The Northern Monkey jump line in Surrey Hills is being demolished. Self-inflicted by us this one and selfish as what we have on the Hurtwood is special and if our community doesn't respect that then we will jeopardise the privilege. See the Hurtwood Ranger post below. 

"I’d really hoped not to have to write this, but if I’m honest, it’s been on the cards for some time.

Anyone who’s been down to the jumps on “Northern Monkey” recently, and particularly in the last few weeks, will have noticed the increase in the size of the jumps.

Because of the increased size, it was clear that problems could possibly arise, so in early January this year, I reached out the guys who’ve been making them bigger (through a third party), and asked them more than once to reduce the size back to where they were previously, and they were told very clearly that if they didn’t, what the potential consequences could be.

As the builders haven’t rectified this, (and in fact just added another jump) it should come as no surprise that the jumps that were previously only well known in the MTB community, have now been brought to everyone else’s attention, the landowners, the Borough Council and more importantly the Ambulance service who’ve had to deal with a disproportionate amount of callouts to NM.

To add to the equation, the Borough Council have also confirmed that the jumps and excavations are classed as “engineering works” and therefore in breach of planning. So today, the jump line is being completely removed. If the size hadn’t been increased, and left as they’d been for some years prior, it’s possible we wouldn’t be where we are today, and NM would remain quietly in the MTB community, but that’s now too late.

I know a lot of people will be disappointed, and trust me, I’m not particularly happy about it either. Apart from the time and cost to remove the jumps, it reinforces the argument that mountain bikers do not appreciate how fortunate they are to have such an amazing trail network on the Hurtwood. Anyone who knows me will know I try and fight the bikers corner as much as I can, cutting everyone as much slack as possible, but this entirely relies on  you guys not doing stupid stuff, because when you do, everyone outside of the MTB community gets to hear about it and once that happens, I’m afraid it’s out of my control and I’m unable to support you.

If you want large jumps, you need to go to a bike park where everyone can be safely insured against you breaking yourselves. The Hurtwood is a very unique set up, privately owned land with mostly unrestricted public access and therefore having large manmade features is never going to be an option, short of a massive upheaval in the liability and insurance laws. Land owners have something called “a duty of care” to their visitors, which (as crazy as it may sound) could include taking appropriate measures to prevent you from launching yourself into the air on a bicycle. If you want to know more about a landowners duty of care, please have a google for ‘The Occupiers' Liability Act 1957’.

So to clarify, we are only removing the jumps and replacing the soil back around the damaged tree roots, the rest of NM will be left alone."