Off-bike yobs threatening future of our countryside
IT’S not the most earth-shattering revelation to talk about the importance of access to the countryside during the last 12 months.
For over half of the last year, Rossendale, like many other areas, has been under some sort of lockdown or restricted movements order – and the hills and fields around us have been a wonderful escape for many.
Sadly, it’s also meant the area has become a target for people riding off-road dirt bikes and quad bikes in fields across the area.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that – if done responsibly.
Sadly, however, in recent weeks, the lure of the countryside has also proved to attract people who don’t know how to behave.
According to local farmers, groups of up to 20 bikers have been riding across land in and around Rossendale, churning up fields and scaring, sometimes hitting, animals along the way.
Indeed, in one case, a ewe with a shattered pelvis went into early labour, and the shepherd who delivered the lamb realised it had been born with broken legs too. It’s horrific.
Other animals have reportedly got stuck in motorcycle ruts, leading to separation from their mothers or being left to suffer a very slow, painful death.
Details of what has been going on were revealed by a Rossendale farmer this week on Facebook, with pictures of the bikers riding up a remarkably steep hill, at the same time. The information shared prompted other farmers to share their experiences too.
The police are promising to take action and indeed on Monday shared details of an off-road motorbike which had been seized after being ridden on a road in Helmshore.
Police say generally the bikes come from outside of Rossendale – so are being ridden on roads for a long distance before getting here. Certainly not an essential journey as part of current restrictions.
But this isn’t just an anti-social behaviour problem – it is actually threatening the future of the local environment.
The ruts caused by the bikes can create streams when it rains, causing more water to flow downhill, risking more floods.
The erosion of the bogs and peat in the area also has an impact on the ability for carbon to be removed from the atmosphere – and a knock-on effect for water quality in the area too.
“The land we have been custodians of for generations is torn apart, the peat which stored carbon can no longer do its job properly. Our villages in the valley bottoms now flood due to an increase in water which the peat can no longer store,” the post said on Facebook.
At a time when the countryside has never been more important to people – both as a place to escape and a place to appreciate – it’s vital we all come together to protect it.
Just as it’s not acceptable to ride a quad bike around someone’s garden without permission surely the same must be true of riding across fields which have been tended to by the same families for generations.
Yes, in theory we all enjoy a right to roam – but we should do so responsibly and, as we were taught at school, leave the countryside as we found it.
Those out on bikes should be prosecuted for vandalism, anti-social behaviour and the various driving offences the police have reported.
We owe it to future generations to hand over the countryside in at least as good a state as it was handed to us.