Mice_Elf

Taken from The SpeedTrap Bible

Did you know that you are about to be permanently banned from using 6,000 miles of UK roads?

Probably not as the government are trying to keep it very quiet and hoping that almost no one will object! In the UK we have over 100,000 miles of footpaths and bridleways and about 6,000 miles of dirt roads that you can legally drive on. The govt plan to ban all vehicles from these roads very soon unless lots of people object, and as they have keep this very quiet, they will probably get away with it. No you might say who cares "I don't drive on dirt roads".

BUT its widely believed that if they get away with this without objections that they will then use this as a precedent to begin a process of restricting access to roads unless you pay extra - seems far fetched? If you have tried to get a replacement number plate recently you now need more paperwork to get one that you do to apply for a passport! The govt intends to introduce road charging and it will be driven by number plate recognition systems and to make it work they need to totally control the issue of number plates AND get away with initially banning us all from the first 6,000 miles of UK roads.

The Govt are saying they want to ban vehicles as they say they cant police these green lanes and so want to ban all vehicles! A strange and somewhat unfair approach?

If you want to protest about it, then;

Email rights.ofway@defra.gsi.gov.uk
Regarding Objecting to banning vehicles from rights of way

And simply state that you object to the govt banning vehicles from these "green" roads.

It should take you a couple of minutes to do this. The govt is relying on you lot to do nothing to get its changes through - so will you do something about it?

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

Done Anyone got a map of these dirt tracks

ajm

Yeah, got that by email last night!

Its a good point. The "pac-a-mac, beard and sandals" brigade would never let one of their footpaths be closed to the public, even if it means traipsing through people's gardens. Motorists should not put up with it either!

ian_sadler

Done

Jen

Sadley this has been coming for a while

It's a response to the irresponsible people using the greenlanes, e.g. motorcyclists with non road-legal vehicles...but stops nice people like me taking my Landy down there of a weekend

A couple of point's to bear in mind in your e-mails:

How will disabled people now access the countryside?

What about people who's houses are down one of these highways?

Is it really going to stop the illegal use?

And if damage is the issue temporary TRO's can be placed on these lanes whilst they're repaired.

The Land Rover Owners Club I belong to does quite a bit to maintain these rights of way in a useable state....who's going to do it if we're banned? They'll soon become overgrown and unusable for everyone...

Sensible?

I think not

King RA

also done....we cannot let them treat motorists like ****.

Fatman

Done

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

They've been doing it for years mate:

Alcazar

Done btw

King RA

and its about time we done something about it!!!!!!

Jer

Done

jaycee

Done!!


Jason

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

Good luck but do yo really thing the government are going to take one iota of notice of yet another petition????

if they make their minds up to do anything there is nothing any of you can do about it.

Sorry for my opinion but unfortunately Briatain is very quickly losing its democratic status, in the future you will ll just do as your told or leave the country these will be your only 2 options.

King RA

The sad thing is I completely agree with you Wurzel.

BMWhere?

I already left the country

Ratman

If they can't police the lanes, how are they going to enforce a ban?!!

Ratman
MY98 Wagon

Rally

If you look at MPs profiles 99% of them list interests in walking and the coutryside, I cant find one that likes anything motorised (I suppose 2 jags is the obvious exception), but he would not take one on a green lane.

The eventual aim is to ban all motorised transport in National Park areas, each area has an access forum and, you quessed it, the majority of the members are ramblers and they dont even let peeps with a motoring interest speak if they can help it.

I am, as my profile name suggests, into Rallying and soon there may come the day when no cars are allowed in the forests, as they are usually in National Park areas. The forestry commision get a lot of revenue from renting out the forest roads, are the walkers willing to pay £10 a day to park to make up for this loss of income? (each mile of forest road is about £300 to rent for a rally I once heard).

Sbradley

Funnily enough, the damage is done by cretins in their 4x4s who think a walk in the countryside is best carried out in air conditioned comfort and at about 50mph. Look at the Icknield Way, for example. Nice roman road, partly bridleway and running near my Mum's house. Popular with bikes, horses, walker and the aforementioned 4x4s.

And completely impassable by anything except very dedicated off road bikers and those 4x4s as soon as it rains a little bit. Because 2 tonnes of Shogun makes one hell of a mess of soft ground.

There are, I'm sure, some nice, responsible off road drivers who treat the green lanes they're using with respect and who actually offer some courtesy to the other swho use the same lanes. And there are certainly some less than responsible bikers out there as well. But both are in the minority.

Sorry, but the 4x4 lot have brought this down on us, not the bikers.

SB

fizzled

make a protest by not voting them in. remember what happened in france a couple of years ago. just vote for the most obscure tree hugging party. this country has 2 main party's if they thought that both would loose out of running a government i think these dictatorship like plans would fall to the wayside.

Jen

Mm. And what about the farmers using hte tracks with heavy machinery? I've driven 100's of miles of greenlanes and most of the damage is done by these vehicles.

I'm not saying all 4x4 drivers are good - there are obviously complete tossers in every group...have you seen the damage a number of horses can do to these lanes? Yes, I used to ride as well.

Any damage to a lane can be repaired, after all, these lanes are highway place a temporary TRO on these lanes and ban use if they get into a bad state.

Personally every 4x4 driver I know follows the GLASS guidlines - things like 12 mph on the lane max (instead of the 50mph you quote), engines get turned of when horses pass and all walkers get a nice "thanks" for moving out the way. Why would we want to do anything to damage the lanes when we love using them?!

We have a map in the club with any lanes seriously rutted marked in red - these don't get used.

The thing is - why should we get prevented from using these because of a small minority? A number of people drive Scoob's like tossers - does that mean we should ban all imports of 2L turbo japanese vehicles?

Jen

Jen

Oh, and I don't consider myself a cretin