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RoW, RoW, RoW your BOAT, gently down the lanes… Welcome to Lauren ‘Sunshine’ Eaton, and her new regular Mud Life column. You'll be able to read about green laning as seen through her windscreen at The Green Lane Association, and find out what’s hot or not in the laning world each month. Enjoy!
Scorcher of the month There’s a lot of noise being made about 4x4s in the Lake District at the moment; unless you live under a rock it’s unlikely to have escaped you! There is a very vocal group of anti-4x4ers who would like to see our hobby banned from the national park; currently their campaign focuses on two particularly well known lanes – High Tilberthwaite and High Oxen Fell. So, what’s the nitty gritty, are we going to lose them? The short answer is no, at least there is no current threat. This is not a new campaign by a long chalk, it’s been rumbling on for a considerable time and the Lake District National Park Authority have addressed it in the form of a two year assessment. Their report concluded that although the antis had collected a large number of petition signatures and sent lots of emails, that neither their complaints, petition, or communications held up to scrutiny; the evidence just wasn’t there on the ground to support them. There were concerns over the validity of the complaint numbers too, many were duplicates, a significant number of complainants admitted they had never visited the area, and many of the comments showed no knowledge of the locations - for example suggesting ‘churning up mud and causing ruts’ on lanes that are hard surfaced and, in the case of Tilberthwaite, newly repaired and re-surfaced!
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THE MUD LIFE MAGAZINE
UNESCO were dragged into the argument (the LDNP is a world heritage site) and have publically stated that there is no threat to the area’s status, but campaigners have continued to shout that there is and that 4x4s are the reason for the threat. The outcome of the LDNPA’s assessment was to monitor the lanes going forward; no maintenance work is required, and the anti-campaign held no weight. This has not gone down well with campaigners of course, and now they are crowd-funding for a judicial review. Does this mean we may lose the lanes after the JR? Again, no. The JR, if it goes ahead, will test the LDNPA’s assessment procedures, and whatever the outcome is the lanes will remain open, or open pending another assessment, only then could a TRO possibly be even looked at if a second assessment finds any issues. TRO’s carry their own procedures too and it is unlikely the lanes in question would fulfil the requirements of a closure order. GLASS will continue to monitor the situation and assist in providing user evidence as required going forward. In short the anti-4x4s in the Lake District issue is very hot at the moment, but it’s mostly hot air! For the full assessment report go to - https://www. lakedistrict.gov.uk/visiting/things-to-do/green_roads/ future-management-of-tilberthwaite-and-oxen-fell-roads
