The Master Plan Q & A

It’s been great to see such a response to our Master Plan being given planning permission. It’s an exciting time here at the park and it’s great to finally be able to share that with everyone!

We’ve had a lot of questions coming in and have put the most frequent ones together along with as many answers as we can to help you understand the plans, when they will happen and what they mean.

Will campervans be able to stay overnight?

Yes. We’ve included an area in the plan for campers to stay overnight and have electricity hook up points as well as a chemical toilet emptying facility. Having said that we do need to manage expectations a little on this one, we have a LOT of work happening at the park at the moment, this one comes with some drainage and environmental complications and we may not be able to get to this project until 2021.

Will prices go up to pay for theses developments?

No. The entire model of BPW has been built around reinvesting money back into the park. Throughout our journey we’ve been very fortunate to find others who share this ethos, from customers to investors, Welsh Government and our landlord Natural Resources Wales, everyone is devoted to making BikePark Wales the best it can be. To simply raise prices for our customers to pay for these developments would totally undermine everything that we have been working towards. Of course, we cannot state that our prices will never go up, what business can?  What we can categorically state though is that prices will not rise due to these development plans. 

Will there be camping on site?

Unfortunately not. As you can see from the site plan every bit of available space has been used. Don’t forget we have several great campsites local to the park.

Why don’t you just focus on the uplift?

Some may not be aware but we have been working hard to make our uplift service as efficient as possible and we’ve made huge improvements. From considerable investment widening our uplift road to totally re-structuring the way our team of uplift drivers work. Whilst our uplift service has come a long way and the vast majority of the time operates flawlessly, we are still working hard to improve the consistency of the service, occasionally things go wrong (breakdowns, staff sickness etc) and we are working on ways to make the system more resilient so we can better handle these situations.  Our new transport manager Dave (ex army!) has just joined us and his primary focus is consistent excellent delivery on the uplift.

Why don’t you buy a chair lift?

We’ve really done our homework on this one and once you look at it in more detail it really isn’t as obvious a move as you might think . First up is cost, it’s been a few years since we looked at this seriously but £6 million will just about get you there and without the kind of visitor numbers a ski resort gets (around 10-20 X BPW numbers) you would never see a return on that investment. In addition to that, closures due to bad weather would be far more frequent. 

When are you going to fix the driveaway?

We now have a team of two grounds keepers (Jonnie and Martyn) who are responsible for the entrance road amongst other things. They have a big task on their hands as they also now maintain the uplift road, look after site litter, general landscaping and a whole host of other duties.  The entrance road is on their radar though, rest assured!

Are you planning to build more natural trails?

Absolutely! We have lots of exciting trail developments planned that include some natural trails along with more jump and flow trails.  Car parks, toilets and showers are great but lets not forget it’s trails that really get us excited!

See you at the park soon!
The BikePark Wales team