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!
The ABCs of laning… laning
Here's the second installment of my A-Z of laning for those new to the hobby, hopefully some of the old hands will get something from it too. Without further ado, I bring you N-Z…
part 2
N - The Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act I could write an essay on NERC, it was singularly the most catastrophic event in the 2006 (NERC) history of green laning! While I won’t go on to explain the whole act and its implications to our hobby, here are the basics: - RUPPs (roads used as public paths) were all extinguished. The Countryside Act 1968 required all highway authorities to reclassify the RUPPs in their counties as footpaths, bridleways, or byways. The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 set a time limit of 2026 (often known as path extinguishment day), but NERC brought that deadline forward twenty years and insisted restricted byways replaced RUPPs, this removed vehicular rights from huge numbers of lanes . - Some authorities neglected or were very slow to carry out their duties under the 1968 act and had not yet reclassified many of their RoWs, others were more proactive, but in total we lost approximately 65% of our green lanes nationwide, in some areas up to 95% depending on how much work each authority had done at that point. - Modification of the Definitive Map became almost impossible unless an application for BOAT status had been made prior to the act coming into force on 2nd May 2006. This means that the vast majority of byways identified as having historical vehicular rights cannot be added as a byway, merely a restricted byway, which we cannot drive. - The 2026 deadline for changes to the Definitive Map still exists, but we cannot hope to add a significant number thanks to NERC.
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THE MUD LIFE MAGAZINE
