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Parish council fears over future of lanes
HDTP Green Lane ps1312-8 Steve Poessl at Green Lane Garton on the Wolds Pictured By Pam Stanforth ps1312-8
Concern has been voiced by a parish council fed up with the state of rural lanes in their area.
Garton Parish Council have said local people and farmers are increasingly unable to use green lanes in the village because the surface has been churned up by vehicles.
A green lane is classed as a public right of way but is often unsurfaced.
Councillor Eric Biggins, chair of Garton Parish Council, said: “What should be a local resource is no longer useable by local people bcause it is being used by others who are spoiling it.
“This parish council is concerned at the current state of the green lanes in our area, the apparant result of use by four-by-four vehicles, ATVs and trail motorbikes often in numbers and generally from out of area. In this we are unlikely to be alone with other areas suffering just as much.
“Many villages in the East Riding are, like Garton, based along quite major roads and the green lane network is a very useful safe resource for walkers with or without dogs, runners cyclists and horseriders.
“There seems to have been an increase in usage over a number of years now by these off road vehicles which has left much of our local network in a parlous state.
“The lanes are being denuded of grass, heavily rutted sometimes to the depth that makes walking or horseriding dangerous if not impossible.”
Councillor Steve Poessl, of Garton Parish Council, said: “It has been discussed quite a few times but it has got worse. The four wheel drives are tearing up the green lanes.
“They are just making such a mess of it, people can’t walk down there and farmers are having trouble too.”
A spokesperson from East Riding of Yorkshire Council said: “I have spoken to our asset strategy team and there are a couple of issues at work here.
“There are 160 kilometres of green lane in the East Riding where vehicles like four-by-fours have permission to ride down.
“Obviously at the moment the ones in and around Garton I assume fall into that category - we can’t actually stop four-by-fours from using them.
“What we are doing is speaking to the local access forum which have members on it from four-by-four groups, ramblers, horse riders and we are trying to adopt a more sustainable approach to the preservation of the surfaces.
“We are aware that there is an issue and we are tring to solve it through the local asset forum.”
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Saturday 25 May 2013
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