBA on how the tracks would be used, seeing as the park is a shared space.
The douzaine said the GMBA had provided a ‘loosely worded’ proposal asking for 24/7 access every day of the year, which the douzaine felt was unreasonable, given the park is a shared space.
A further proposal was requested from the GMBA by the douzaine. It is likely that both parties will meet in the next couple of months to discuss.
The law states that no person over the age of 10 should ride bikes through the park.
The douzaine said there were concerns to dog walkers, youth groups, children and others using the park when cyclists would speed through.
Fencing was added around the play area in September to protect children using it after complaints of the risk of cyclists and dogs.