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Tales from the national parks


moose

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Well... I can sort of see their point actually. Most of the opposition were retired older people, who would struggle to walk down deeply rutted lanes, and the country should be accessible to them too. These same people do have *alot* of time to write letters though, which was why I was quite impressed by the park authorities refusal to bow to pressure from the very vocal minority.

Hopefully there will be a balanced reaction where they don't start closing all the lanes regardless (which seems to have happened in my area.)

Thing is, the resurfaced lanes lanes that the park authorities opened for all users are not the sort of lanes I would want to drive down anyway. It looked like a cobbled street - where's the challenge in that!

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i thought the idea was that green lanes aren't supposed to be 'challenging' . . Thats surely what play and driving days are for? I saw the programme, and whilst i can see both sides points, the residents simply wouldn't listen to reason, one woman collected all the bits of vehicles that got left behind, but i bet she didn't pick up the dog and horse poo that got dropped! If they managed to stop the trail bikes and 4x4's using the lane, they'd want to stop cyclists next!

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Indeed. I enjoy a technical challenge on a lane as much as the next guy, but graded tracks are better than none at all! The Lakes District National Park do seem to have a bit of common sense when it come to recreational motor vehicle use though, which is a good sign.

Re. the video, what a bunch of moaning old biddies!

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I think it come across quite well compared to other documentries of late. It showed that the local people are only after a total ban and showed how un reasonable they can be. As for bikers and other greenlane users there will always be those that are Twots unfortunatly. 99% of us who enjoy laning do it for a bit of a difference to mud plugging at a comp weekend. Unfortunatly we wil lose our rihgt to these lanes and its been going on since I was a wee lad and we enjoyed laning with my parents at the weekends. We have lost so many lanes and unfortunatly the advisor to the government whom is supposed to be inpartial is actually a fully paid member to land owners who are against others using their land. Coupled to the Rambers association we are fighting it every way and pics vids of numpties doing silly stuff only speeds up the process of losing our lanes unfortunatly. Its going to happen we will fight til the end but it will happen is the unfortunate truth.

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Started watching this but the hotel wireless is horrific, will have to wait till I get home.

I don't remember driving chirpet lane but have driven some of the others shown, haven't come across any of these NIMBY'S before either, apart from one pub that refused to serve us food as we were "some of those off-road lot".

First the 4x4's, then the motorbikes, then the push bikes then the horses. Before long it'll just be walkers.

It makes me sad and angry.

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First the 4x4's, then the motorbikes, then the push bikes then the horses. Before long it'll just be walkers.

It makes me sad and angry.

Of course. Didn't you know that the countryside belongs exclusively to the walkers? It's theirs and theirs alone.

Or so would you believe from their attitude

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Hmm a very difficult subject, I'm a walker, mountain biker, and I drive a 4x4. There are some valid arguments but alas there will always be an unbalance and eco worriers are getting much strong in a eco orinatated world. (which is not a bad thing) - every group/organisation has there "fanatics" and how I see it is that they seem to get the attention of certainly the media (which doesn't allow the balanced view to be portrade). I thought the documentry was pretty good, I don't think it was perticulary bad for 4x4'ers... alas most land rover drivers don't have time to write all the pretty pettitions and the like... that some of the shown fanatical rammbler types do, they're usually on there back under the truck trying to fix it! - I did notice the portrayed average age of the petitioners was somewhat unbalanced... i think that has something to do with it...

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Just a few points.

PDGLA, contact address is Great Longstone. Odd that wasthe village at the centre of the BBC programme.

Try to find out how much is spent on footpath repairs and green lane repairs in the Peak District. There is about 2,000 miles of footpaths in the Peak District, many across the high moors have been repaired by stone pitching. How much is stone pitching? Well according to the Lake District National Park costs START at £100 per METRE Or £100,000 per kilometre. How many kilometres of footpaths have been stone pitched in the PDNP?

How much money has the highway authority (i.e. Derbyshire County Council in the main) spent on green lane repairs in the PD?

Brendan

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for many years i rode dirt bikes,me and a pal were out on a lane local to us,stopped for a drink ansd a chin wag on a lane,got verbally abused by a group of walkers,told us we were riding illegally and they would report us,pointed out we were on a legal right of way,they replied don,t care we will report you anyway,we don,t want you riding round here or any where,told them thanks very much and continued on our way,at the end of the lane lo and behold there is a police car waiting for us,checked both bikes,all documents,20 questions ,couldn,t find anything wrong so he tried to give us a rollicking for daring to use a public right of way,said copper had a complaint made against him and we eventually got an appologey.

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Hmm a very difficult subject, I'm a walker, mountain biker, and I drive a 4x4.

I'm with you on that one. I feel very caught in the middle. Plus some of the anti-lobby in the film are the parents of a friend.

I go greenlaning now and then, but I don't ever feel right doing it in a National Park. I spend most of my time in National Parks walking and think that there's so many other green lanes in non-National Parks that it's better off leaving it without vehicles crawling over it.

However, the argument of erosion by 4x4s is almost a moot point because walking creates a huge amount of erosion on the motorway footpaths up the larger mountains (3 peaks in the Dales, Snowdon, etc.). The lb/sqin argument of 4x4 vs horse vs bike vs feet puts the 4x4 in a good position, but it's just that it's very easy to be irresponsible as a 4x4 driver (as some proactively are) and cause shed loads of erosion in one go.

I can emphathise with the non-4x4 group because I grew up in a National park and my Dad has been on similar crusades (planning permission) to protect his corner of the world. These zealous crusades against "outsiders" that come in to use your locality and leave is a very human reaction that has caused wars throughout history. It's borderline religious fervour. The 4x4 vs Walker conflict is too rigidly defined on the lines of Urban vs Rural folk, that makes the conflict more deeply rooted. It's exacerbated in National Parks because they are officlally designated as a "this part of the countryside is for recreation" zone.

The opinions of those that live in National Parks and also green lane regularly would be the ones worth listening to. Most people don't **** on their own doorstep.

There are too many people in this country in too small a space. That's what it boils down to. If you want to exercise your right to do what you want then the UK ain't the place for it, because someone's always going to oppose your views.

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