Greenlaning: the future

IN 1897 the American author Mark Twain is reputed to have read a newspaper account of his death and said: “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated”. Much the same could be said for your anonymous correspondent’s letter – “The end of greenlaning” – in your September issue. Despite the bad behaviour of some rogue 4x4 drivers, I don’t think there is a realistic chance of a total ban on greenlaning.

Yes, there is a problem, and your writer is correct in saying that Land Rover owners are as bad as anyone as misusing greenlanes and using them as free off-road courses.

I have evidence of this: in fact I quit an Arc-affiliated club nearly 20 years ago because their so-called ‘Rights of Way’ officer was deliberately taking out Sunday convoys for a glorified mud bath. They’d turn up at our monthly pub meets boasting about how many times they got stuck... and how many had to be winched out of the deep ruts they were causing. You probably won’t be surprised to learn that many of the greenlanes these idiots mistreated back then are now closed.

But that isn’t the full picture. The morons are a minority. There are many lanes in most parts of the country where 4x4 drivers behave themselves and there are few if any conflicts between them and fellow users like walkers and horse riders – mainly because so many of our greenlanes hardly see a soul from one year to the next. I know of a few lanes that are so overgrown through lack of use that neither drivers nor walkers can get through the dense undergrowth.

There is also the little matter of legality. Our right to drive byways is enshrined in law and to remove that right would take up a lot of

parliamentary time, even if some maverick politician did want to take it up. I can’t see our MPS bothering to take on such a task for what, in the big scheme of things, is a relatively trivial issue.

Besides, what about farmers in their Land Rovers and 4x4s who use these lanes on a daily basis to access their stock and crops? It would be impossible to impose a blanket ban on 4x4s on unpaved roads for that reason alone.

The bans that are imposed in the future will continue to be made at a local level, by county councils, in response to localised conflicts among lane users.

It is therefore imperative that we take this issue seriously. I don’t want to hear any more lame excuses from folk saying “it’s not Land Rover drivers doing the damage, it’s other 4x4s”, because that simply isn’t true. Land Rover clubs need to deal with the idiots in their ranks. They need educating – to learn that what they are doing is unacceptable behaviour. The message will get through to even the most pig-headed individuals, eventually.

At the risk of sounding like I’m flattering LRM, I have to say that your magazine has a track record of promoting responsible and non-damaging greenlaning. Keep up the good work.

John Mcnally

Sheffield