A statement of intent.
The current access situation is stupid. The current system of bridleways and footpaths is outdated – which is hardly surprising as it was developed and chosen in the post war period by parish councillors with vested interests.
Here at Singletrack we think that there should be no distinction between any non motorised form of transport, be it horse, walker or cyclist. We want to see Scottish style access across the rest of Britain. This doesn’t mean we want expensive changes to be made to enable easier access to what would previously have been called footpaths – we simply want access to these to be legal. There are miles of ‘footpath’ across moors where there are no stiles to impede riders or horses. Where stiles exist then riders can simply lift their bikes over. We don’t want costly changes to be made to ‘facilitate’ access. We can manage just fine at the moment, as most riders who have ever been tempted onto cheeky trails will attest.
Enlightened countries such as Sweden and Scotland simply have access to land – we have a piecemeal system where outdated decisions on land use still limit us to where we can ride. We must decide what future we want for ourselves and fight to achieve it.
There are many people that share the opinion that the Rights of Way network should be opened up and that the default status for every path should be access for all with local exceptions made for trails unsuitable due to ground conditions, rare habitats/species or volume of traffic. We understand we’re preaching to the converted but we’re also fully aware also that the outcome we want is unlikely to happen in the short term.
In a country struggling out of a recession and hampered by cutbacks to infrastructure and the bureaucracy that oversees it, we don’t expect these changes in legislation to be made – however much we believe in the rightness of them. Laws are too costly to be changed and, as many people we have spoken to have said, there is not enough political will to produce Scottish style access across Britain.
This doesn’t mean we are helpless. The coalition government has started to put an emphasis on it’s ‘Big Society’ approach. The cynical might say this is a way of stepping back from their responsibilities, cutting money and support to quasi-governmental organisations that were previously fighting for access and in their place leaving a void they hope will be filled by private individuals. Regardless of how people may feel about that, the fact that Coalition government is inviting greater participation from the general public could be a great opportunity for mountain bikers to resolve access issues on a local level. This might be the best opportunity we’ve got to get things moving.
Natural England is the body that, amongst other things, has a responsibility to “promote access, recreation and public well-being for the benefit of today’s and future generations”. It’s their duty to look after rights of way and access issues. Sadly, the government cuts have meant they’ve had to take a 5% drop in funding this year alone which translates into a 30% drop in staff. Back in July a Department for Rural Affairs spokesman told the BBC that:
“It will be up to each individual organisation to revise their plans to reflect this reduced funding, but we expect them to protect front-line services as much as they can by first looking for efficiency savings or reducing back office costs.”
So how do they plan to make ‘efficiency savings’? Well, along with the ominous sounding ‘reducing back office costs’, we’ve seen a document that outlines their plans to transfer some of their access related work to the civil organisations and local communities. While they still have to fulfil their statutory duties under current legislation they are starting to explore ways in which interested parties in the community can help.
This means that anyone interested will be able to heavily influence their local access issues. The worst case scenario is that an access land grab will follow – and better organised groups of users will be able to exert their influence more effectively and get the outcomes they desire. Of all the outdoors users, mountain bikers are without doubt the worst organised and if this continues we are bound to come out this situation poorly.
So now is our opportunity to get involved, it’s time to represent mountain biking via local access forums and start to campaign for what we want.
So how do we move forward on this?
The CTC has real political lobbying clout and is the organisation that is in a position to take the lead and push this issue forwards. They have experience in campaigning and they have seasoned campaigners just waiting to support local groups who want to get involved. We’ll be hearing from them soon and we’ll be following up this with interviews with local campaigners, access groups and anyone else that wants their say.
We want to hear your suggestions and ideas, what problems you’ve run into and the positive solutions you’ve found to make things happen on a local level. Get in touch with us at access@singletrackworld.com. We need you to get involved.
What about if a cyclist is climbing one of those massive ladder like stiles & falls off because he could only hold on with one hand (‘someone i know’ nearly did this on the pennine way near stoodley pike)?
Where would the liability for things like that lie?
Not trying to be a naysayer, but i can see something like that being an issue in some parts.
On the other hand I know a lot of bridleways that are not safe for cyling or indeed horse riding; a lot of the hill/mountain bridleway trails in the lake district have been sanitised with rock steps (eg. on Catbells) to prevent erosion from walkers meaning that you ride on them at your absolute peril if you are not confident or expert enough. A lot of the footpaths are far better to ride on…The local riders tend to use these at times when they know that they will not encounter many walkers (ie early mornings and evenings/night) which tends to work fine with no confrontations.
On my home turn on the South Downs we tend to follow the same view, if its busy then we go for a non-confrontation approach and avoid the walkers, if its quiet (and safe) we will go on the cheeky trails as well and adopt a “tread lightly” and be friendly approach at all times.
‘enlightened countries like Sweden and Scotland’……….
good comment, and good campaign, thank you for the effort.
Seems there are two different things here though…. opening up footpaths to bikes, and aiming for full ‘right to roam’ like the ‘enlightened’ countries.
Thing is we’d need to do something about idiot bikers too, those that keep at full steam ahead past walkers, kids and other people with a ‘right to roam’… maybe we need a campaign on trailcraft, and courtesy too?
Fully support right to roam, but then I also think no individual should be able to ‘own’ land, it was taken by murder and violence in the first place, and land’owners’ should actually be forced to give it back to the country for the good of all of us, thieves shouldn’t get to keep their loot, but then, i do live in cloud-cookoo land……. 🙂
I disagree Hora, technical footpaths keep speeds down which reduces the perceived threat to walkers. Fast open bridleways are where most walkers complain due to being “buzzed” by fast descending riders.
