g n i n Life a L
aton E n e r u a by L
Read about green laning as seen through Lauren ‘Sunshine’ Eaton's 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 The Wayfarer I attended a meeting with Denbighshire county council on 13th January and the good news is they will be carrying out some repair work, erecting signage, and installing off piste solutions in the near future along the length of the lane that passes through their county. The rest of the route is under the management of Wrexham CC and the future of that end is a slightly different story. One major issue is that deep waterholes have caused people to deviate from the track onto the banks (mostly motorbikes), the lane runs through SSSI land and this deviation, however slight, is a serious issue which carries a £20,000 fine if caught. Denbigh will be filling the waterholes with stone, erecting barriers to prevent deviation from the track and requesting signage from Natural Resources Wales to advertise the sensitive nature of the surrounding moorland – it appears that many are not aware this is nature reserve land. Denbigh have asked me to stress the sensitivity of the area. SSSI land is protected by significant legislation and huge fines, NRW are looking into prosecutions after complaints from local farmers who are prosecuted for even accidental acts on this land (such as spillages). Deviation around an obstacle onto private/SSSI land is NOT legal, despite the old wives tales that are often spread on social media.
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THE MUD LIFE MAGAZINE
The police continue to work closely with GLASS, Denbighshire and Wrexham councils in regards to antisocial and irresponsible behaviour on and around the lane. This has led to a significant drop in users which due to its current state is no bad thing - especially as it's the irresponsible users that are being deterred by this action. The bridge (the one everyone stops on for the obligatory photo) requires work; it has a max load capacity of 3 tons and is beginning to fall apart. The majority of the maintenance work is required at the Wrexham end of the route – the sleeper section for example. The county council are currently not in the position to begin works and therefore we're not going to see anything happen for some time. This is partly due to it being winter and wet, the land being an SSSI which makes things extremely complicated and involves several other organisations when it comes to decision making/ permissions and budgets, but it is also down to the management at the council being very different to that at Denbigh. I am continuing to work closely with Denbigh going forward and will continue to apply pressure to Wrexham in an attempt to speed up the required work. In the meantime due to the worsening state of the bridge and the general state of what is an SSSI, plus the extremely wet weather, it would be wise to avoid the area for now – a voluntary restraint has been advised on TrailWise2 to reflect this.
