Trail Riders triggered taxpayers' legal bill, claims Leigh council
A PARISH council is blaming motorcyclists for public-funded legal costs to resolve the use of two droves.
Brian Read, chairman of Leigh Parish Council, said an appeal by the Trail Riders Fellowship over the designation of the droves as footpaths has cost the taxpayer more than £15,000.
The Trail Riders Fellowship obtained documents under the Freedom of Information Act that showed Dorset County Council has spent at least £15,000 in the run-up to an appeal against its decision to change the droves from byways open to all traffic - BOATS - to footpaths.
The Trail Riders warned last week that the bill could hit £30,000 before the status of Longbridge Drove and Bolter's Drove is settled later this year.
The droves were made BOATS in 1973, allowing four-wheeled vehicles and motorcycles to use them.
Horse riders and cyclists had used the routes in the past even with their footpath only status.
But Mr Reid said in the early 2000s considerable damage was caused by 4x4 vehicles and motorcycles. Leigh Parish Council carried out research and claimed to find a mistake made in 1973.
He said the droves should have remained as footpaths. The county council's Roads and Rights of Way Committee accepted the evidence and issued an order reversing the droves to footpaths in 2010 - a move that banned vehicles, horses and bicycles.
A planning inquiry following an appeal brought by the Trail Riders is being heard in May.
Mr Read said: "If the Trail Riders and others had accepted the county council's decision there would have been no inquiry and the mistake made in 1973 would have been rectified at little cost.
"If the inquiry finds that the droves are to remain BOATs the council may have to resuscitate its improvement scheme and could be faced with further costs running into tens of thousands of pounds to improve the droves so that they can sustain use by vehicles."
He said those improvements would be so extensive that people were concerned the flora and fauna of the green lanes would be destroyed.
Alastair Dennis, chairman of the Local Green Lane Protection Group which is campaigning for the droves' footpath status to be upheld, said a complete ban on vehicles was necessary.
He said: "We've seen groups of about 30 motorbikes going along and they cause a lot of damage - so do irresponsibly-driven four-wheel drive vehicles."
He said landowners had all agreed to permit horseriders and cyclists to use the droves if they retained footpath status.
But Trail Riders Fellowship spokesman Richard Simpson said the group wanted to preserve the rights of people to use the routes by motorcycles.
He said traffic regulation orders could be imposed to ban vehicles with three or more wheels.
He added: "We have members across England and Wales and only about two per cent of green ways are available to us - 98 per cent are footpaths or have other restrictions.
"We are only re-asserting our legal right to use these two droves.
"We are keen to work with anyone to solve problems and to physically maintain these droves for everyone."
Dee Adcock
11 Comments
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by KTM690
Monday, February 13 2012, 3:53PM
“Leigh Parish Council minutes state that Cllr Orchard has requested local Horseriders to withdraw objections to the application to remove their rights on the assurance that it is the Parish councils intnetion to upgrade the route in the future after it has been downgraded. This is weak assurance that the route could be upgraded in the future, any upgrade would also be significantly costly to the Taxpayer. What happens if the intended upgrade is objected to? What's to say that motorists won't object to the upgrade if their rights are removed?
The minutes make interesting reading
http://tinyurl.com/6qob5yj
It's clear from the minutes that the Parish Council has endeavoured to thwart maintenance of the route and has been ill advised by external, anti public access, organisations. Regrettably the Parish Council has failed to scrutinise this advice and subsequently has wasted a significant amount of taxpayers money.
The minutes also contain Parish Council concerns about lack of road gritting. Maybe if they acted in the public interest and stopped wasting Taxpayers money there'd be more in the pot for road gritting.
How much rock salt does £15000 buy?”
by lady_cyclist
Sunday, February 12 2012, 1:59PM
“As I've been informed, the councillors who decided that these routes should be be classified as footpaths, went against the County Council's own professional rights of way experts. The professional recommendation was that they remain as Byways as there was insufficient evidence to support such a downgrading to footpath.
It should be noted that these councillors seem to have made a habit of making these decisions whenever any rights are being discussed on routes used by vehicles. If the recommendations by professionals are being continually ignored by local politicians who seem to have very little knowledge of the subject, I would suggest that councillors attend an intensive course regarding the weight to attach to any evidence brought to the table. Maybe then we might get correct decisions based purely on evidence and not personal wishes or agendas.”
by lady_cyclist
Sunday, February 12 2012, 1:56PM
“As I've been informed, the councillors who decided that these routes should be be classified as footpaths, went against the County Council's own professional rights of way experts. The professional recommendation was that they remain as Byways as there was insufficient evidence to support such a downgrading to footpath.
