Surrey Council Lane closure overturned.

[syncrosimon]

[axeman]

wonderful news, simon how would i go about contacting the TRF locally to surport them on these issues .


thanks neil

[syncrosimon]

A nice bunch of enthusiasts.

http://www.surreytrf.org.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[jed the spread]

Well all I can say is when anyone is now green laning in Surrey your in for a shock. Jake, Russel and I took our families and our vans out for some mild green laning today and most of the lanes we went down have been leveled off so much that I think any 2wd family car could drive down.

The first lane that we did usually has an interesting rutted bit thats quite good to start you off. That is all gone now and it a ten foot wide gravel track that is like a sub base for a tarmac road.

The Wotton to Cold Harbour lane has had all the nice leany bit at the Wotton end dug out where you used to lean over with your window right next to the bank. You could now drive what used to be one of my favorite lanes in a stolen XR2 or what ever the youth is driving and stealing these days, and at the Coldharbour end someone has filled in all the big water splashes/dips with hardcore. Since the mixed rough aggregate has been used to fill in the dips the fine stuff has been washed away and you are left with half house bricks and all sorts of other bits of rubble that looks unsightly in such a nice forest environment.

The best lane that dips down into Shere (the only decent wet one in the area) now has a big metal gate across it with a padlock. It has a sign on it that basically says it is closed in the wet season and about 6 months of the year. I can only think this is due to some of the local clubs with "modified" vehicles that find it hard to drive through a couple of feet of water and drive round the wet bits off piste. I have seen videos of these local clubs on youtube videos and it can be clearly seen that they drive around in convoy and drive around bits that only a week before we drove and had no problems staying on the Byway causing no damage

I dont know what the others are like because we stopped for a pub lunch and found a nice pub that did good food and had connect four.

I appreciate that a common ground has been made for now to keep the lanes open for us but the consequence is drastic and has changed the natural landscape that was familiar to me as a regular user on Secret Squirrel camping trips with my family and friends on Surreys fine lanes. I dont know if it is due to my recent engine upgrade or not, but I did the whole lot without needing G gear. I feel annoyed that the few people that abuse, cant manage the basic few inches of water, vandalise the trees and natural surrounding and go off piste illegally have forced a compromise that has quite frankly ruined it. I know these closures and radical remodeling wont stop them driving lanes illegally anyway but apart from grassing them up to the police (and lets face it the worst they can do is hand out a few points and a parking ticket style fine) there is nothing that can be done

Jed

[lloydy]

That coldharbour lane was like that at the last surrey lanes meet, level all the way through. The shere lane, do you mean Ride lane? Hope not, as i liked that one.

[jed the spread]

The shere lane, do you mean Ride lane? Hope not, as i liked that one.

Yep...

jed

[syncrosimon]

Dont worry about the surfacing Jed,

It's just likely to be the scalpings from all the resurfacing that goes on this time of year to use up surplus contingency budgets.

It looks awful when first done, but soon settles down, and is way better than losing the lanes all together.

The council down here use the by-ways to dispose of the scalpings instead of paying to dump them.

[lloydy]

Bugger, most of the lanes are pretty mellow now then, not always a bad thing for a drive and explore on foot, but as you say, lanes could well get busier now and spoil the camping out

[axeman]

Dont worry about the surfacing Jed,

It's just likely to be the scalpings from all the resurfacing that goes on this time of year to use up surplus contingency budgets.

It looks awful when first done, but soon settles down, and is way better than losing the lanes all together.

The council down here use the by-ways to dispose of the scalpings instead of paying to dump them.

hope that your right about that. will pop out in the next couple of weeks and have a look around, dose sound all doom and gloom but like simon said at least there still open. which is only a good thing.

neil

[ninja.turtle007]

The shere lane, do you mean Ride lane? Hope not, as i liked that one.

Yep...

jed

Did you try entering from the big grass triangle entrance at Farley Common? The mid point entry was closed last time we went out.

When we went out on Salisbury Plain a couple of weeks ago some of the lanes were awfull. Really wide churned up mud pits. It was sad to see them is this state and you can clearly see why people get annoyed with 4x4 vehicles.

