Bill's Walks

YDGLA Sends Out a Warning

The following is taken from the Yorkshire Dales Green Lane Alliance February 2013 Newsletter which l think is very relevant. I still feel that the protection of these bridleways and green ways are the most important and dangerous threats to ramblers throughout the UK and it is imperative that all those who love these fine routes remain both vigilant and proactive in their protection.

When YDGLA was launched, 10 years ago, every member, and loads of organisations and individuals who are not signed up to us would write to the authorities whenever the call came for a concerted lobby. Perhaps because we have been so successful, it seems that people are less committed to writing, thinking, perhaps, that the job’s done.  What makes this troubling is the fact that the motor lobby, probably learning from organisations such as YDGLA, has got much better at its own lobbying.  For example, when North Yorkshire County Council conducted a consultation on how it should manage its network of Unclassified County Roads (UUCRs), most of which are green lanes, 73% of respondents said that ‘motorised activities’ is their reason for using UUCRs.  It is highly unlikely that 73% of the people who use, say, Dawson Close (the fine green lane that runs down into Littondale from Blishmire, below Pen-y-ghent) do so astride a motorbike, or peering through the windscreen of a 4×4.  But if non-motorised users, who will surely be in the majority on Dawson Close, and on green lanes like it, don’t make their views known, the motoring lobby will start to re-take ground that it has steadily lost during the past 10 years.  Be warned.