Residents complain of "excessive" cycling events on Surrey's iconic Box Hill

I am lucky enough to live not far from the Surrey Hills area and go up, down, over and around Box Hill often. Its nothing special as climbs go - heck if my old legs can do it most anyone can.
Its just a pleasant venue where walkers, cyclists, motorcyclists and all sorts start, finish or pass thru.
I can not think of a single occasion when I have witnessed anti-social behaviour on the part of these groups

sigh

Is this another 'too many people in one place getting grumpy with each other thing?'

The Eden Valley Epic went by just this weekend. Farmers minding junctions, young families waving and cheering by the side of road, scout groups making sandwiches. Done events in Scotland where its been the same happy story too.

Normal human beings still exist. Come north my son

... they had been abused when they had asked riders to get out of the way

Why, and how, are they asking riders to get out of the way?

What is the big deal about Box Hill ? It's in the comic almost weekly. Is it tougher than Everest and Higher than the Stelvio ?

Surely there are other climbs to ride - this one sounds a nightmare if the numbers are to be believed.

I'm thinking Buttertubs in the Tour - with everyone ground to a halt....

they had been abused when they had asked riders to get out of the way

It's like the New Forest

As a member of Surrey Countryside Access Forum (LAF’s are a statutory consultation and advice groups used by the council set up under CRoW act 2000) we have been discussing issues over cycling in our recent meetings, and are currently working with other branches of the council towards a properly organised strategy (joined up thinking? we can but hope!) and identifying the ‘facts' about the problems, and distinguishing them from the ‘noise’ of anti cycling rhetoric.

At a recent meeting, I took other members (representing various user groups) over the facts about regulation of events, to some extent its a bit of a red herring, we are talking here about 19 events, thats far from being excessive - despite the comments made about unregulated events, most of the organised events or sportives have actually been authorised by the council and police official Safety Advisory Group, even though they don’t technically have to be - the issue seems to be however that the uninitiated see a group of say, twenty, out on a normal Sunday club run, and this gets reported back as another unauthorised ‘race’ or ’sportive’ when to you or I (or indeed the SAG or legislators) it was nothing of the sort.

I’ve also spoken to event organisers, and they complain of there being no single point or calendar created by the SAG which allows them to see what other events are going on in an area, also poor communication from the SAG over to parish councils etc - obviously this feedback has gone back to the council, and we hope for the SAG to attend the LAF in the near future to discuss their role in this, but in the meantime cyclists and event organisers are clearly getting the blame for issues that our out of their hands.

So, things ARE going on behind the scenes to neutralise much of this bad feeling, some of which is whipped up the the usual rabble rousers, There are undoubtedly some valid concerns over the pressure of so many cyclists falling in one spot, however in my experience a lot of the diatribe over 'events' is phantom conflict caused by sportives etc that never existed in the first place, which is probably why the police and National Trust are left scratching their heads.

Of course, people can do their bit by acting as ambassadors for our sport at all times, though maybe there are valid concerns over toilet facilities - I shall go back at the next meeting and suggest some well sited pissoirs!

No excuse for being anti-social but sounds as though the number of events isn't the problem they're making it out to be.

Why do we need to discuss tackling of anti-social behaviour? Whether you are on a bike, driving a car or staggering back from the pub, if you p!ss in somebodies front garden their should be consequences.

1 - Are they planning to tackle anti-social driving as robustly? There sure is a lot of it.
2 - Nobody complained about too many cars?

Local tourism businesses need to be more involved in local affairs to balance out the short-sighted NIMBYs.

I'd be interested to know just how many event there are?

I await the Police tacking the anti social, well dangerous, driving that I witness day in day out that puts lives in danger.

I suspect I will wait a long time as they are too busy pandering to the NIMBYS.

Ok, the anti-social behaviour needs tackling, but nothing else, unless we start restricting supermarket, Golf clubs and garden centres so only one can be open at a time and the number of people in cars is restricted as well.

NIMBY pains in the arse. Tis the same down here in the New Forest

As a cyclist I'd like to complain about the excessive amounts of cars on the road.