Yes Martyn is right its the House Of Lords Select Committee reviewing the NERC Act. Mario is representing the TRF and Alan Kind is representing LARA. No information about this has been made available to TRF groups as far as I am aware.
Yes Martyn is right its the House Of Lords Select Committee reviewing the NERC Act. Mario is representing the TRF and Alan Kind is representing LARA. No information about this has been made available to TRF groups as far as I am aware.
Chris
Given what I have seen of Mario's leadership style this does not surprise me
It is good news that there are two voices being heard with both Mario (businesslike but naive) and Alan (who has a sharp and incisive legal mind) batting for us
The reclassification of RUPPs that was brought into law with the NERC act was a ROW travesty that was entirely preventable, it was brought about by the failure, of some, local authorities to carry out their statutory duties to reclassify RUPPs as previously laid out by Parliament in the 1968 Countryside Act and yet again in the 1981 Wildlife & Countryside Act. This failure was a result of a situation that was allowed to develop due to a lack of will to carry out both the legislated reviews of RUPPs and to follow up on its compliance.
As a result of the 2000 CROW act, came legislation that would no longer allow the inclusion on the Definitive Map of any unrecorded historic ROW with a cut-off date of 2026. The Lost Ways Project (an initiative from the government of the time) was enthusiastically taken up with great vigour and expertise by the Trail Riders Fellowship. When the costs of this project spiralled out of control with the realisation of the enormity of the task the Lost Ways Project was abandoned. The TRF were the main user group who embraced the ethos of the Lost Ways project whole heartedly with some outstanding work and effort by their hard working and intelligent part-time researchers, it is a tragedy for the whole Rights of movement that all this hard work was jealously destroyed and stopped by lobbying from an anti-access group with the NERC act. Anyone who is involved in ROW research will know how difficult and time consuming a task it is and they will be aware of the enormous effort that the TRF put into their Byway claims. It is a sad fact that for whatever reasons the TRF, as a group, were vilified for this work, it was as if the TRF were somehow creating Byways, when in reality they were doing the hard work involved in uncovering the facts. It can be stated with certainty that the Definitive map in 2026 will not be as definitive as it should be because of the NERC Act and that ALL ROW user groups will have lost out because of the way NERC undermined the TRFs Byway research by bringing it all to a halt 20 years before the cut-off date of 2026, which is the final year that other users groups are still struggling with!
The above is an extract from what DTRFG group sent, there was a reasonable amount of evidential based information that should prove that any argument to deny us our long held access right's is emotionally biased and not factual. We all know as Trail riders that we share the trails with a wide variety of users, it doesn't take a genius to work out that 100% of the 'so called' issues (generally grossly exaggerated & non existent problems) can all be attributed to us solely; perhaps more importantly the most serious issues levied at us occur on the rest of the ROW network that we are absent from and show a selective bias.
Hopefully see you at the AGM in December as there is a simple initiative I'd like to propose on the night.
Pete, many thanks for your comments, with all due respect I think our monthly meetings are the best place to initiate and discuss any new initiatives rather than here.
As a group we need more participation at our meetings if we are going to be more effective. Many good initiatives have come from our meetings over the years and we've done some amazing work on Devon ROW as a result. We need more involvement at Officer level as it falls on the shoulders of too few a group of people, hopefully we will have (only need a few) members willing to become more involved as it's essential for the future of our group.
Ian, pleased to have helped explain the situation regarding NERC, my view is that as the 2026 deadline draws closer other user groups will realise that we were their true allies with a common cause and not an enemy we were so successfully portrayed as. With time marching on towards 2026 more and more will begin to realise this.
-- Edited by John Harvey on Sunday 26th of November 2017 05:31:05 PM
As a result of this review of NERC I have been asked for some feedback from our many active members as to what it is that motivates them to give up their free time and go out of their way to help maintain and in some case repair old unmetalled roads. Most of you here will know that Devon TRF have done some amazing and remarkable work on miles of public ROW here in Devon
I would be most grateful for replies on this so I can pass your answers back on this simple question; Why do you volunteer yourself to carryout repairs and maintenance on these old roads?
Is it that as a motorcyclist you like to show that you are a responsible member of society, or that you care passionately about these old lanes enough to do this work or perhaps you feel that without doing this that no one, including the council will bother so it needs to be done. Or perhaps you're just simple like me Whatever your reason it would be good to know?
I'm curious because an outrageous accusation has been levied at us; namely that we only do it so we can damage it again!! I know, I know I nearly spat out my Cornflakes too when I heard that
Sorry I've not much time do this, so quick response would be very much appreciated, you can PM your reply to me if you prefer.
Cheers, John
Example of our work
PS The NERC review is for the act in its entirety and not just the ROW part, thought I'd clear that bit up.
-- Edited by John Harvey on Thursday 7th of December 2017 07:50:14 PM
I volunteer to carry out tasks with the TRF to keep the lanes in use for all because I believe that nobody else would be bothered to do it. In my experience other users are happy to complain when lanes become impassable because of vegetation, flooding or whatever but do nothing to relieve the problem. This is also true of large numbers of TRF members who are just happy to ride but can't be arsed to get their hands dirty with lane maintenance !! DCC have severe budget limitations and will only carry out repairs when repeated complaints are made (by select user groups it seems!)
Lack of maintenance = lack of use = lane falls into disuse = land grabbed by adjacent landowner because nobody else is interested = = another ROW lost to the general public
I believe the UK has a wonderful heritage asset in green lanes which should be available to all and I am happy to battle the NIMBYs.
Yes, I have a vested interest in that I enjoy riding the lanes and I also like to think that I present an amenable image of a biker to other lane users rather than the usual stereotype of an inconsiderate hooligan.
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DGTRFYou're just passing through, make the most of it !
Example of our work 
