Eton College blocks off National Cycle Network route and deploys security staff

I live local to the rowing lake in question. 

1) Eton is a residential school, and it's closed. No students.

2) If the crowds leaving messes at the lake are the same crowd as the ones leaving messes around the Jublilee River, then it's probably not the Eton students.  Mixed sex crowd, Eton is all male.

3) We've also had a group of travellers break into a local gravel pit now reseeding, so that security guard at the Eton Rowing Lake probably had a secondary purpose of discouraging movement of the travellers onto the lake area.

alan_peery wrote:

I live local to the rowing lake in question. 

1) Eton is a residential school, and it's closed. No students.

2) If the crowds leaving messes at the lake are the same crowd as the ones leaving messes around the Jublilee River, then it's probably not the Eton students.  Mixed sex crowd, Eton is all male.

3) We've also had a group of travellers break into a local gravel pit now reseeding, so that security guard at the Eton Rowing Lake probably had a secondary purpose of discouraging movement of the travellers onto the lake area.

Anecdote.  Got any actual data or evidence?

I can't imagine that Eton would close acces for no reason at all, especially since there have been no kids there for a few months now and all are on holidays until September.

However, this from a local: "It was a total mess, people leaving bbqs, litter, dog poo, an absolute disgrace, the roads where blocked so no emergency vehicles could get down, the fire brigade had to physically move cars one evening, my friend who lives in the village had to call the police because she couldn't get to her house because of people blocking the roads... I'm not surprised they closed it, total idiots disregarding the clear signs. Good for them, keep it closed for now I say, us locals are totally fed up, spoiled for all."

kevvjj wrote:

I can't imagine that Eton would close acces for no reason at all, especially since there have been no kids there for a few months now and all are on holidays until September.

However, this from a local: "It was a total mess, people leaving bbqs, litter, dog poo, an absolute disgrace, the roads where blocked so no emergency vehicles could get down, the fire brigade had to physically move cars one evening, my friend who lives in the village had to call the police because she couldn't get to her house because of people blocking the roads... I'm not surprised they closed it, total idiots disregarding the clear signs. Good for them, keep it closed for now I say, us locals are totally fed up, spoiled for all."

As said above, banning cyclists will cure all that?

eburtthebike wrote:

kevvjj wrote:

I can't imagine that Eton would close acces for no reason at all, especially since there have been no kids there for a few months now and all are on holidays until September.

However, this from a local: "It was a total mess, people leaving bbqs, litter, dog poo, an absolute disgrace, the roads where blocked so no emergency vehicles could get down, the fire brigade had to physically move cars one evening, my friend who lives in the village had to call the police because she couldn't get to her house because of people blocking the roads... I'm not surprised they closed it, total idiots disregarding the clear signs. Good for them, keep it closed for now I say, us locals are totally fed up, spoiled for all."

As said above, banning cyclists will cure all that?

So if you take what kevvjj says at face value, your comment seems a little disingenuous. What do you suggest, a sign saying "Cyclists, being universally of good character, may pass. No admittance to ne'er-do-wells, even on a bicycle."

Usual sloppy journalism here. Has anyone actually established if the route in question is a legal right of way or not? If it is not then the college can do what they like and no one can   moan. Not excatly hard to check and also to check if its been closed in an way. Surely the thing to do rather than rant on here with no sound back ground. 

This area attracted a hoard of local youths (not Etonians, it was public access) towards the end of lockdown on the warm weekends. This created some evenings of hostile behaviour towards locals, no social distancing, litter and drug abuse. Eton stewards trying to control it got abuse and tonnes of rubbish to clear up, so basically took their ball away and locked down the site with a police order, the cycle route closure is part of this to deny access to the facility. Its a great shame as the area was well used by families for exercise. All well documented in social media and local papers.

Evidence? What do you want? A peer reviewed scientific paper? 🙄