UK\'s finest cycle park never fully realised

Tag : Wood Boring Bits

PORC, the UK's finest cycle park never fully realised. Is that tobe the fate of the Penshurst Off Road Club in Kent, where a roadcircuit is now laid out but unfinished for want of £150,000?

Only recently Cycling Weekly ran a story about a Kent councillorsuggesting Lord Coe should host the 2012 Olympic Games mountainbike events at this beautiful spot, which is hillier than Coe'spreferred site in Hadleigh in Essex and closer to the OIympicvillage.
Will he, won't he?

If the Olympics came to Kent the dream
of businessman Mike Westphal, the owner of PORC, would surely cometrue and 150,000 notes would land on his doorstep.

Because he so desperately wants to finish the road circuit. It'sendorsed by no less a person than former national road championKeith Butler, who runs Britain's biggest road racing league inSurrey.
If Mike can get that circuit surfaced, I'll run league eventsthere, Butler told Cycling Weekly.

So near and yet so far. This saying surely applies to Westphalwhose project to build a one-mile closed road racing circuit in his40-acre wood has stalled for lack of funding.
He blames local authority bureaucrats for much of his trouble.
But he has also been unable to satisfy the funding criteriademanded by Sport England and British Cycling.

And so he has unkind words for them, too.
But does Westphal complain too much? Afterall, BC has helped secure£2, 400,000 funding over the last four years from SportEngland's Community Development Programme. The money has been spentrepairing tracks and building new road circuits up and the country.

Surely Westphal can fulfil Sport England's and British Cycling'scriteria to get hold of some dosh? Sport England would provide£70,000 towards the cost.
And I did wonder, should I bother taking this story any further?
Well, I am doing because it's a bit personal.

Because we here at the magazine have watched PORC grow for over adecade and a half!
PORC has such wonderful potential and it enjoys such a beautifulsetting I can't believe that between them, the various authoritiespulling the levers of power, haven't seen fit to realise itspotential.

You should see the clubhouse, being built at this minute. It's notthe plain, functional, boring blot on the landscape you see onplaying fields everywhere, but a unique visionary constructionincorporating six chestnut trees, which fell during the 1987 storm.
They now form six sturdy pillars within the building.

From this lofty perch you will look out over the mountain bikedownhill and road circuit, and out, across the Kent Weald.
It will be an iconic place to visit, both for riders and spectatorsalike. If it's ever finished!
I ask myself, why are the various local authorities dragging theirheels and failing to fully support Westphal?

Why isn't British Cycling banging the drum on Westphal's behalf?
Is it because he's a landowner and they hate the idea he might makea bit of money out of it?
What, at 80 pence a week, the charge to ride here!
Come on.

He's a former clubrider, rode with the Southborough and DistrictWheelers.
PORC is located
not far from Tonbridge and Sevenoaks. This makes it ideal foryoungsters of all ages in the area.
Indeed, the off-road trails have proved very popular.

Westphal insists that Sport England and BC are being tooinflexible.
One thing is for sure, you might as well wave red flags at a bullas oppose Westphal.
That's the experience of neighbours who feared perhaps a HaltonTowers type theme park going up.

In the 17 years since Westphal started to build his cycle park,he's established a fine mtb circuit and a downhill course, whichhas twice hosted the national championship.

But he's always wanted a road circuit.
Cycling Weekly first visited PORC in 1991 when the staff descendedmob-handed to ride the mtb trails, which he had then only recentlystarted to carve through the undergrowth.
It was a rainy day, not very nice at all. But we could see thepotential.

This 40-acre wood at Penshurst, near Tonbridge, Kent, was onceowned by
Viscount Hardinge, the Governor General of India, some 150 yearsago.
It was overgrown and neglected when Westphal bought it. His trailsfollow some of the original pathways.

Periodically over the years, we have noted the expansion of mtbtrails, the building of the huge mounds and dips of the downhillcourse, and a year or two ago, the beginnings of the road circuit.

