Planning Update January 2025

Lease discussions with Forestry England are going well - we’ve now had our initial Heads of Terms, the document which our lease is going to be based on. We’re confident that we’ll now be able to get the lease signed in weeks rather than months, which is amazing, and we’ll let you know exact dates when things are closer.

Therefore we’ve been talking to local Solicitors so that we’re in a position to get the lease reviewed prior to being signed, and talking to insurance brokers to get the insurance we’ll need for building and riding ready for the start of the lease.

Following the disappointing planning news before Christmas we’ve also spent January talking to local independent planning advisors who have been recommended to us (thanks to everyone who reached out!), getting advice and quotes for working with us.

The outcome of this is that we’re confident that the trails and features are covered by permitted development, but getting the CLUED for change of use will still be very good to ensure that we’re fully secure planning wise for the future. The advisors we have spoken to are confident that we’ve got a strong case, and we’ll be able to make a successful second application. Waiting times for appeals is almost a year apparently, so re-submitting looks like the way to go, despite the additional cost.

We’ve also been advised that the Ecology Report we commissioned for the car park planning application is valid for three years - so once our CLUED application has gone through, we can then re-submit that and really get things moving with only a small payment.

So… the 2025 Cafeside Plan!

The current plan is that hopefully within the next two months we’ll get the lease signed, insurance in place, start organising dig (and test riding!) days. Then have the full Cafeside opening later in the year once the site is ready. Before summer? Bloomin hope so!

We’ll be opening initially without our car park as everyone’s waited far too long already. We’re approaching local businesses regarding possible off-site but close car parking facilities. And what fully “open” looks like will depend on the insurance companies requirements in terms of staffing, volunteering, etc. but we’ll have more details as the time gets closer.

As you can imagine, none of the planning (around £2,000) or legal (£tbc but probably scary) advice comes cheap - so once we’ve got quotes in, we’ll then make decisions on what we can do and afford. Any new or further donations to our crowdfunding page are therefore amazing and really appreciated to help Cafeside open this year! Even if you just buy a day pass in advance, that’d really help us out.

Planning Update December 2024

I'm afraid this isn't the update we were hoping for.

Our application to certify the use of Cafeside as being used for mountain biking trails for over 10 years has been rejected by Teignbridge District Council. Their conclusion is "on the balance of probability with the appropriate weight given to the evidence submitted, it is considered that the use of the site has not been in place and in the mountain bike trail centre use in excess of 10 years"

We are as flabbergasted as you that this is their conclusion after 6 months of us submitting our application, given the substantial body of evidence we provided. We worked closely with our original planning officer to answer their questions and answer any gaps in the continuous use that they were concerned about, and who informed us in the autumn that the planning department “are generally looking to support the application”. Forestry England supported us throughout, providing letters of support, and answering questions the planners had.

Unfortunately in November our original planning officer left, and our application was then assigned to a contractor. They themselves then also left in November after 2 weeks, our application once again being reassigned to a further planning officer who then rejected our application within 3 days…

However.

We are strongly convinced that there are several concerning issues and errors that have been made with our application, there are areas of our application that went unaddressed, and on that basis, we will be appealing the decision with the planning inspectorate. We will provide more details once we’ve got our appeal in progress so that we don’t jeopardise the process.

We are receiving planning advice from people in the field, and being supported further by the UK MTB Trail Alliance.

So whilst this is not the happy start to the festive period we were after, we are not going to let this stop Cafeside from progressing, it’s just yet another planning speedbump we’re going to have to overcome. We're still in the process of negotiating the lease, and as ever, the three of us are on site weekly.

Thanks again to every one of you who continues to support us - we will get this!

Planning Update August 2024

We are currently awaiting Teignbridge District Councils decision on our second planning application. Following discussions with planning consultants and the new UK MTB Trail Alliance, we decided to apply for a Certificate of Lawfulness for Existing Use (CLUED) to obtain change of use on the site from Forestry to Forestry and Mountain Bike Trail Centre, and protection under Permitted Development to cover the building and maintenance of both existing and future trails on the site.

The CLUED application requires the site to have been in constant use for over 10 years, so we have supplied YouTube videos, photos, race events and details from Forestry England supporting our application.

The Permitted Development Rights are related to the fact that CafesideMTB is on Crown Land, and as a group CafesideMTB have been and will continue to be working with and on behalf of Forestry England. Being on Crown Land offers a range of development rights that mean we will not have to apply for additional planning permission for new trails, features etc. when building in future.

Planning Update March 2024

We’ve been asked by Teignbridge District Council planning department to withdraw our planning application otherwise it will be refused in its current form.

The issue is with the boundary of our planning application. Back in September 2023 we submitted our initial planning application with the boundary covering the entirety of the Cafeside site - the car park, start ramps plus the whole of the plantation to cover all the trails.

