TRF Forums

Surprised?

No one should be surprised by this...a quick search on You Tube will reveal plenty of evidence to support the closure.

There's one clip which shows someone dragging a large 4x4 along on its side with another 4x4 and a group of riders on bikes with no numberplates. I won't put a link to it here because it just provides ammunition to our enemies.

I rode this route 20 years ago, and was surprised that it hadn't been closed then.

Until everyone gets the message about Sustainable Use then these closures will continue.

It's our choice...

this is an example of what's been going on...and by no means the worst!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdzIbpj ... k&index=32

The 4x4 by far have done the most damage. But why tar us with the same brush.

Just my personal opinion...because the TRF didn't do enough to disown the 4x4s using this route quickly enough.

there was a consultation over this closure...and I suggested banning 4x4s forever and a seasonal closure to keep all wheeled vehicles off during the winter months.

I wonder what the other submissions from vehicle users were?

I personally know the person who removed the signs... Have they been replaced yet?

The old signs did state that vehicles can be confiscated using s.59, on the basis that the route is no longer a road.
I wrote a strong worded letter to lincs CC highways stating that the route is still a public road, but with a TRO. I (unsurprisingly) never got a reply. However, I noticed that there was no mention of s59/confiscations in the police news piece, so maybe they did take note. I also mentioned, among other things, that the order didn't include horse drawn carriages and as such, the logs placed were an illegal obstruction. Maybe that's why they've recently put those white concrete triangle things there?

Hi Ollie
Only one single sign at the airfield end (round with red border picture of motorbike and car)
Before they closed it for good we had a TRO passed to say no motor vehicles EXCEPT for motorcycles this lasted for two weeks as the damaged caused by the 4x4s was still evident? so they slapped a temporary TRO on it banning bikes as well until they could shut it completely!
Nev

Looking at the YouTube videos, it's clear that irresponsible use by 4x4's caused the vast majority of the damage.

Of all the green lanes I ride (in Cambs and Northamptonshire), damage by 4x4's is the only thing closing them. Every TRO I've encountered has been because the route has been churned up with pairs of 12" wide, deep ruts. Reaching up to 2' deep in places.

Now, in a perfect world I wouldn't want to exclude anyone's use of the lanes, but for my local area 4x4's seem to be the only problem.

I have to say that, when I lived in Cambs, some of the lanes I rode were very damaged not by leisure 4x4s but by tractors.

However, there is a growing 4x4 problem. A Series-type Land Rover with leaf springs and a gutless old Rover engine was a fairly harmless thing. This is not true of the current breed of leisure 4x4s and their drivers.

I grew up with old-school Land Rovers, and they had to be nursed along lanes and over obstacles: hence they had little impact on the land. The same is self-evidently untrue for modern 4x4s, and there is a wide range of modifications which make them substantially worse.

I have said on many times all the bad publicity that we get is all caused by the 4x4 brigade I am sorry to say that if we do not distint our selves from them then we will loose more lanes and then it will be to late

I think we can safely say that our opponents capitalise on 3 negative aspects: noise, excessive speed and surface damage.

Motorcyclists probably generate most of the complaints relating to the first two, and 4x4s the third.

But the speed/noise issue is fairly easily addressed...we can make it go away instantly by riding slowly and quietly. But the damage that has been done by repeated abuse by 4x4s will take decades to go in some cases.

I had an interesting exchange of emails with a guy who was campaigning for a TRO on a lane local to his horse business a few years ago. He had no problem with most motorcycles, knew of the work the TRF did at horse events etc, but a big problem with a very few fast noisy ones.

But his biggest beef was with 4x4s, who were repeatedly driving up the lane, going around by road and going back up the lane again..each time getting stuck and winching/towing each other out etc.

What tipped the balance for him was that he had a member of staff who used to ride a motorbike along the lane to work. One dark Monday morning in the winter his employee rode into a hole that the 4x4s had created the previous day and broke a wrist and was subsequently unable to work.

He decided that was enough...and you can't blame him.