We've listened to his plans and watched them develop, including thework currently in progress on the truly impressive 100-foot longclub house.

The felled trunks of six massive chestnuts (victims of the 1987Great Storm) are a unique feature of the building, and appear tohave taken root and grown through the floors and roof.

In fact they are free standing, anchored together by seriously hugegirders, forming the framework around which the building stands.
What an imaginative tribute to these six kings of the wood, torestore them as sentinels.
This will be the café/restaurant/showers  with veranda forviewing&

It could become a magnet for passing cyclists, as well as forvisitors to the centre.
Outside is a huge pond, waiting for fish, and a garden waiting tobe laid out with views not only of the downhill and mtb trails, butalso of the road circuit which will pass by.

But only if Westphal can find some backers.
Westphal has a sunny disposition and personable manner. You mighthave seen him hosting the TV house building series on a satellitechannel.
The team who film that have filmed him at work at PORC, and on hisonsite living quarters nearby, which like the clubhouse 100 yardsaway, sits high on the ridge overlooking the Weald.
There he and his wife can wake up each morning and watch thesunrise. It's a breathtaking view.

He played me the DVD of the TV programme made so far.
So I wonder, why can't the plans to complete this cycling centre,with its stunning views across the Weald towards Tonbridge, bebrought to fruition?

PORC is even connected to Tonbridge by a six-mile Sustrans path,for Christ's sake. Westphal, as a rep for Sustrans, was behind thistoo, but again met all manner of opposition from local authoritiesbefore, finally, the path was opened.

His dream, though, was always to build the road circuit.
The sweeping, challenging circuit is laid out and cambered.Westphal says he's ridden it on his Saracen Tourmalet road bike.

It includes a one-kilometre loop wheel chair circuit and it snakesaround and above the mtb and downhill circuits, which has been inuse for 17 years - PORC  Penshurst Off Road Club.
It just needs dressing with £150,000 worth of tarmac.



So what's the problem?
The banks won't lend any money and the £70,000 we were goingto get from Sport England  British Cycling stopped us getting it,said Westphal.
British cycling told him he didn't have planning consent for roadracing.

In the words of Dave Cockram  Westphal, mimic's Cockram'sLancashire accent&- 'if it doesn't say bicycle racing, you'll notget the money',.
We (He and his lawyer) decided that the word cycling in theplanning consent covers everything. It covers downhill mtb racing,it covers BMX, it covers trials, and it covers road riding. Itcovers all forms of cycling. That's what it says in the planningconsent. And we've been running bicycle racing here for 16 years.
And then there is the small matter of a few trees close to thetrack Cockram would like removed.

Having seen the trees myself I can't see what the fuss is about.The new bonkers safety audits demanded of event organisers want theworld sterilised.

I'm informed the Crystal Palace circuit in London has steel postsat the edge of the track!
And there are trees dotted all over mtb courses!

Who remembers racing the Peel Kermesses during Isle of ManInternational Week?
All those sharp corners through narrow streets, with straw bales infront of plate-glass shop windows. Then there was the sharp turn toavoid diving into the harbour where the lifeboat was on standby!

As for Kings Gardens criteriums in Southport, near Liverpool. WhenI raced there in the 1960s, we didn't worry about the low concretewalls edging both sides the paths!
So, trees are trees. Straw bale the trunks.
Back to Westphal's woes.

He tells me he's spent every penny he's got. He's sold his Londonhouse, sold all his racing cars, sold his shares and slowly overthe years, he's developed this remarkable cycling centre.
And we're all but there, he says. I'm trying to sell my lasthouse. But no one is going to buy it in this market. It's a goodasset. Worth £1.5m.
(This is a thatched medieval manor house he's built with wood fromhis estate).

I'm trying to flog it to put money into the bike track for thegreat unwashed cyclists out there, the ungrateful cyclists outthere, in my experience.

Westphal is, he'll tell you, just a guy whose good fortune hasallowed him to own land. He's indulging himself by constructing thebest cycling circuit in the country, for all to use.

