A PAPER petition calling for mountain bike trails at Cwmcarn to be re-introduced has gained so many signatures that the founder says he has had no choice but to take it online.
Steve Harris began the petition last week after becoming frustrated with ongoing closures to Cwmcarn Forest’s mountain biking trails due to tree-felling work.
As the Argus previously reported, he believes Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and felling contractor Euroforest have an obligation to repair the trails after felling work has been completed.
But what began as a simple list of signatures, garnered from similar-minded people in the car park at Cwmcarn Forest Drive, quickly became unmanageable, he said.
The hard-copy petition had stretched to almost 20 metres long.
Mr Harris subsequently decided an online version would be the most suitable course of action.
“This thing is getting a bit unwieldy,” he said.
“It was fine to begin with, but I think I will reach far more people with an online petition.
“I also won’t have to carry this thing around with my anymore.”
Euroforest and NRW have been working to stop the spread of Larch Disease in the forest and have been cutting down infected trees.
Sally Tansey, NRW regional land manager said: “The scale of felling in Cwmcarn Forest has been unprecedented, with 160,000 diseased trees needing to be removed within a short period of time.
As a result of this, the Cwmcarn Forest Drive has been closed to cars since 2014 and the mountain bike trails have faced closures and diversions during this period too.
Mr Harris added: “Cwmcarn is such a wonderful local asset, one of the original assets in the mountain biking community in South Wales, and it’s a shame it’s not getting the ‘TLC’ it deserves.”
South Wales East AM Mohammad Asghar added: “Natural Resources Wales has a duty to ensure that any inconvenience caused by tree felling should be kept to a minimum.”
NRW says the felling operation is expected to continue through to 2020. Euroforest was approached for comment.
To sign the now-online version of Mr Harris’ petition, see chng.it/L9CVSDR9Bg
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