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Emma Guy and Tracey Brunger have built up a successful bike hire, shop and cafe business at the base of the MTB trails at Glentress, near Peebles, but have now been told their tender for a new contract was unsuccessful.
Forestry Commission Scotland owns the Glentress site and is building a new £9m visitor centre at the popular mountain biking destination, which opens in 2011. Guy and Brunger will remain on site until March 2012. The winner of the Glentress contract has not yet been announced.
The MTB trails at Glentress were first developed in the 1980s by Arthur Phillips. He started a hire business on site and the success of this prompted the Forestry Commission to develop the area for mountain biking.
Nine years ago former racers Emma Guy and Tracey Brunger started The Hub, a hire centre and cafe.
Guy said:
"Tracy and I are gutted to announce that we are out of the tender process for the new centre at Glentress. We will still be there next year – our 10th anniversary – as we have a lease the Forestry can’t terminate."
The Hub employs ten full-time staff and 20 part-time.
On The Hub’s Facebook site, rider Shane Schofield said:
"The Forestry Commission can’t actually go ahead and remove you from the forest, can they? It’s just mad. People say they’re tearing the heart and soul out of the forest; I think it’s more than that. It’s the blood, sweat and tears used to make something good which will now have been wasted, too."
The new visitor centre is for walkers, birdwatchers and horseriders as well as MTBers. A new cafe will have seating for 200 people.
