Wanton vandalism!
Dave’s fuming as reckless Land Rover owners indulge in illegal off-roading on private fields in his village
ADVERSE WEATHER seems to bring out the best in most Land Rover owners. Whether it’s floods, gales or snow, you can be sure to hear tales of Land Rover volunteers rescuing stranded motorists, pulling stricken vehicles out of trouble and getting essential medical supplies and/or staff where they need to be. When there’s an emergency, you can rely upon our lot to be on hand to help.
When the first heavy snow of this winter arrived suddenly in my corner of Northamptonshire, the road to the nearest village was impassable for ordinary cars, who couldn’t get up two steep hills. It’s always the same when the weather turns cold: the council grits the main roads, and streets in town, but avoids the country lanes between the villages. That’s good news for those of us who know the effect that road salt has on the ferrous bits of our vehicles, but little consolation for country folk unable to go about their daily business.
Hatchbacks, estate cars and vans were slithering all over the place. Attempting to gun them up the snow-covered hills at full throttle didn’t help, either. It just packed the snow down into ice and made them even more slippery, as one Mitsubishi driver found to his cost when he skidded off into the verge and lost half his front number plate to a signpost that happened to be in the way.
It’s at times like this you need a Land Rover – and sure enough, as if from nowhere, an L322 Range Rover appeared, complete with towing strop and shackles. Minutes later, a Defender 90 turned up, too, and they soon had everybody moving. Somebody else noticed a big plastic bin at the top of the hill containing road grit. The Defender owner had a shovel in his truck, which he used to fling a few shovel-loads down the slope. Very quickly the ice melted and the road was passable again. Drama over.
All this happened while I was out taking Billy for his early morning walk across the snow-covered valley and I didn’t hear about it until I got back and popped my head into the tea shop next door, where visitors to the village who had battled through the drifts were recounting their adventures en route.
We don’t usually get much snow in this neck of the woods, so this was Billy’s first experience of it. At first he couldn’t work out why his world was suddenly covered with cold, white stuff, but once I’d made a few snowballs for him to catch – which exploded on contact with his snapping jaws – he had the best fun ever. As soon as we were back indoors he was pining by the door to get back out there. Dogs enjoy such simple pleasures.
Throughout the day, the snow continued to fall and, by the next morning, there was an even heavier covering. It was hard going through the deeper drifts on my walk the second morning, but seeing the whole village cocooned in a white blanket was something special. It was as if the valley had turned monochrome – the snow was that pristine.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t to last. As I climbed over the stile into the second meadow, I was greeted by what can only be described as a muddy, churned-up mess. I could see in an instant what had happened – off-roaders had turned up
some time the previous day or night, gained access to the field and let rip. There’s a stream runs through the middle of the field, between steep-sided banks. These banks were now rutted and eroded, with multiple muddy tyre tracks showing that the unwelcome visitors had repeatedly driven up and down it until the whole area was brown. Not only had they dispersed the snow, they had cut up the lush grass beneath, as well.
It was the same story in the far corner of the field, where a series of humps and bumps denotes the presence of a disused old quarry, from which, many hundreds of years ago, limestone was extracted to build the village’s cottages and farms. Now they were a desecrated mess.
In this column last month I mentioned how I had joined the local Neighbourhood Watch in a bid to cut down on the crime that blights even the most tranquil areas of the country. It seemed to me deeply ironic that the very first crime I would have to report would be an act of senseless vandalism caused by fellow 4x4 enthusiasts. The owner of the field was furious, as was the tenant farmer who leases the grazing rights for his flocks of sheep. Luckily he had no sheep in that field at the time of the incident – luckily because at this time of the year the ewes are heavily pregnant. If they had been in the field when those idiots were roaring around, there would have been multiple miscarriages from the terrified animals.
However, beneath the field and the adjacent meadow are the buried remains of a series of scheduled ancient monuments, including what is believed to have been a Saxon hill fort. It is a criminal offence to cause damage to such an area and, for this reason, the matter has been reported to the police. Because of this, I cannot say too much more, but I understand the police would like to speak to the drivers of two off-road-prepared Land Rovers, either 90s or SWB Series IIIS, one of which was pale green and had a rope draped around its front bumper. Their drivers had been seen drinking in the local pub until late afternoon.
I have nothing but contempt for the drivers responsible, because it is morons like that that give their fellow Land Rover owners a bad name. In one senseless act of vandalism they have undone all the good work that the local Land Rover volunteers did in helping stricken motorists. I know that all hobbies have a lunatic fringe, but there is no excusing this sort of behaviour. I hope they’re caught and severely punished.
Well, my first month as a Neighbourhood Watch volunteer has proved eventful, for all the wrong reasons. Now I have also volunteered to act as village footpath warden. I just hope that I don’t find Land Rovers along the local footpaths…