Is it because it's private and not public that is makingauthorities wary?

Why won't the banks loan him the money?
Banks won't loan the money for privately run bike track becausethey don't get cycling.
Golf clubs, tennis, yes. Two a penny.
What also gets up his nose is BC telling him they will require alevy to be paid when he hosts events there.
This is standard practice, but on top of everything else, itrankles.
He's not exactly coining it!
Membership is 80 pence a week for kids up to age 18.
Over 18, between £1.20 a week and £1.50 a week.
For unregistered riders the day rate if £2.50.
You wouldn't get into golf club car park for that!
I'm not going to get rich on it, he says.

He feels that BC doesn't know how to deal with a privateindividual. Cockram wanted a drawing (of the tree by the track)rather than go and look at it. It's £500 for a drawing!

PORC has never been given any money. The only money we ever gotwas from Kent county council - three grand towards the wheel chaircircuit, which is also, of course, part of the road race circuit.
But three grand is about one per cent of the cost.

He's spent about £100,000. But that's it. He's used up hiscoffers.
Here's an example of the sort of crap he has had to deal with. Hesays Sevenoaks Council charged him £1,350 to say yes to hisplanning permission for the wheel chair circuit.
And they charge Sainsbury's £135 for planning permission fora car park.

They charged me the maximum they could possibly charge  have theygot it in for me, or what?

When my lawyer sought to get the fee reduced, they said they woulddo so only if we got a judgement from the High Court - which ofcourse would cost us £10,000.
Don't talk to him about his legal battle with the ForestryCommission a few years ago.

Even though he won the case, he was left with a £30,000 legalbill. The FC accused him of illegally felling trees, when he didhave permission to do so.
The trees were a danger, that's why he felled t hem. When heprovided the written evidence, the commission halted theproceedings.



I put this story to Dave Cockram, British Cycling's FacilitiesOfficer.
Cockram:
It's a long, quite detailed process t
hat Sport England require for funding, explained Cockram.
We weren't making progress at a fast enough rate with Mike. Wepassed the deadline in April.
But Cockram told me all is not lost. It's on the shelf until Mikecan comply. Then we'll look at it again. It's as simple as that.

 His mtb, downhill and cyclo cross are fantastic. It's all off hisown back.
We tried very, very hard to get Mike to comply with the SportEngland requirements.

He's got planning application for a cycling circuit but nowhere inhis planning application does he mention cycle racing. We will fundcycle racing.

One of the things Sport England require is that if they put moneyinto a scheme they want to be sure that in 25 years time thatscheme is still going to be usable.

It has the potential to be a wonderful circuit, although in myopinion, there are too many trees too close to the track.

I next spoke to Dave Reader of Sport England.
There are certain criteria to qualify for funding
You have to be nominated by your governing body, which that projectwas, Reader told me.
Then once nominated it goes through various steps in order for itto become compliant to the fund.

And there is where it fell down. There was an issue aroundplanning in that it wasn't clear from our perspective that theapplication had gone in as a cycling circuit&
It needs to be quite clear to us that the circuit is for cycleracing. We didn't feel that.

However, what we did say to the guy is it's not too clear, but ifyou can get a clarification letter from the local authority thenwe'll accept that.
But we never got that either&.

There were also some issues over tree felling. Sport Englandweren't totally convinced he had permission to fell trees, as theyrequired for the circuit.

Again, if we could have got full assurances back on that we wouldhave proceeded&the planning wasn't clear to us.
We couldn't hang around for ever on this, the time ticked on&

I related all this to Westphal.
I said to him, look, I could see the point of having the wordbicycle racing in the planning permission.
The word cycling can also relate to motorcycling.
What if, sometime in the future, you sold the land, what then?

Westphal insisted that motorised vehicles are not permitted underthe planning permission.
 My lawyers agreed that cycling covered cycle racing as well.And that's what we've done here for 17 years, run cycle racing,retorted Westphal.
No, they used the money for the Crystal Palace circuit. I didn'thave a chance in Hell.