UKC

A new climbing wall proposed for Milton Keynes needs your help:

Big Rock Climbing Centre is a collaboration between Beacon Climbing in North Wales and some local climbers from Milton Keynes.

Steve Mayers from The Beacon explained:

"The aim is to build a climbing centre of national...

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=50597

In reply to UKC News: woo hoo go for it boys, i for one hope it works out

In reply to UKC News:

Steve, this is a fantastic idea... I've recently started climbing and have to drive to Birmingham or Amersham every week to get my fix at the moment, so I'd expect you to have plenty of customers lining up.

Really hope this project takes off, and it's right by my house too! Woohoo!

In reply to UKC News:

Brilliant news! I would like something with some good leading lines, preferably featured walls.

In reply to steve

i also think its a great idea. i just looked at the beacon web site and saw the selection of walls that you have built. i like the plywood construction but dislike the paint effects. i always find the a flat colour to be much nicer.
also i remember a climbing wall i saw that had a long overhanging tunnel which went up onto the first floor level from the ground floor. this made it possible to link huge ammounts of overhanging climbing together. effectivly doing route lengths. it could be the only one in britain, a unique selling point.

also what about a DWS pool. that would be the only one in the world surely.

dan

In reply to UKC News: This would bloody brilliant. I live in MK and we have no hills for miles around so a good wall would be great. Only thing that could make it better would be an indoor ice wall like the ice factor near glencoe. To be able to practice 'rock' and 'ice' a few miles from home in practice for the Alps would get my vote....

In reply to UKC News: First of all thanks everybody for all the support & encouragement, we've had a load of e-mails as well as support through the forums. Lets hope the councils web site is getting bombarded by support for the project!

It's also good to have suggestions & there have been some good ones.

Ice climbing: I'm afraid for a privately funded project this one isn't really viable, it would cost a small fortune - much more money than we have available. Coincidentally we have some dry tooling workshops going on at the Beacon this weekend and these have really opened my eyes to what is possible with minimum outlay and a bit of imagination. Having climbed indoor ice I can say that artificial dry tooling is far more interesting & definitely just as good training!

DWS: Well (money permitting) we are planning to build a large 'pit' in the unit to accommodate some decent length lead routes but, I can't say that filling it with water for DWS will be in the first round of developments. Maybe something for the future...

The overhanging tunnel is a great idea, I've seen something like this on the web site of a US wall but can't remember the link. I will definitely be having another look at the plans with this in mind. However, we do already have some steep bouldering planned with potential for some fairly direct problems up to 10m long!

Colours: Point noted although our web site is a bit out of date and I would say we've probably toned things down over the last few years. Pretty subjective though and you'll never get agreement over this - good design is most important and we do want to put everything we've learnt over the years into practice and come up with something special.

Featured walls: Well most of the wall will initially be plywood because we can give you a lot more wall than if we used fibreglass. We will, however be creating lots of varied shapes with plenty of multifaceted wall to give a 3-dimensional feel.

I'll hopefully start to post up a few images with 'tasters' of what we are planning soon.
Thanks again for all the positive comments.
Steve

In reply to UKC News:
I will send out a mail to all the members in Milton keynes Mountaineering Club.
We at the moment drive to Bear Rock in the week and london/birmingham at the weekends.
Good luck guys!
Gary

In reply to Steve Mayers: can we have a good mixture of angles, not just overhanging some slabby stuff would be nice

In reply to Steve Mayers:



Mission Cliffs/Berkeley Iron Works possibly

http://www.touchstoneclimbing.com/bi.html

In reply to UKC News:

So in - still count on The Castle for an indoor climbing fix, keep meeting folk asking where local wall IS

In reply to UKC News:

hope thsi works,

I ( on behalf of MKMC) did a bit for Suga climb when they proposed a wall, even went to council hearings for them

we failed as the planenrs werenot playign ball

If you guys are readign theis and qwould like some info on why sugga climb failed aand ro would liek MKMC to hekp you in yout plannign app then let me know

In reply to Daithi O Murachu:

just had a quick read of your application

it was on the same change of use aspecst that SUga Climb met difficulties

particuarly in providing sufficient parkign spaces

In reply to UKC News: This would be an excellent asset to the place, frankly we need a decent climbing wall around this area, travelling to warwick once a week for my climbing fix is do-able but quite alot of effort, whereas having this facility right on my doorstep would be brilliant. Hope you get the permission and i will personally help to build it

In reply to UKC News: Good luck with this - MK is crying out for something to climb! Have you got your parish council/local councillor on board? Let me know if you need contact details for them.

In reply to UKC News:
I have duly completed the online form on the Planning website saying what a 'good thing' a climbing wall is - for young + old etc.
I will keep an eye out on the application. Surely there is no adverse comment from the Planners at this stage? Presumably the current B1 use means it is an unoccupied building waiting for a tenant like many others in MK, whereas this is offering X number of jobs straight away? It will also tick alot of boxes in sport provision etc. in the area for the Council.

Look forward to the opening! Ed

In reply to epic ed: Hi Ed thanks for posting your support with the planners. The main objections are mainly around loss of employment and parking, neither of which in reality are much (if anything) of an issue. I think we've put in as strong an application as we could and like you say you'd hope this would be something that the Concil will see as a positive development.

In reply to piratemonkey: Thanks for the support - good idea about getting the local councillor on board, I'll mention this to another one of the Big Rock directors who lives locally.

In reply to UKC News:

It would be great if this happened. There's bugger all to do in MK in the evening at the moment.

Where's Kingston?

In reply to Tim Chappell: Here:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl&q=kingston%20milton%20ke...

In reply to UKC News: I have added my support for the Centre with MK Council.

For me getting up to Derbyshire with someone to climb is difficult and having this just 1/2 an hour away would be great ( I could get climb fit and just fitter too).

I did once do a study into opening up a Centre in Northampton, there is nothing of qaulity in the area, Warwick being the closest to me; best wishes and I hope to meet you when it opens.

In reply to Tim Chappell: big tesco store off v11, large industrial units all around, sounds like they havent got a tall one if they are digging a pit,

What a fab idea, roll on new climbing walls! I have never been to the Beacon but I hear its good so look forward to checking out the new wall in Milton Keynes.

In reply to UKC News: Thanks again to everybody for their support. I've just counted that 72 people have been on to the Milton Keynes Council web site and made comments - which is a fantastic response. Hopefully only a few more weeks to go now and we should know the outcome!
All the best
Steve

In reply to Steve Mayers: Just out of interest, presuming planning permission etc is granted, what is the timescale for the centre opening?

In reply to piratemonkey: If we get planning granted then we aim to start work almost immediately. Realistically we are looking at 4 months for conversion work & the wall build so, with luck I'd say the end of May.

In reply to Steve Mayers: Any updates?

In reply to piratemonkey: The application has been approved!!

In reply to RichardMc: that's fantastic news. Congratulations guys if you are reading this.

Now stop reading this, and build it

In reply to UKC News: Brilliant, can't wait for it to open.