It should be noted that these councillors seem to have made a habit of making these decisions whenever any rights are being discussed on routes used by vehicles. If the recommendations by professionals are being continually ignored by local politicians who seem to have very little knowledge of the subject, I would suggest that councillors attend an intensive course regarding the weight to attach to any evidence brought to the table. Maybe then we might get correct decisions based purely on evidence and not personal wishes or agendas.”
by spt1506
Sunday, February 12 2012, 1:18PM
“Why are the Parish Councillors blaming the TRF for the costs, when it is the Parish Council who have instigated this process?
Perhaps it is because the Parish Council sees itself as the holder of THE TRUTH and seeks to dictate to all; and down with anyone who gets in its way such as the responsible, legal, and courteous trail rider who simply wants to maintain his or her legal right to safely, legally and respectfully navigate and explore our Great country by trail bike?”
by MrGardener
Sunday, February 12 2012, 12:50PM
“We all know what's going on here. What's outrageous is that Leigh Parish Council are getting away with it, using taxpayers money (our money) to fund a campain against a minority, responsible, group of Dorset residents. Hopefully they won't win, and someone will ask the question "what on earth have they been up to?"
Let's be sure about one thing though. Any "permissive" bridleway rights that a Landowner may give can been just as easily withdrawn. The next day if the mood takes them.
And in all this, why has no one come forward, claiming to be the Landowner? That's because it's in the ownership of the local authority. And that's because it was (and still is) a road. Not a footpath, a road. A Byway Open To All Traffic.”
by mycountrytoo
Sunday, February 12 2012, 9:46AM
“As far as I'm aware the County Council had earmarked funds to carry out some remedial work on one of these routes and had assigned a contractor to do some surface and drainage work. However, when the contractor arrived on site the local nimbys appeared from the woodwork and demonstrated en masse, one lady threatening to chain herself to a gate. This resulted in the County Council pulling the contractor off the site.....Big Mistake. I'm sure if the work had gone ahaead, after a couple of days the good people of Leigh would've returned to the sheepfold.
I understand that the next move was to apply to the County Council to have both routes downgraded to footpaths. This application was accepted even though there was no evidence to support this......Mistake No.2
These applications are normally dealt with in date order but, surprise-surprise, the local Dorset councillor manages to get this footpath move to the top of the list, even though many other applicants had been waiting years to get their cases determined.....Mistake No.3.
Next, the case is determined by a council committee and they agree that there was sufficient evidence to downgrade......Mistake No.4.
From what I can gather the Trail Riders objected to this decision with plenty of evidence to say that the decision to downgrade was wrong. So owing to all this, a Public Inquiry is convened to sort out the status of the lanes once and for all. It's rather strange that we have two lanes that have been classified as Byways for nearly 40 years and now a parish council says there's been a mistake. They must've agreed to that status many years ago when the Definitive map was being compiled.
So for all those out there that are blaming these Trail Riders for the costs, you must take a much closer look at the actions of Leigh Parish Council for the root cause. They were "concerned" about the cost of the repairs but this whole issue will cost much more than the repair estimate and at sometime those repairs will still be required.
One last point. Leigh Parish Council has said in the past that they've witnessed 50+ trail riders on the lanes at one time. Now they are saying they've seen 30+ bikes, so if we wait a few more months maybe we'll get a more realistic number....like 3-4.”
by MHD1200
Sunday, February 12 2012, 9:16AM
“I thought it was the council parish who were to blame ? Had they recorded the rights of ways correctly in the first place all this confusion would not exist ? Were they noy not engaged in the position of trust to uphold the law with an unbiased view ? We as members of the public should not be having to advise them or determin where they went wrong or go through the process of public meetings, searching for evidence etc. Do a job, do it properly, end of !”
by trailtrash
Saturday, February 11 2012, 5:18PM
“Dont blame the TRF, they exist to promote the legal use of Byways. Dorset County Council made a mistake 39 years ago and only find out when they need to spend some money, how convenient.”
by old_chap
Saturday, February 11 2012, 12:58PM
“I have cycled these old roads (that came about via an Inclosure Act as 40 foot wide public carriage roads) and they are in excellent condition for such rural recreational routes. That is more than can be said for nearby Knighton Drove which is seriously overgrown and, I'd imagine, impassable to horses. Odd that the Parish seek to downgrade two open and very useable byways, yet seem content to allow other old roads (that would serve as a wonderful recreational resource for equestrians and cyclists) to remain obstructed and fall into disuse.”
by eggflan
Friday, February 10 2012, 11:23PM
“Sounds to me like the Trail chaps are offering quite a lot , what exactly was this mistake in 1973 anyway , the other users should think long and hard because if they succeed to ban motors then i fear equestrian use will be next followed by cyclists as the droves will only have footpath status if the land owners involved sell up then the next owner decides he dont want horses and bikes on his footpath your all banned overnight , the only safe people seem to be pedestrians .
Its been shown that when a byway is downgraded it falls into disrepair then gets so overgrown that the walkers stop using it so it eventually grows over to become part of the hedgerow , this is how hundreds of footpaths , bridleways and byways get lost forever , please see sense and retain the droves to all users including motors .”