LANING LIFE

by Lauren Eaton

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!

In this time of ever-changing restrictions it’s difficult to know what the situation will be by the time you get to read this; although Wales will still be locked down that’s for sure.

So, without having a crystal ball at my disposal, and considering it’s been another tumultuous month both on and off the lanes, I thought I’d write about…

The Power of Positivity!

Some of you may know that as well as a considerable number of years in the 4x4 world, I also have a background in psychology. Now I’m not going to whittle on about the intricacies of the human mind, or baffle you with psychobabble - you’re all here for the laning after all - but I do use this experience a lot in my work in the laning world, and I am hopefully going to bring you a different perspective of a couple of pressing (and potentially depressing) matters that could impact our hobby should we choose to let them.

You have the choice.

There are times in life when things outside our control seem insurmountable; Wales is locked down, England is under varying levels of restriction, our freedom is taking a beating for yet another long month, and then we’re subjected to social media posts about people tearing up lanes and encouraging others to follow suit. It’s not been the best of months all round, its understandable people may be feeling a bit grim, but…we have a choice in all this.

While we cannot control what has happened, it’s done, dusted, and forevermore will remain unchangeable, however much we may wish that wasn’t the case (and we cannot control how others behave), but we do have the ability to change how we react to it, and that changes everything.

It’s not the cards you’re dealt, but how you play them.

I spend an inordinate amount of my time battling negativity. I’m sure that doesn’t come as a surprise considering my role within GLASS! If someone wants to complain it’s usually me they aim those complaints at.

If there’s been a significant incident it’s me that has to address the public at large, explain it to the community and media, and in many cases help physically clean up after it.

I also spend a lot of time meeting very angry locals, land owners and authorities. But what I also do is see, experience, and enjoy all of the fabulously positive things that happen in our community, and that is what I choose to focus on, and want to share with others, far more than all the negative stuff.

I saw the recent incidents near Tamworth that went viral on Facebook, I was at the scene the very next morning, but what I didn’t do was give the culprits a platform or any free advertising. I didn’t comment on or share their posts to incite complaints from fellow responsible laners and therefore didn’t help spread the negativity.

What I did do was use my annoyance to fuel a solution and immediately organised a site visit, I supported a rep (the ever scrumptious Hannah Bailey from above) who’s been tearing her hair out for months trying to deal with a council who couldn’t seem to care less, and by putting our heads together within 24 hours we had got things moving for the better.

You reap what you sow.

After returning from my visit I read posts that were inspired by this particular lane; responsible laners threatening to give up the hobby, woefully drowning in negativity, alleging that laning has gone to the dogs, plus on top of these I continued to see the shares of the original posts that caused all this ire.

Looking in from the outside how do you think that makes our hobby look? If you were someone looking to start laning, or an anti, who searched Facebook for green laning that day the result would far from sum up what our community is really about, or how flipping awesome it is to be a part of, no, it would look pretty grim.

The whole situation we actively created was doing a disservice to ourselves, more than the idiots who went out and drove like plonkers in the first place!

We’d magnified the negativity despite being against it; we’d fuelled the plonkers by our own reactions, shares and saturation of our community under its weight - not to mention we’d given ourselves a headache.

So, other than complain ad infinitum on social media, what could we do differently?

The Wu Wei: Effortless action

While I and everyone else at GLASS puts huge amounts of effort into combating incidents and behaviour that threaten our community, often the most effective methods of countering the mud-plugging mind set is to simply do the opposite.

The opposite is not getting angry at a screen, but instead going out, having a great day laning, and sharing that experience with others. It doesn’t take much effort, and most importantly it is enjoyable for everyone.

Shouting at people, telling them what to do, or screaming “JOIN GLASS!!” is unlikely to get the response you want, and it will also make you miserable. Showing them what a fabulous legal time you’re having will always pique their interest, and by sharing your positive experiences you may find yourself in a constructive conversation rather than an argument.

Be the change you want to see!

If every responsible laner championed the positive posts as much as they do the negative posts, shared their own trips, their friend’s posts, and those from all the awesome organisations, clubs and magazines we have all over the UK we’d soon drown the idiotic minority out of the public eye. We might even tempt them into joining the legal side!

It’s kind of hard not to see someone’s awesome day out and not want some of that for yourself. If we lead by example we set the bar for our culture as a community, and majority rules OK!

And on that note...here’s an example of some of the fabulous work laners are doing across the country. Hannah Bailey is our Staffordshire rep, she set up the Staffordshire Green Laners group who do some wonderful charity work! I’ll hand you over to her to explain what her club got up to near Stafford.

I set Staffordshire Green Laning up in March 2020 during isolation. It was a page where we could share information on green lanes, and form a community based around the hobby. We started off as a really small group, but since then, and with restrictions being lifted, our group grew pretty much overnight. Our page has changed so much that now we meet up monthly to go laning with our 4x4’s, and have had an opportunity to take SGL to the next level by organising events.

Our first event was the charity camp and auction which was very successful, especially with it being on an August bank holiday weekend, and the current circumstances of COVID-19.

The night was held at Carney Pools campsite in Wolseley Bridge, and organised by me, Gavin Dolman and David Griffith, and we raised an amazing £626 for Alzheimer’s Research UK. The charity holds a big place in my heart as I lost one of the most precious people in my life earlier this year due to this awful disease and Parkinson’s disease, we also lost my uncle to this disease in 2009, so I’d like to think we can try and help make a difference for the sake of my daughter’s generation and thereafter. Our aim is to now host more events, and with it raise money for charities

Hannah handed over a cheque for £626 to Bernie Carranza, Regional Fundraising Officer, who said: “We’re so grateful to Staffordshire Green Laning and everyone who came along to support this event. One in two people know someone affected by dementia. Fantastic fundraising efforts like this will help us to make life-changing research breakthroughs that will keep people connected to their families, their worlds and themselves for longer.”

