THE YORKSHIRE DALES GREEN LANES ALLIANCE
Campaigning to free green lanes from recreational vehicles.
Where the tarmac stops, vehicles should stop.
YDGLA, PO Box 159, Otley, LS21 9BT
Home |
The area and its problems |
Solutions
Latest News |
Glossary |
Frequently asked questions |
How do I join?
How the YDGLA Campaigns
Locally:
- We support North Yorkshire County Council’s and
the Dales National Park Authority's plans to impose Traffic Restriction
Orders on green lanes, and we encourage them to be more ambitious in their
plans to restrict, and eventually banish recreational motor vehicles from
the green lanes of the National Park and the Nidderdale AONB.
- We collect data that records the incidence of
recreational vehicular use and the damage and nuisance that it causes.
- We catalogue the green lanes that either run
through, or run close to, sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs),
and sites of historical and archaeological importance.
- We listen to disabled people who have a special
need for access to traffic-free green lanes, for example because there are
no stiles to be negotiated, and because the lanes are wide enough, and
often not too steep for rugged wheelchairs or for ‘Tramper’ type electric
mobility scooters. Blind, deaf and learning-disabled people have an
especial need for traffic-free green lanes.
- We press for the prosecution those vehicle users
whose activities, even under the present obscure highway laws, are plainly
illegal.
Nationally:
- We
lobby local MPs and ministers responsible for the countryside, in order to
persuade them first, that local authorities should be given more support and
encouragement in applying traffic regulation orders to control recreational
vehicle use, and secondly, that further changes in highway law are necessary.
- We
liaise with groups, both in Yorkshire and in other parts of the country, who
are fighting their own battles against the damage and nuisance caused by
recreational motor vehicles. Among these are: GLEAM, the Green Lanes
Environmental Action Movement. (www.gleam-uk.org) GLEAM grew out of campaigns to preserve the
ancient Ridgeway in Berkshire from the ravages of 4x4s and motorbikes, and has
broadened itself to campaign nationally for restrictions on recreational motor
vehicles. The Ramblers' Association
is also very active in presenting arguments to government concerning the damage
and nuisance that motor vehicles cause. · TheYorkshire Dales Society works
tirelessly for the welfare of the landscape and the culture of the Yorkshire
Dales, and has done a great deal to draw attention to the damage that 4x4s and
motorbikes are doing to green lanes. We
helped found the Green Lanes Protection Group, the national coalition of
organizations that wanted the NERC bill strengthened, and which was highly
successful in conducting the Parliamentary campaign. The Green Lanes Protection Group brought
together in common cause, groups that were traditionally suspicious of each
other. The prospect of more and more
green lanes falling prey to the recreational vehicle lobby propelled
landowners, cyclists, walkers and others into a highly-effective coalitionthat helped
to get NERC on to the Statute Book. The Green Lanes Protection Group never had a formal constitution.
It was an ad hoc response to a particular problem and has now evaporated, job done.
|