The idea
The NERC act downgraded all "Roads Used As Public Paths" RUPPs that should have been re-designated by County Councils as either footpath, bridleway or byway to Restricted Byway, in cases where councils had failed in their mandate to grade them according to historical use, thus wiping out over 100 years of freedom to ride these trails on motorcycles.
Rider groups complied with requests not to overload councils with claims at the time the act was going through parliament, but The Lords, with heavy lobbying by an extremely well funded alliance of Ramblers (who had themselves just won the “Right To Roam”) and landowners, passed amendments which outrageously backdated the date for claims to a point when the process was first publicised. This meant that all the volunteer work by riders groups (in the spirit of “The Big Society”) was invalidated.
The result is that many counties now have no byways at all for no better reason than that their councils failed in their duty. We now see a domino effect where byways in counties bordering these are overused and councils are applying Traffic Restriction Orders (TROs).
The already tiny percentage of off-road trails with vehicular rights has now been eroded in the most illogical way possible leaving vast areas of the country with none at all.
The act should be repealed so that RUPPs could be used according to the previous criteria with volunteer groups allowed to submit claims for a number of years, with the remainder the reverting to Restricted Byways, which would be fair to all.
Why is it important?
This act has removed the rights of motorcyclists to participate in the leisure activity of trail riding which they had enjoyed for over 100 years. The work of volunteer groups was invalidated by the vindictive capitulation to heavily financed lobbying after having complied with requests to delay claims.
Its a shame a real shame. but it seems you just cant win whatever you do.
years of using & upkeep dont mean a thing.& along come the ramblers & let it all go to ruin.