[jed the spread]

Dont worry about the surfacing Jed,

It's just likely to be the scalpings from all the resurfacing that goes on this time of year to use up surplus contingency budgets.

It looks awful when first done, but soon settles down, and is way better than losing the lanes all together.

The council down here use the by-ways to dispose of the scalpings instead of paying to dump them.

If you saw them Simon and how they used to be its quite soul destroying, the gates blocking them off and the 30 ton excavations to level off a lane is really worrying. I have never done the Devon Lanes but our mate Ollie did on one of CJ's weekends and he said the Surrey lanes are quite similar (over grown in the summer and high banked), could you imagine if you drove down what was once a respectable lane and rather than leaning all over the place you drove through it with an open can of coke in a cup holder without spilling any

I am not sure what I think about all this. There is always Wales though

jed

[jed the spread]

The shere lane, do you mean Ride lane? Hope not, as i liked that one.

Yep...

jed

Did you try entering from the big grass triangle entrance at Farley Common? The mid point entry was closed last time we went out.

No we didnt as we got wrapped up in the connect four, but I have been up on my own recently and there is some quite churned up areas due to people reving the breasticles off their engine rather than the gentle tick over and crawl. We had a land rover doing it behind us today

jed

[jed the spread]

Bugger, most of the lanes are pretty mellow now then, not always a bad thing for a drive and explore on foot, but as you say, lanes could well get busier now and spoil the camping out

Yep... though technically and probably by law we are not supposed to be there. It all boils down to the responsible and irresponsible at the end of the day and best not F**k them up in the first place hey!!!

jed

[syncrosimon]

If you saw them Simon and how they used to be its quite soul destroying, the gates blocking them off and the 30 ton excavations to level off a lane is really worrying. I have never done the Devon Lanes but our mate Ollie did on one of CJ's weekends and he said the Surrey lanes are quite similar (over grown in the summer and high banked), could you imagine if you drove down what was once a respectable lane and rather than leaning all over the place you drove through it with an open can of coke in a cup holder without spilling any

I am not sure what I think about all this. There is always Wales though

jed

From a Rights of Way point of view the council carrying out maintenance on a lane is them accepting that it has vehicle rights of way. This means that there will be no closures on the lanes you have seen graded.

They grade the lanes from time to time here, but it all washes out on the next heavy rain. They also seem to leave the hardest to reach places so there are plenty of challenging places.

The fact is that if the lanes become bomb holes the NIMBY's will try and have them closed, and if the councils accept responsibility for them as roads they will maintain them once in a while. Round here it's on a 10 year or more cycle for scalpings and gradings.

I dont mind as long as they are open.

[syncrosimon]

HarryMan

"Yes, excellent example Simon, unfortunately, I feel we are often let down by some 4-wheeler Off-Road groups, even clubs that use and abuse but don't even consider that sort of pro-active response when (perhaps even they have ) things far pushed too

I would very support the concept of license (object being the licence?) being given to a particular group, driving a particular (specific) lane/route, on a particular day/date and being subject to particular conditions or limitations even.. if it were to allow use of special, and as we've said, quite historic, magical, and very special lanes... say once per year per group, but no more.

I really wish this style of accomodation with the 'anti' brigade had been adopted on day one, beceause the writing really was on the wall... it's easier to ban than approve, negate than posit, etc,

I think you get the idea... a compromise, and admittedly a big one, but nevertheless, suitable for Syncronauts who'd only ever want/need/desire to drive a route annually - and certainly not every goddam weekend in the foul weather season just for the heck of it."




Jed, have a look at this lane down in deepest devon.

This lane had not been used by vehicles or anything else for about 40 years. The TRF found out it was being reviewed at a Parish Council meeting to be TRO'd down to a footpath. The TRF then cleared the lane with volunteers.
This is before, note the bath.


See the bath now!!




The council have now said they are going to hardcore it!!

Still it is better than closure, and the TRF have a voluntary driving ban to allow the surface to settle.