Rights of Way – the battle continues

[Bob]

The struggle to retain and develop access to the off-road network of roads continues.

If the recently announced Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill is made law, then unless it is already recorded as such, access to existing Rights of Way will be removed. This also means that no new Rights of Way will be allowed. So the map will get smaller as older routes are lost and will not be replaced with new ones.

The BMF’s Land Access spokesman, Richard Olliffe, said: “Rights of Way are often ancient roads that are legitimately enjoyed by motorcyclists and motorists alike. Progress made following the DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) consultation on the use of mechanically propelled vehicles on these roads has gone by the board. The Bill appears to contain provisions that will allow a period of grace to allow Byways Open To All Traffic (BOAT) claims already registered to be processed, but let’s face it, this is simply a cynical attempt to restrict access by legitimate users.”

The BMF has the written to DEFRA raising its concerns and will be supporting the Land Access and Recreation Association (LARA) in their actions over this issue.

[jazbug5]

Love the innocuous(sp?) sound of the name they's given it: "Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill". Aw... how sweet. I hope it dies a death, but I'm fast losing any hope that the British government will listen to protests of any sort. I wonder if this will affect Scotland in any way? It used to be that there was no such thing as trespass (technically) but since all these vast estates have been getting sold (often complete with title!) the big shots that have bought them have been getting all outraged and have put up all sorts of angry big signs everywhere.
My 73 year old dad is a keen hill walker and sat down beside this track he was walking last year to eat his sandwiches, only to have a 4WD scream up and a gillie hang out of the window screaming at him that he was sitting on their property! Grrrr.