Trail riders are saviours, not villains

Last month, Roy Hattersley claimed that "off-roaders" were wrecking the beauty of the Peak District, but it's unfair to condemn those who fight to preserve Britain's network of 'green roads', the Trail Riders Fellowship asserts

They shut the road through the woods

Seventy years ago.

Weather and rain have undone it again,

And now you would never know

There was once a road through the woods

Rudyard Kipling, one of the first "recreational motorists" to venture on to what we now recognise as byways, wrote those lines in the dying years of the 19th century. Here is his prose account of the journey that inspired the poem.

"A quick turn plunged me first into a cutting brim-full of liquid sunshine; next into a gloomy tunnel where last year's dead leaves whispered and scuffled about my tyres. The strong hazel stuff meeting overhead had not been cut for a couple of generations as least, nor had any axe helped the moss-cankered oak and beech to spring above them. Here the road changed frankly into a carpeted ride on whose brown velvet spent primrose-clumps showed like jade, and a few sickly, white-stalked blue-bells nodded together. As the slope favoured I shut off the power and slid over the whirled leaves… I only heard a jay, far off, arguing against the silence under the twilight of the trees."

Well over a century later, it's a description recognisable to any member of the Trail Riders Fellowship, a 3,500-strong organisation of motorcyclists dedicated to preserving what remains of Britain's network of "green roads".

The threats to these roads are many, but the biggest is posed by preservationists who seek to exclude motorised users altogether.

Generously funded and vociferous, they seek to blur the distinction between legitimate enthusiasts who choose to explore the unsurfaced road network with a criminal element who use often stolen cars and motorcycles to charge over any land they can.

Joyriding is often used to justify the exclusion of legitimate recreational motorcyclists who combine an appreciation of the countryside with a love of things mechanical. As more byways and unclassified county roads are closed to vehicles because of pressure from well-connected and funded "antis", inevitably recreational riders are forced on to an ever-shrinking number of lanes.

Most local authorities have an inglorious record when it comes to catering for the recreational motorist and motorcyclist. They were supposed to review the status of all "green roads" recorded as "Roads used as public paths" (Rupps), and undertake historical research and hold inquiries on whether the roads had vehicular status. With the noble exceptions of Cambridgeshire and Wiltshire, most proceeded with this work at a snail's pace, but none the less, the vast majority of Rupps to go through the process were awarded "Byway open to all traffic" (Boat) status.

Unhappy at the speed at which this work was proceeding, the government launched a project called Discovering Lost Ways, with a budget of £15m.

There was uproar from organisations such as the Country Landowners' Association, apparently terrified that the government would discover and reclaim all the "lost ways" its members had incorporated into their fields and gardens since the Enclosure Acts of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Buckling under threats from these knights of the shires unwilling to share "their" rural England, the government cancelled the project early in 2008, after it had achieved little except to waste millions of pounds of public money.

But, concerned at the lack of progress being made by local authorities, the TRF had already acted on its own initiative.

Volunteers had spent hours scouring public records gathering material in preparation for claims that would confirm that valuable routes would be saved for all classes of user for all time. In doing so, it saved local authorities large sums by performing their statutory duties for them. Professional services were funded by TRF riders assisting at equestrian events and receiving generous donations in return.

But the TRF had reckoned without an unholy alliance of landowners, second-homers and environmental "experts" who were determined to exclude all but themselves from the lanes that crossed "their" countryside. The government commissioned extensive research into the impact of vehicles on green roads, and produced a positive report called "Making the Best of Byways". The consensus was that trail riding had little adverse impact, and the report suggested constructive ways in which local issues could be tackled.

But that was not good enough for the "antis", who effectively hijacked the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill as it passed through a half-empty House of Commons. The result was that much of the TRF's research into vehicular rights was trashed, and remaining Rupps were reclassified as restricted byways, with the right to use motor vehicles upon them cast into doubt – although not entirely extinguished.

The bill became law in 2006. The Green Lane Environmental Action Movement trumpeted its success but admitted that, were it not for a small amendment, it would have removed vehicular rights from most of the tarmac road network too. The fate of the unsurfaced restricted byways has been mixed. Some are now becoming overgrown without the occasional passage of vehicles. Others are being incorporated into fields and gardens by delighted landowners or used as rubbish dumps.

The TRF accepts that there are some who damage the countryside. It seeks to reach, reform and educate them to ride not just within the law but also to its code of conduct which includes a voluntary "off-tarmac" speed limit of 25mph.

Where that fails, it will report illegal activity to the police. It sends working parties out to maintain green lanes and clear rubbish with the help of local authorities, reputable 4x4 user groups and enlightened landowners. It has also helped to launch Tread Lightly, a charity that aims to maintain a sustainable rights of way network for all.

The TRF is determined that the single-figure percentage of unsurfaced rights of way currently open to motorcyclists will remain, in spite of the prejudices and vested interests of their opponents. Rudyard Kipling would be proud.