New rule `will force bikers to break law'

From the archive, first published Thursday 9th Feb 2006.

Off-road bikers claim they could be forced to break the law to enjoy their sport if the Government goes ahead with new rules.

Thousands of miles of routes across the countryside - used by motorcycle trail riders for generations - could be restricted to horse riders, walkers and mountain bikers.

Trail riders say they have not been given enough time to register the routes as Byways Open to All Traffic (BOAT) as part of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill now going through the House of Lords.

The Bill, which came before the House of Commons on May 19 last year, is expected to get Royal Assent later this year and only BOAT applications submitted up to that date will be considered. It will mean hundreds of miles of lanes in North and West Yorkshire will become out of bounds to bikers.

Bikers could lose the right to drive along routes like Hardgate Lane, an unmade track running between Brow Top Road at Haworth and Halifax Road, Cross Roads , and In Moor Lane, between Middlesmoor and Scarhouse reservoir in Nidderdale,

Access to bikers is based on historic use which relate to the lanes being open to vehicles such as horses and carts.

Engineer Richard Hirst, of Eccleshill, Bradford, chairman of the West Yorkshire Trail Riders Fellowship (WYTRF), said hundreds of miles of off-road routes would be lost to bikers. "It is highly probable that bikers will just break the law they will say they have been using these routes for 30 years and they are going to carry on," he said.

"The other big problem is that it will put more pressure on fewer routes. They will become damaged and local authorities will close them. We are pleading for someone in the Government to listen to us."

Brian Thompson, WYTRF rights of way officer, said the group was simply asking for time to submit claims that routes used for generations, should continue to be defined as byways and open to use by bikers.

He believed up to 200 routes in West Yorkshire could be barred to motorcyclists.

A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spokesman said: "BOAT claims made before May 19 2005 will be determined under the old legislation - these routes will not be extinguished.

"But those made after that date will be determined by the new legislation. Arguments based on their historic use by four wheeled vehicles, such as horse and carts, will not be seen as an appropriate argument."

The date had been changed to the commencement of the Bill through the Commons because of the deep concern about the number of claims expected to deluge local authorities, she added.

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