Miniman
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I found this on another forum and thought I would let you all see.
Post your views.
Walkers battle with 4x4s over rights of way
A legal loophole is allowing ancient lanes to be used by recreational off-roaders to the dismay of countryside groups
Peter Hetherington and Sam Jones
Saturday April 10, 2004
The Guardian
With satellite navigation, thick tyres and underside reinforcements, the customised 1980 Range Rover with a sawn-off rear end represents the ultimate in rough riding for Justin Dickenson.
Like thousands of 4x4 enthusiasts, he takes to the country's little-known green lanes every weekend, sometimes covering more than 50 miles searching for overgrown routes which could provide more challenging territory.
"It is purely a toy, my little escape," says Mr Dickenson, a steel erector who has spent countless hours converting and shortening his 3.5 litre machine.
"If I want adrenalin I go to a dedicated off-road site, perhaps an old quarry, and push it to the absolute limit. But for relaxation it is a brilliant way to chill out and enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the countryside."
For many others that peace is being shattered by an off-roading army exploiting a legal loophole to upgrade part of the 130,000-mile rights of way footpath network into "byways open to all traffic".
The off-roaders say that the use of a track by a horse and cart several hundred years ago proves that it is a road even though it is indistinguishable from the surrounding landscape. Councils are being flooded with upgrading applications from off-roaders who are proud to have "liberated" hundreds of miles of "road" over the past few years.
But the action has pitched them against a bigger army of countryside groups, who claim that off-roaders are causing mayhem and threatening ramblers, cyclists and horse riders who get in their way.
A range of rural and equestrian groups say some of the country's oldest byways, including national trails like the Ridgeway - between Overton Hill, Wiltshire, and Ivinghoe Beacon, Buckinghamshire, have been turned into quagmires or impassable tracks.
With ugly confrontations breaking out in some areas, the government is considering closing the legal loophole.
Trying to balance both sides in what some regard as an irreconcilable conflict, Alun Michael, the rural affairs minister, told the Guardian that the loophole was a "perversion" of the law.
"At the moment, if you can prove that a historic right of way was used by a horse and cart 200-300 years ago, that leads automatically to a claim that a motor vehicle can be driven along it," he said. "There is something very odd about that. There are clearly places where very severe destruction is being done to green lanes which were simply not meant for that sort of (vehicle) use."
With sales of 4x4s up from less than 8,000 annually 20 years ago to almost 160,000 now he said the government could not shut its eyes .
The Ramblers' Association, whose membership dwarfs the off-roading lobby, is adamant that all vehicles should be banned from green lanes and byways. It says the 1949 National Parks and Countryside Act never intended these old routes to be used by 4x4s or motorbikes.
The association says motorists already have ample access to minor routes at the expense of walkers.
But Mr Dickenson and his friends accuse the ramblers of arrogance. He says responsible off-roaders are undertaking a public service by opening up overgrown routes. "We have a recognised code of conduct and we stick to it," he says. "Quite often we stop and let walkers go past, but they look at you as if you were a bit of dirt on their boots. The countryside is open to everyone to enjoy and we have very little of it compared with everyone else."
Around the country, national parks report a growing number of confrontations between off-roaders and walkers. In the North Yorkshire Moors national park, police have started threatening bikers with legal action and issuing fixed penalty notices to people riding on open moorland.
In the Lake District, the park authority is considering a ban on off-roaders. Cumbria police say they will use powers in the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 to "seize vehicles from people breaking the law".
On the 85-mile Ridgeway paths have become so damaged that Mr Michael has announced a six-month off-roading ban during the autumn and winter.
Ian Ritchie, chairman of the Friends of the Ridgeway, thinks there has been a ten-fold increase in off-roading over 10 years. "In parts, what you see now would not be out of place in the Somme at the end of the first world war," he said.
But Mr Michael's task is to broker a compromise. He acknowledges he has received countless letters from people complaining of "abuse and intimidation" from off-roaders. But he insists that responsible off-roading groups now recognise that unless the activities of rogue elements are curbed, tougher measures could be introduced.
So why not a complete off-roading ban?
"I'd be reluctant to do that," he says. "But if we're not going to do that we need everyone engaging properly."
Farmers' wheels
Twenty years ago the natural habitat of the 4x4 was the farm, where it worked for a living.
Today, almost 160,000 new ones hit the roads each year, most sold to people without their own country estates to test them on.
The success of the Range Rover, launched in 1970 for £1,998, paved the way for the modern 4x4, and it became a symbol of the yuppie 80s
SUV school run
In the late 80s, Britain began to embrace the sports utility vehicle, the kind of car beloved of American drivers.
By now, almost every motor company, from Vauxhall to Porsche, has a 4x4 on the showroom floor.
Most of these probably never leave the tarmac - their habitat is the supermarket car park and the school run.
