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email this page to a friendA NEW front in the long running war between leisure vehicle drivers and the Yorkshire Dales National Park will be opened in the next few days - and this time, the park authority has a powerful new weapon in its armoury.
For well over ten years, the so-called Dales "green lanes" have been a battlefield between the park and the owners of 4 x 4s, trial motor bikes and quad bikes, who have insisted on their right to use these centuries-old routes for pleasure tripping.
Dales "green lanes" - a battlefield between the park
and owners of 4 x 4s
This has led to some of the lanes being churned into mud so deep that walkers, mountain bikers and horse-riders have barely been able to get through. Even farmers, who use the lanes to move from field to field, have been bogged down on tractors.
But the lanes, created generations before the invention of the internal combustion engine, were a public right of way, giving legal access to anyone who chose to use them - a right that the 4 x 4 owners have fought bitterly to protect. For years, they have been the most vitriolic writers to the Daelnet Have your Say column.
After years of lobbying parliament for a change in these ancient laws, the YDNPA has finally been given a new weapon to fight back: the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act (NERC).
Over the next few weeks, signs will be going up on public footpaths and bridleways all over the Yorkshire Dales National Park informing people that there is no access for recreational motor vehicles.
NERC, which was given Royal Assent last month, gives National Park Authorities (NPAs) new powers to manage the use of off-road vehicles like 4x4s, motorbikes and quadbikes in the National Parks.
Sections of the Act that came into force on Tuesday, May 2nd, mean that, apart from some very rare exceptions, it is illegal to drive a recreational motor vehicle on any bridleway and footpath.
Mark Allum, the National Park's Access Project Officer, said: "More than 240 Km of footpath and bridleway in the National Park were used by recreational motor vehicle drivers in the belief that they might have public motor vehicle rights.
"The Act removes the possibility of these rights on these routes, some of which are well-known like Occupation Road above Dentdale, the Craven Way between Dentdale and Ribblehead and routes over Carlton Moor in Coverdale."
Head of Park Management, Jon Avison, added: "The YDNPA has always believed that the use of recreational motor vehicles on public rights of way in the National Park has been inappropriate and this Act gives us the tools to manage and protect these routes.
"For that reason alone, we are very pleased that the Bill has become law - it is a very important step forward for the National Park."
Further applications to add new BOATs to the definitive map are likely to result in restricted byways, which do not have rights for recreational motor vehicles.
Another main feature of the Act is that, from October this year, NPAs as well as local highway authorities will be able to impose Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) to prohibit off-roaders from using green lanes.
Over the last two years, the Park Authorities have been working in conjunction with North Yorkshire County Council to apply experimental TROs to four routes in the Dales, including along the heavily damaged Mastilles Lane between Malham and Kilnsey.
Mr Avison continued: "The feedback we have received has clearly shown that the TROs are necessary and effective in managing this use. The authority now looks forward to working with county councils and users to protect the unique environment of the National Park."
To make off-roaders aware of the changes this legislation has brought about, the Authority will be putting up information signs on the routes and has uploaded details on to its website at www.yorkshiredales.org.uk
Your views:
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I am a disabled motorist and unable to walk more than 30 yards on good level ground, I love the countryside and have driven the lanes and enjoyed the unique veiws, perspectives, flora and fauna from the seat of my 4X4 just the same as these able bodied ramblers do, these restrictions will further reduce my enjoyment of the green lanes.
These dog in a manger tree hugging ramblers that come out of town on a weekend that are worried about getting their boots muddied should get a life, they have thousands of miles of access away from the lanes with vehicular access but they are not satisfied with having exclusive access to 95% of all rights of way - they want our 5% too.
SHAME ON THE NATIONAL PARK AUTHORITY,
SHAME ON THE RAMBLERS ASSOSIATION,
PRESERVE THE RIGHTS OF US ALL NOT JUST THE ABLE BODIED, WHETHER ON FOOT OR NOT.David Hurst - Driffield
- The provisions for recreational motoring in PROWs seem so fair and reasonable that I cannot understand why there are people virulently opposed to this activity. There are thought to be 5% of PROWs with vehicular rights and so far 2% have proven vehicular rights and are classed as byways open to all traffic. This is a small proportion of a vast, over extended network of public paths which has grown to 225,000 km and will continue to expand for twenty years. In general walkers, cyclists and horseriders seem to have limitless access to routes that they do not have to share with vehicles so what is all the fuss about?
What people find hard to accept is that we cannot choose where PROWs should be located since they are based on historical rights gained through long useage. It is an unfortunate accident of history and geography that minor vehicle roads are concentrated in Yorkshire along with five other counties including Somerset and Wiltshire. This is bad news if you happen to live in these counties but on the other hand if you live in Devon or Oxfordshire you are in luck. There is discrimination against the recreational motorists who use PROWs in that - having proven vehicular rights on certain routes by applying various tests - these routes happen to be located somewhere that is inconveniant or otherwise undesirable; the authorities then want to abolish the drivers rights. I wonder how walkers would feel if they were treated in the same way.
People also find it hard to accept that PROWs may traverse unsuitable terrain for the kind of traffic that is allowed to use it. The route may have had a hard surface in the past but this may have sunken into deep peat or have been washed away leaving modern users to struggle through boggy ground. There is discrimination against recreational motorists in that they are the only users of PROWs who are held responsible for the state of repair of the routes that they use and are liable to be banned if they make ruts. The rationale behind this policy is that non vehicular users have a greater right to use these routes since non vehicular access to the countryside is a good thing and if drivers happen to inconveniance other user groups with ruts they should be banned. Of course no-one would dream of banning walkers, cyclists and horseriders if their routes get out of shape because they traverse boggy ground.
I have been to the Yorkshire Dales to see what all the fuss is about and I discovered four byways with heavy rutting. All the others had a hard surface which had suffered genuine damage since water had washed away their man made surface. So, not quite the picture of wanton destruction painted by the pressure groups.
There are too many cross country vehicles using PROWs in the Yorkshire Dales. Could we not pursuade them to accept voluntary restraint in weekend driving?
Maurice Courcha - London Thank goodness that sanity has settled over our diminishing and precious landscapes; mountains, moors and ancient byways to be protected in a way that the National Parks founders intended but by default failed to make explicit in the 1940's National Parks acts.
Ending 4X4 and trial biking in the National Park bridleway/footpath network is akin to ending speed boating on Windermere or restricting jetskis near beach areas.
Sadly most "sports" involving the internal cumbustion engine entertain the few at the expense of the enjoyment of the many.
Anonymous
