Chat & Social > The Bar - General Chat
Mud Club sticker on tv.
Wanderer:
Anyone know what time it's on at?
Ed
Jake:
is it going to be repeated?
when?
:D
Wanderer:
Trust me!
Es said "We will be watching the whole programme again tonight"
I thought she meant it was on again tonight. Looks like I read more into it than was meant.
I've been watching brizol news thinking it might have been an article on the local news.
SWTSMBO wanted to watch Flogit.
Ed
Barry Scott:
Got the below from here.
Programme 6 - Tuesday August 16 2005
In Riding Roughshod, WEST EYE VIEW investigates the stealth campaign by off-road enthusiasts to flood local councils in the West with applications to open up rural byways to 4x4 vehicles and trail bikes.
Councillors say taxpayers face having to cough up millions of pounds if the campaign to beat a forthcoming ban on upgrading leafy lanes to take motor traffic is successful. More than 130 routes in Somerset alone face being re-classified. According to Somerset County Councillor Henry Hobhouse, each application which ends up in a public enquiry or court case could cost council taxpayers up to £50,000. Simply investigating an application could cost in the region of £20,000. He estimates the total cost in Somerset alone could total over £9 million.
“If we pay out as much money as we potentially have to, we are talking about somewhere between a 5 or 10% rise in council tax per council tax payer to allow people who don’t live in the area access to somewhere the local people do not want them to have access to,†he states.
The Trail Riders Fellowship, which bills itself as ‘the national club for all who wish to ride legal motorcycles on legal carriageways,’ is one of the groups behind the flood of applications. It says simply that access to the countryside is an inalienable right, that the majority of them are responsible drivers and do not cause damage, and that the routes have been used by vehicular traffic from the time of the horse and cart.
The TRF’s campaign was launched to thwart the impact of the Countryside & Rights of Way Act of 2000 which will reclassify Roads Used as Public Paths (RUPPs) as restricted byways, and make it an offence to drive illegally on footpaths and bridleways. However, the Government gave interested parties a year to apply to retain some of these RUPPs for vehicular use by having them redefined as Byways Open to All Traffic (BOATs).
WEST EYE VIEW questions TRF campaigners, who promise members £5 rewards to enter applications with local authorities and £250 if their applications are successful and a RUPP becomes a BOAT.
According to Cllr Hobhouse: “Off-roaders’ clubs have an enormous amount of members. If they have a million members, they put in £10 each that gives them £10 million pounds fighting fund to actually set up, to go through and to get access to what they are trying to get access to. And the county councils do not have that sort of money easily available to fight it. So the social services or the old people will suffer because we have to pull money back to actually deal with the situation that’s arisen.â€Â
GLEAM, a lobbying group set up to protect green lanes, says repair of damage to tracks caused by off-roaders can cost as much as £25,000 per mile. They are appalled that the Government has given off-road groups a year to make applications to turn RUPPs into BOATS. It claims that if applications continue to flood in to councils around England and Wales it will take decades to clear the backlog. They are currently collecting data on how many applications are being received.
They predict that Wiltshire will receive another 1,300 applications on top of hundreds already pending.
Norman Chivers and his wife Marion raised their four children on the family farm near Priddy on the Mendips. They’ve been farming the 180-acre estate since 1967, rearing beef cattle and sheep.
Mr Chivers has had a route in front of his house turned from a RUPP into a BOAT and despite two public enquiries, and a 1,200 name petition, the decision still stands. He tells WEST EYE VIEW: “They want access to the countryside, well fine, but I’ve been out here a little bit longer than they have so let’s have a bit of give and take. We could all have an enjoyable life but not when it’s all going to be at my expense. That’s what it is at the moment.
“I really do get quite angry, especially when you get these young fellas on the motor bikes, roaring up through here, 40mph plus, they really do annoy me. My dogs wouldn’t stand a hope in hell of getting out of the way, the grandchildren certainly wouldn’t.â€Â
He adds: “Quality of life’s gone, it really has, it’s just so annoying , you know full well when you go to bed Saturday night that Sunday morning come what may there are gonna be motor bikes screaming up and down here and Landrovers. Not nice, not nice!â€Â
Eeyore:
Yet more, factually inept raging anti rantings. :evil:
Some reporter wants [Whoa, there!] educatin'. :evil: :evil:
I feel a very strongly worded letter coming on.
Oh, does anyone from the South West recognise that script, virtually verbatim, from a Western Daily Article a few weeks back?
Thanks for posting this Barry - it gives me something to do for the next week! :wink:
Cheers
8)
Eeyore
Just like another speck of dust on the highway of life
They scream to anyone that listens that the end is in sight
So do we circle the wagons or do we circle then quit?
As the highway could become the final battle to hit.
What the company wants is problem resolved
What the comany wants is a choice of nothing at all.
Step out onto that highway in the heat and the dust
A raise your finger in the middle till you shout
What about us?
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