Even the prolific Arabella Youens has been lined up to join the CLBA's current easy target the “Off Roaders” in the August edition, unfortunately she too confuses Off Roaders with those who preserve the English and Welsh heritage of Green Lanes and rural byways by sustainable use. No members of the Trail Rider Fellowship, nor the Green Lane Association wish to see any Green Lane made any less usable to any other user. Anyone who cares about the countryside and uses byways is urged to join such a group, and adhere to their Codes of Counduct. Sustainable through use!
For every byway that is made ‘difficult to pass’ by vehicles being used, there are 100 that are obstructed or overgrown! Discarding of agricultural black polywrap, old fence wire, dumped cars, fridges, brambles or sheer impenetrable overgrowth makes thousands of Public Rights of Way totally unusable for humans or animals. Wildlife suffers. What should be wide clear short sward with gradation to the denser hedge, is a damp dark no go wilderness.
“The Field” readers will know what it is to be an endangered species. First hunting with dogs, then shooting, then fishing.......... The Lane Sabbys tactics will not work. The CLBA should work with legitimate user groups to deal effectively with the problem of Rogue Off Roaders. Draconian legislation to ban access to the countryside for the vast majority of careful responsible users - often with mobility challenges - by vehicle will never work. You will remove the considerate users that clear lanes by the organised National Green Lane Clearance Days, or the clearance of fallen branches or trees in passing, or just by the very act of using. You are then left with - and make more - rebel riders! Alun Michael’s dream of vehicle free countryside is pie in the sky. The number of vehicles in the countryside will noticeably alter one iota. Thousands of times more vehicles are used by farming, countryside sports, and residential access over commons and along byways. 2 out of 3 footpaths have private vehicle rights over at least parts of them!
Huntsman have said they will defy bans on hunting and are prepared to go to prison, even Magistrates have said this! Will bike riders stop riding? No. Many would rather go illegally anywhere, anytime in the event of an all-out ban. Plenty of low cost machines are available now, more if the total ban sought by the CLBA was ever introduced. There will be web sites that give safe un-policed areas and routes to ride, in small groups able to split up, ready to abandon unlicensed machines, knowing apprehension will be rare, un-insured, fast and uncontrolled by legislation or by the current users groups who have been asking for a long time for increased powers to regulate the hooligan element. Did Michael’s gun legislation that he is so proud of reduce gun crime? No. Why should firearms be handed in for paltry compensation when they could be sold for FOUR times the value on the black market? Many more guns are still out there but who owns them now? Guns originally legally owned, will be used to commit gun crimes for decades.
Horse riders and cyclist know they will be next. Those routes not decimated by overgrowth, fences or locked barriers, will be next on the CLBA and RA’s wish list.
The CLBA want to place barriers on every RoW to stop vehicles despite having no title to ancient highways, never having ‘bought’ the road, being ‘disowned’ when it come to paying taxes or Tithes
Why? Member’s self interest! So? They are run by members for members – what do you expect? Privacy, security, enhanced property and land values, even windfall highway land acquisition, who wouldn’t try to reduce any highway status or existence - if you are the land-owner trying to keep the highway unused.
It is LANERS who keep RoW open. It is Laners who clear fallen trees. It is Laners who do research to find the fenced, and obstructed old byways, that time – and the tar-sprayer, forgot.
Of course the CLA would rather you didn’t find them!
They want lanes closed. Obstructed, unusable. The RA gives up on local paths. They are only interested in published long distance promoted walks. They are the only paths the HAs strive to keep open. 60% or RoW in many Counties are found failing in the Best Value usability benchmarks.
COUNTRYSIDE COUNCIL FOR WALES PROW CONDITION SURVEY found RoW throughout the country were impassable. Take any County, lets start with ‘A’. Anglesey. (County Council LAF Minutes, 9 March 2004, para 5c http://www.anglesey.gov.uk/english/council/highways/technical/access_forum/mins09-03-04.pdf ) Typical of many Counties in England and Wales in a survey identified the following SERIOUS deficiencies: -
Boundary feature across (highways) - 193 in total (109 fence, 66 hedge, 17 wall, 1 electric fence)
Effect - 163 made path unusable,
Crops or ploughed / cultivated surface
Effect - 1 made path unusable,
Natural vegetation from sides or above - 58 in total
Effect - 31 made path unusable,
Natural Surface vegetation
Effect - 21 made path unusable
Unbridged watercourse -
Effect - 6 made path unusable,
And how many were muddy?
Flooded, muddy, boggy,
Effect - 2 made the path unusable,
And that includes blocked drains and ditches, agricultural practices, neglect of surfacing, and flooding – usually attributed to heavy rain!
Effect of Obstacles overall: 226 causing path to be unusable
Just look at the kind of obstructions that spoil our green lanes. http://www.byways.org.uk/01_Obstruction_Photos.htm
Seeing Farming survives only on the £3,000 Million Government subsidy, and £3,400 Million RED DIESEL subsidy, the use of vehicles off road by agriculture is therefore several thousands of times greater than the UNSUBSIDISED, fully taxed, tourism that actually makes a profit, not a loss to the Country! Isn’t it time subsidies were tied to responsible land management, for the benefit of those who provide those subsidies?
Clearly the CLA are likely to get their way IF Laners are banned. Ramblers can’t fight the ‘Boundary feature across (163), the Natural Surface vegetation (21) the Natural vegetation from sides or above (31)’, 195 out of 226 OVER 86% would appear to be down to Landholders!!!!!!!!!
Just TWO, less than 1%, due to the myriad of causes - some of which might include the rogue off-roaders and the friendly, trusty, caring, legal Laners, oh yes, and the vastly greater and far more damaging agricultural access!
If walkers can’t keep paths open, Cyclists, Horse Riders and Carriage Drivers certainly can’t. And doesn’t the CLBA just know it! Get rid of Laners, and the countryside is returned to the green welly gentlemen farmers, as some wag unkindly said, someone who is neither!
7/8/04