At this point our application was received but missed by the planning department, and after 3 months of chasing, eventually entered the validation process. “Something appears to have gone wrong” was the reason given for this delay.

On the advice of the Teignbridge District Council planning department during the validation phase, they recommended that we updated the boundary drawing so that it was under 1 hectare, covering the car park and start ramps.

We have now been advised that they want the boundary line to cover the entire site after all, allowing the commercial woodland to have change of use so that it becomes “commercial woodland and mountain bike trail centre”.

To get to this point 6 months after submitting our application is frustrating beyond words. Having gone through this in detail with Teignbridge District Council planners, they will not permit us to update our existing application, nor will we be getting a refund on the fees we paid. “We tried to be helpful, but unfortunately we got this one wrong” was their explanation.

We can appeal, but this would take up to 32 weeks, and again, would only give us planning for the car park and start ramps, not the change of use needed to allow us to alter and expand the trail network going forwards.

Therefore we will be withdrawing our planning application, amending the drawings and document to take into account all of the feedback that we’ve received during the last 6 months of the planning process. We will then re-submit as soon as possible.

We are as frustrated as anyone that this is the situation that we’re faced with, but we’re not going to give up. We’re confident that going forwards our revised application will be stronger, and hopefully this is a speed bump on the road to getting Cafeside re-opened.

Once we have our new planning application live, we’ll be asking everyone to re-submit their letters of support, as these can not be carried over from the first application. Yes, we asked...

CafesideMTB planning timeline

8th September 2023:	Planning submitted but “missed” by TDC.
September to December 2023:	Emailing and phone calling TDC to try and work out what’s going on.
1st December 2023:	Planning now found & validated by TDC, changes required, amend boundary from full site to the car park / start ramp area, provide surface water management plan.
15th December 2023:	Updated planning application and relevant documents submitted.
15th December 2023:	Updated planning application passes validation. Planning application on the TDC planning site.
December to Febuary 2024:	Over 120 letters of support submitted - Amazing, thank you everyone!
9th January 2024:	Attended Kenn Parish Council meeting to discuss our planning application with the councillors and the attending public.
25th January 2024:	Met Senior TDC Planning Officer and Archeologist on site to discuss application and show them the proposed car park / start ramps and existing trails.
30th January 2024:	Additional documents submitted to TDC planners covering KPC concerns and Nightjar Plan
23rd February 2024:	Notified by email of TDC planning officers wish for us to withdraw our application.
6th March 2024:	Phone meeting with planning officers to try and resolve.
8th March 2024:	CafesideMTB CIC board meeting to discuss withdrawing and resubmitting rather than appealing. This was the agreed way forward.
April 2024:	Following discussions with planning consultants and the new UK MTB Trail Alliance, we decided to apply for a Certificate of Lawfulness for Existing Use (CLUED) and protection under Permitted Development to cover the building and maintenance of trails on the site.
28th May 2024:	CafesideMTB submitted their CLUED application to Teignbridge District Council, which passed validation and was opened to public consultation on the TDC planning website.
4th July 2024:	Public consultation closed on our application.
9th July 2024:	CafesideMTB CIC attended Kenn Parish Council's monthly council meeting to discuss our application with the councilors and answer any questions they had etc.
19th July 2024:	CafesideMTB CIC met our TDC Planning Officer on site to show them the trails that we're still maintaining and test riding, answer any questions, provide trail plan etc.
23rd July 2024:	Expected decision date for our application. We are led to believe by our Planning Officer that a decision has been made, however we are still awaiting the result of the decision to be made public at present.
10th September 2024:	After repeatedly chasing and no extension to decision date, our Planning officer asks for more information from Forestry England to confirm that Cafeside site not abandoned during summer 2021.
18th October 2024:	Forestry England supply letter confirming that CafesideMTB worked with Forestry England throughout the period between the site being closed for public riding and the CLUED application on site and behind the scenes to re-open the site as a pay-to-ride trail centre.
November 2024:	Original planning officer leaves TDC, contractor assigned to our case. Advises he too will be leaving in two weeks.
2nd December 2024:	Second planning officer leaves TDC, a third planning officer is assigned to our case.
3rd December 2024:	Planning officer asks for an extension to the 6th to reach a decision on our application.
4th December 2024:	Our CLUED application is refused. CafesideMTB has concerns around the officers report, questions around permitted development status have been wholly unanswered.
16th December 2024:	Following informal planning advice, CafesideMTB contacted TDC to raise our concerns around our application and discuss our options. We are simply told this is something we would have to pay for, no further information given.
January 2025	CafesideMTB have approached several planning advisors who were recommended to us. Having reviewed our application, the consensus is that we have a good case, and should re-submit with additional evidence rather than appeal (which may take up to a year). We are currently waiting for quotes for legal advice and insurance before instructing a planning advisor to act on our behalf with our new submission.