But more and more owners are testing their vehicles' offroad capability in the countryside
Post your views.
Walkers battle with 4x4s over rights of way
A legal loophole is allowing ancient lanes to be used by recreational off-roaders to the dismay of countryside groups
Peter Hetherington and Sam Jones
Saturday April 10, 2004
The Guardian
With satellite navigation, thick tyres and underside reinforcements, the customised 1980 Range Rover with a sawn-off rear end represents the ultimate in rough riding for Justin Dickenson.
Like thousands of 4x4 enthusiasts, he takes to the country's little-known green lanes every weekend, sometimes covering more than 50 miles searching for overgrown routes which could provide more challenging territory.
"It is purely a toy, my little escape," says Mr Dickenson, a steel erector who has spent countless hours converting and shortening his 3.5 litre machine.
"If I want adrenalin I go to a dedicated off-road site, perhaps an old quarry, and push it to the absolute limit. But for relaxation it is a brilliant way to chill out and enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the countryside."
For many others that peace is being shattered by an off-roading army exploiting a legal loophole to upgrade part of the 130,000-mile rights of way footpath network into "byways open to all traffic".
The off-roaders say that the use of a track by a horse and cart several hundred years ago proves that it is a road even though it is indistinguishable from the surrounding landscape. Councils are being flooded with upgrading applications from off-roaders who are proud to have "liberated" hundreds of miles of "road" over the past few years.
But the action has pitched them against a bigger army of countryside groups, who claim that off-roaders are causing mayhem and threatening ramblers, cyclists and horse riders who get in their way.
A range of rural and equestrian groups say some of the country's oldest byways, including national trails like the Ridgeway - between Overton Hill, Wiltshire, and Ivinghoe Beacon, Buckinghamshire, have been turned into quagmires or impassable tracks.
With ugly confrontations breaking out in some areas, the government is considering closing the legal loophole.
Trying to balance both sides in what some regard as an irreconcilable conflict, Alun Michael, the rural affairs minister, told the Guardian that the loophole was a "perversion" of the law.
"At the moment, if you can prove that a historic right of way was used by a horse and cart 200-300 years ago, that leads automatically to a claim that a motor vehicle can be driven along it," he said. "There is something very odd about that. There are clearly places where very severe destruction is being done to green lanes which were simply not meant for that sort of (vehicle) use."
With sales of 4x4s up from less than 8,000 annually 20 years ago to almost 160,000 now he said the government could not shut its eyes .
The Ramblers' Association, whose membership dwarfs the off-roading lobby, is adamant that all vehicles should be banned from green lanes and byways. It says the 1949 National Parks and Countryside Act never intended these old routes to be used by 4x4s or motorbikes.
The association says motorists already have ample access to minor routes at the expense of walkers.
But Mr Dickenson and his friends accuse the ramblers of arrogance. He says responsible off-roaders are undertaking a public service by opening up overgrown routes. "We have a recognised code of conduct and we stick to it," he says. "Quite often we stop and let walkers go past, but they look at you as if you were a bit of dirt on their boots. The countryside is open to everyone to enjoy and we have very little of it compared with everyone else."
Around the country, national parks report a growing number of confrontations between off-roaders and walkers. In the North Yorkshire Moors national park, police have started threatening bikers with legal action and issuing fixed penalty notices to people riding on open moorland.
In the Lake District, the park authority is considering a ban on off-roaders. Cumbria police say they will use powers in the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 to "seize vehicles from people breaking the law".
On the 85-mile Ridgeway paths have become so damaged that Mr Michael has announced a six-month off-roading ban during the autumn and winter.
Ian Ritchie, chairman of the Friends of the Ridgeway, thinks there has been a ten-fold increase in off-roading over 10 years. "In parts, what you see now would not be out of place in the Somme at the end of the first world war," he said.
But Mr Michael's task is to broker a compromise. He acknowledges he has received countless letters from people complaining of "abuse and intimidation" from off-roaders. But he insists that responsible off-roading groups now recognise that unless the activities of rogue elements are curbed, tougher measures could be introduced.
So why not a complete off-roading ban?
"I'd be reluctant to do that," he says. "But if we're not going to do that we need everyone engaging properly."
Farmers' wheels
Twenty years ago the natural habitat of the 4x4 was the farm, where it worked for a living.
Today, almost 160,000 new ones hit the roads each year, most sold to people without their own country estates to test them on.
The success of the Range Rover, launched in 1970 for £1,998, paved the way for the modern 4x4, and it became a symbol of the yuppie 80s
SUV school run
In the late 80s, Britain began to embrace the sports utility vehicle, the kind of car beloved of American drivers.
By now, almost every motor company, from Vauxhall to Porsche, has a 4x4 on the showroom floor.
Most of these probably never leave the tarmac - their habitat is the supermarket car park and the school run.
But more and more owners are testing their vehicles' offroad capability in the countryside