Readers’ Questions

This is your opportunity to ask me anything! Thanks to all those who sent in ideas last month, if I haven’t answered your question here be sure to check out next month’s column where I’ll be writing a bumper Q&A edition!

If you have anything you’d like to ask, whether it be a newbie enquiry, a more complex question, something serious, or even funny, you can contact me at: lauren.eaton@glass-uk.org

How do lanes get added to TW2?

(from Dorian, via the Trailwise2 Facebook group)

If you think you’ve found a lane that isn’t recorded on TW2 here’s what to do…

• Firstly check that you have both BOAT and UCR layers selected on the menu. BOATs appear in red, UCRs in blue. You’d be surprised how many people miss this and end up looking at one or the other rather than both!

• If you’ve found the lane on an OS map, or an app like ViewRanger, check the status of it by using www. findmystreet.co.uk , or by visiting the local county council’s highways maps (for UCRs), or Definitive Map (for BOATs).

• If it appears that the lane carries current vehicular rights forward the location and accompanying evidence to tw2_dataofficer@glass-uk.org who will check out the information, and once it is verified they will add the lane to the map.

• If you are unsure of the status of a lane, or need some help with the process of researching, contact the local area rep, or ask on the Trailwise2 or local area Facebook group for assistance.

Where do you personally stand on the view of a permit system to use lanes, thus maybe making it more sustainable?

(from Mike, via the Byways, BOATs & UCRs Green Laning in the UK Facebook group)

Great question Mike! Permit systems are something GLASS as an organisation, and I personally, do try and avoid using as potential management strategies. Lanes are public roads and GLASS’s primary function is keeping them open for all, to impose restrictions on a nationwide scale would go a long way to defeating that aim in some respects – plus boy would we get it in the neck for doing so!

One thing I really dislike is the phrase “access for all” being used by authorities, when in reality it is often only ever inclusive of nonvehicular users, particularly as the work of GLASS and other vehicular user groups benefits everyone;.

Surely we deserve to be welcome on the very lanes we strive to keep open and maintained?!

But the phrase works both ways; if we insisted on permits the public’s right to access would be removed, ‘access for all’ would no longer exist.

While permits would of course make it a lot easier to manage illegal usage, damage, and maintenance, the process of creating, implementing and managing that system would be an extraordinarily complex, costly, and time consuming process, and one that would be unlikely to be taken up by many county councils who invariably have very little time and budgets when it comes to lanes as it is.

While lanes are governed by centralised national legislation, such as the Road Traffic Act, the day to day management is the responsibility of the 70 odd councils and, to a lesser extent, other authorities such as national park authorities. It would take legislative changes at national government level, with agreement from the Welsh Assembly, and either a nationwide standardised strategy rolling out, or each county creating a unique plan for their area of responsibility. If we consider that not one county in the UK has ever in the history of PRoWs kept their RoW records up to date, and they’re all currently struggling under the weight and cost of the upcoming Path Extinguishment Day (more on that next month!), I imagine such a huge undertaking wouldn’t be popular to the point of being vehemently opposed. Even if a strategy was created who would manage it? Police it? Many organisations would need to be involved to make this work.

While permits work on lanes such as Gatescarth Pass, as a nationwide notion it would be such a huge undertaking it wouldn’t be particularly feasible either practically or financially. Another very important point to consider is that if legislation pertaining to our rights to drive lanes was to be amended at great cost, it would be just as simple for the powers that be to cut a huge swathe of problems and financial burden from the national purse by simply extinguishing all vehicular rights; in fact it would likely be less costly and far simpler for them to do this than write in a permit scheme. Us saying, “Hey! We have loads of costly problems with some drivers, can you fix it by introducing a nationwide scheme?” may well end in a solution none of us want!

Those who would support such a move to remove vehicular rights far outweigh us in numbers and in financial terms, while GLASS is twice the size it was last year and has a very healthy fighting fund, a proposed “NERC2” on this scale would likely be beyond anything we could stop once it got rolling! I’m not saying it would happen, or that we’d lose if it did, but it could and we might! Not poking a sleeping bear is definitely good advice!

While I can see many merits to the idea on the surface, as someone involved in an organisation that can affect change I have to address the practicalities, and I’m afraid the challenges and feasibility of a nationwide scheme would render such a proposal impractical.

When talking about gates etc., PLEASE remind people to make sure the gate is closed behind them. I rode a lane both ways, and met another group coming up the other way. They had let the gate open (I’m assuming by accident) and sheep had got out into the caravan field. Thankfully me and my bike rounded the sheep up and put them back. I wish I’d filmed it.

(from Carl, TW2)

Well done Carl! Gates continue to be a problem on all levels of rights of way; sadly I think they always will be. I’m currently waiting on 50 ‘Please Close the Gate’ signs that I’ll spend considerable time putting up across North Wales; I’ve also been filmed (autographs on request lol!) for an upcoming laning video that includes a reminder.

It’s a subject I keep banging on about but that is because it is so important. I’m helping a land owner out at the moment who has had livestock escape onto a main road more than once, the police have been involved and thankfully are not imposing fines on him as they realise he was not at fault, but it makes it no less dangerous for oncoming motorists, or costly for the farmer if he loses his stock. Such a small act can protect someone’s livelihood, and even save lives!

That’s all from me this month folks. Don’t forget to send me your questions to lauren.eaton@glass-uk.org and join me next month for a bumper ‘Readers’ Questions’ edition!

Happy laning and stay safe! Lauren x GLASS Media and Communications Officer

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