A long standing supporter of trail riding, the British Motorcyclists Federation is asking its 92,000 members to support the Land Access and Recreation Association (LARA) in its fight to remove permanent ‘prohibition of motors’ orders on eight unsealed roads* in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
After two rounds of public consultation, (but not based on evidence), the Access Committee of the National Park Authority resolved in April 2008 to ignore its own officers’ original recommendations and to put full-time, permanent ‘motor traffic prohibition orders’ on the eight routes. This despite the Yorkshire Dales Trail Management Advisory Group (formed from a wide range of organisations) recommending a package of traffic control measures designed to address what has been a contentious issue for many years.
While accepting that the use of ‘recreational motor vehicles’ on unsealed roads in the Yorkshire Dales National Park has been a problem, LARA has now made an application to the High Court to have the orders quashed on several grounds, but primarily on non-compliance with statutory requirements.
The BMF along with other LARA’s Member Organisations, is not opposed to necessary and proportionate traffic regulation on unsealed roads, but says the decision of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority rides roughshod over a great deal of hard work in finding a sensible and workable solution that allows and motorcyclists (and motorists) to share what is only a very small proportion of the National Park’s unsealed rights of way.
As the issues identified by LARA’s legal team are also applicable to almost all traffic regulation order cases, the BMF say that clarifying and establishing the legal and procedural requirements that bind highway authorities will have a value way beyond the boundaries of the Yorkshire Dales, hence the need for motorcyclists to support Lara’s Fighting Fund, see www.laragb.org
*The unsealed roads are: Street Gate to Arncliffe Cote; Harber Scar Lane; Stockdale Lane; The Highway; Old Ing to Cam End via Ling Gill; Gorbeck Road; Horton Road and Cam High Road.
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