L a n i n g L i f e

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. 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.

What’s hot... 2020 is the 25th Anniversary year of the Green Lane Association! In that time GLASS has become the largest multi-user group to represent those who drive or ride vehicular rights of way. From funding lane repairs, representing 4x4 drivers during legal action, giving drivers a voice at government level and providing green laning mapping software – TrailWise2 – GLASS are at the forefront of the green laning community and continue to grow from strength to strength – membership soared in 2019!

As it's a special birthday year we will be rolling out more new member benefits than ever over the next 12 months as a thank you for your continued support. Every single membership fee goes directly towards preserving our hobby and rights of way for years to come - each one of you helps to keep our lanes open and we believe that deserves our thanks in return - so watch this space as your membership is going to give you even more this year!

Wales While January tends to be a quiet month for lane projects due to the cold and wet, the North Wales contingent of GLASS are not resting on their laurels. It’s been a busy month for meetings with county councils, national park authorities and the police.

Lanes such as the Wayfarer, Happy Valley, Carn March Arthur, Horseshoe Lane and other honeypots have come under close scrutiny and big plans are under discussion forged through building close relationships between the user group and those who manage and police our unsurfaced roads. Watch this space for updates coming soon!

Strata Florida remains closed for the next month. Sadly works have been hampered by those continuing to drive the lane during a period of temporary closure put in place to allow work to go ahead. Please avoid the area for now; it’s a small price to pay to get the lane fully re-opened sooner rather than later.

Corwen Carwash was deeper than I’ve ever seen it only a week ago! Avoid until the water recedes - it’s simply not passable to vehicles after so much rainfall.

Dorset There is a current voluntary restraint on BOAT E38/17 Mill Lane and UCR D40215 Roke Hill in the Heavy Horse Centre area between Verwood and Cranborne. There have been numerous complaints made by local residents and estate owners regarding recent inappropriate use and off piste damage by 4x4s over the Christmas/New Year period.

Unfortunately this isn’t the first time the lanes have seen problems and the area is currently being monitored by recording vehicle descriptions and registration numbers. Area rep, Rob Elliott, is currently building bridges with complainants in an attempt to manage the situation.

Staffordshire and Cheshire The first joint county social meet was held on 13th January at The Watermead in Northwich to great success! Over 30 attendees came along including non-GLASS members, complete newbies, right up to ex reps and execs.

It was great to see such a large and mixed group sharing their experience with each other. Hosted by Geoff Meadows (Cheshire rep) and myself, meetings will be held on the 2nd Wednesday of the month at 7.30pm. A South Staffs meet will be held on the 3rd Thursday of every month from February onwards. For details see the Staffordshire GLASS Facebook group.

Cumbria and The Lake District Storrs Woodland Lane (TWIUD: SD3993-02) is currently open for business after our new Cumbria rep James Dixon worked with the police to get a trailer, that had been parked purposefully to block the lane, removed.

Do be advised that the obstructions are being put there by someone who would prefer us not to use our legal rights of way and this action has not been gratefully received, should anything else appear in the lane please call 101 and report it.

James and friends also carried out some temporary repairs to Breast High over January making the lane passable to all 4x4s until a more permanent solution can be actioned – top job!

The Lake District being a contentious area continues to rumble on, anti 4x4 campaigners are insistent that they don’t want us there and a protest in February and judicial review of the LDNPA’s report on 4x4 usage in the national park are their next plans of action.

While the outcome of the JR is for the court to decide, as a green laner you can help by continuing to drive the area legally, responsibly and behave in a way that proves that we are not who the antis would like to publicly portray us as. Don’t give them any evidence to back up their bluster!

Derbyshire/Peak District PDVUG in association with GLASS continue to run newbie days in the area, see their Facebook groups for more info. Routes are planned to be non-damaging/ scratchy and take place on sustainable routes over winter.

Oxfordshire Unfortunately four byways in the south of the county have had a TTRO put on them as the result of inconsiderate use, in particular during an incident on the night of 28th December. Avoid the following until further notice: Cornhill Lane, TW UID SU3787-05 Green Lane, TW UID SU3786-01 & SU3686-03 Hardwell Lane, TW UID SU2887-01

What’s not...

There are two distinct groups within the laning world: those who lane responsibly and sustainably, and those who don’t.

The latter are the main cause of closures across the UK, as can be seen by some of the reasons behind the VRs/ TROs listed earlier. We need to change the culture of those who think it is acceptable to flout the law, and the constant hard work put in by our community and local authorities to keep our lanes open for us to drive.

The antis are very vocal and will use any small incident to evidence their cries to close rights of way to vehicular users. Most of us understand this and would never act in a way that would bring our hobby into disrepute, but there is a small number who either don’t seem to care, or don’t understand that their behaviour is what causes us to lose lanes to permanent closure.

What would you say in this situation?

It’s one GLASS reps find themselves in often: When a county council, who already doesn’t have the money to spend on recreational routes, states that if they spend on repairs, and further irresponsible driving occurs, they’ll be forced to close the route, so unless we can guarantee that won’t happen, a closure is inevitable.

GLASS will offer financial assistance or begin legal action in an attempt to block closures, but it still costs local authorities thousands of pounds to address any issue brought to their attention.

This is the reality of laning and it’s a reality I’ve personally been involved in several times already this year - please think before you drive, your actions have repercussions for every single laner in the country and the long term future of our hobby.

That being said, while there are a minority of rogue laners out there, membership is at its highest ever and continues to grow daily.

Many thanks to all those who continue to support our hobby!

That’s all from me for this month. I’ll be back with news of anti protests, laning project updates, new member benefits and what’s hot and what’s not in the laning world. In the meantime, if you want to learn more about green laning, or to directly support your hobby, visit the GLASS website Happy Laning! Lauren x GLASS Media and Communications Officer

For more information on green lanes visit: www.glass-uk.org

To join GLASS go to: www.glass-uk.org/join-glass.html