I should add that we don’t see a mass trespass as being a useful campaigning tool for the reasons already given re: trail damage. We’re trying to promote responsible use remember.
I was born in the Welsh borders, and growing up remember faffing with maps trying to work out if I was allowed to ride somewhere. After living in Scotland for a while now, I realise how pathetic and arbitrary the land access laws are down south.
I would fully support this campaign, but really, I’m an anarchist, and I just think people should ride wherever they like. Absolute disregard for the law can, in some circumstances, show how ridiculous it is and instigate it’s modification/removal.
MTBers were too much a minority and too weak to assert our interests. Today I find more cyclists in my local hills and woods than walkers. The time is ripe for change.
I think a mass tresspass idea could work if the place/date was carefully chosen. Something like a recreation of the original tresspass, preferably with support of the PDNP, with shed loads of press, mountain bike and otherwise, invited to draw some attention to an issue that, lets face it, 99% of the public have no idea even exists.
dumb spam filter, just lost my post!!
summary;
keep it up!! you are in a unique position to reach alot of riders which clubs and associations find difficult.
but please do it quick – when I move back in a few years, for a few years, I wanna ride!
As I understand it, it’s like DoctorRad put it. Basically you can ride anywhere you like, but you have “no right” to do so. This is not the same thing as being “not allowed” to do so. Having the “right” is protection in law, in this case from the landowners. It’s a matter of whether or not you want to put up with the arguments and confrontation, we are out just to have a bit of fun after all.
I know a guy who has lobbied massively on access issues on behalf of the British Horse Driving Society. He has good links politically and understands the issues from both sides…I will have a chat with him and post any relevant thoughts…
Bravo, you are to be applauded. The campaigning on any cause / issue needs someone to stand up and try to lead / drive it. Well done 😎
Email of support and offer of help sent.
I hope it will be non-partisan across all the mags and organisations. It’s a big issue for all riders and so should involve as many as possible, IMO (and realising the irony of that statement regarding the typical apathy 😉 )
Good luck and happy to help.
Tim, SingletrAction
http://www.singletraction.org.uk
1. Have to agree with hh45, the population density in England (1022 per square mile) is 6 times what it is in Scotland and almost 20 times what it is in Sweden. This is a key point because when there is lots of space no one is that bothered about who is using the land.
2. Mass trespass? Please grow up. The Kinder mass trespass was by ramblers trying to get year round access for the general public to land that was used by a few privileged individuals once a year. It had general support from the public. We are a minority sport trying to use paths that a good proportion of the public don’t want us to use.
3. Please do not talk about responsible use of footpaths by bikers. I have seen enough “responsible” use of bridleways by moto-cross riders to be sure that it doesn’t work.
Thrunton, being “grown up” about this takes too long. The excellent CTC document is dated 2006. My local county’s well-intended RoWIP started in 2003, was published in 2006 and aimed to deliver within the first five years. It will be 2011 in a few days and so far, nothing. This has been going on for decades, and will go on for more decades without more decisive action. What do you suggest (apart from complaining about motorbikes)?
Yay, mass trespass – an ideal location would be the site of the 1896 one over Winter Hill.
Can’t post a link in here but Google it and you’ll see there’s a stone there commemorating 10,000 Boltonians reclaiming the ancient right of way.
Every time I ride it, I’m begging someone to tell me I can’t, so that I can politely point out the irony.
Notwithstanding that, the current reality is that there are more riders than walkers on that path most days and I’ve never once been challenged by a walker there.
I suspect that most walkers under the age of about 60 would probably have an expectation that we would be able to ride those paths and it wouldn’t even occur to them consider challenging another (courteous) lover of the outdoors.
Keep riding those footpaths and couteously point out the irony if challenged 🙂
If you are going to mass trespass, it needs to be accessible by London-based journalists. We’d need a really experienced, likeable and articulate spokesperson to handle the press – ideally someone with TV experience or a known TV face. The Express and The Mail will hate it. The Grauniad and Indie will love it. You wont get support from big-business e.g. Halfords, Evans, MBR, MBUK etc, But you will get it from all the independent-businesses.
I’m all for this. I think getting the Ramblers Association on board will be impossible. The suggestion to get the Horse riders along is good, there’s a lot of riders with a lot of money, titles and social clout. Mass trespass could backfire very easily (damage caused and sods law a bunch of ramblers will try and walk in the opposite direction)
To quote:
1. Have to agree with hh45, the population density in England (1022 per square mile) is 6 times what it is in Scotland and almost 20 times what it is in Sweden. This is a key point because when there is lots of space no one is that bothered about who is using the land.
I think this is not a great argument. Most of this land that is used in those stats are used by nobody. The land that is actually utilised will tend to be closer large population areas, and so will be closer to English levels of usage density.
The reason it works is that Scandies (and I guess Scots ;-)) are just a bit more grown up and a bit less grumpy than little Englanders (of which I should point out I’m one) and happy to see people out and about whatever they are doing.
I wouldnt support it as I prefer to leave it as it is. Making a fuss / mass protest may backfire.
At least now you can ride cheeky and 99.9% of the time your fine. Ive never been stopped riding cheeky.
There is nothing wrong with that and I would not want to risk making a fuss that could lead to a change where the law made it illegal.
I don’t think it can be made any worse as the laws are unenforceable.