As a precursor to our forthcoming update of the LARA Publication on Unsealed Unclassified Roads, we have just published two new LARA Reference Documents; one on Road returns and records, and one on Evidence of public road status. These are extracts from the previous two-volume report, re-published as stand-alone documents cross-referenced from the updated report (which will be single-volume). Both documents are available from the LARA Papers and Reports page of this website. We will shortly be withdrawing the second volume (the Appendices) of the previous report, as this is now totally superceded by re-published Reference Documents.

‘Are all unsealed unclassified roads open to the public with motors?’  That question has been asked and argued over for decades. The answer seems to be that the great majority are, but a few can be shown to be bridleways or (more rarely) footpaths.

We have just published a new LARA Paper which is a collection of letters from government departments, 1983 onwards, stating the government’s view at the time of each letter.

The Paper is available from the LARA – Papers and Reports page in the Reference Documents section of this website.

This issue is also discussed at length in the LARA report, Unsealed Unclassified Roads. Their History, Status, and the Effect of the Natural Environment & Rural Communities Act 2006, due to be updated and re-published very shortly.

Apologies, to those unfamiliar with Rights of Way Terminology, for the cryptic title, but we know it will help those-in-the-know to find this post in the future.

We are often asked whether Local Access Forums (LAFs) have any role in advising on the use of Mechanically Propelled Vehicles (MPVs) on Unsealed Unclassified Roads (UURs). The short answer is No, and this was confirmed to LARA in a letter from DEFRA in November 2012.

For more information see DEFRA’s Guidance on Local Access Forums in England document, now available from the Government Publications page of this website – see Annex A, paragraph 3, on page 29 of the document (page 33/52 in the PDF).

We have published a new Privacy Notice, in advance of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) coming into force on 25th May 2018.

The House of Lords Select Committee reviewing the NERC Act 2006 published its report last week. You can view/download the complete report as a PDF file from this link. Chapter 6, covering Green Lanes and Rights of Way, starts on page 79 of the report, and the key recommendations are contained in paragraphs 316 and 317 on pages 81 and 82.

Without going into the detail, LARA is quite content with the wording of these paragraphs. We feel that they represent a sensible, and nuanced, appraisal of the current situation which can be usefully referenced to our advantage within the MSWG.

We have been asked questions about LARA’s response to the DEFRA Consultation on “Health and Harmony: the future for food, farming and the environment in a Green Brexit”, launched on 27 February 2018. More information about the Consultation is available here.

LARA has already responded to the Consultation, primarily to point-out that the Consultation document appears to be totally ‘silent’ on non-agricultural land use, with no mention of sport in general, nor motor sport in particular.

LARA’s member organisations are aware of the Consultation, and we know that some will be submitting detailed responses in due course.

At the LARA Steering Committee meeting on 23rd January it was agreed that the LARA Byway Code (November 2017 version) should be withdrawn pending revision. The intention is that a revised and updated Code will be published during Summer 2018.

In the interim, users should refer to the recommendations of the appropriate user organisation:

• Trail riders on motorcycles – The TRF Code of Conduct.
• Recreational 4×4 drivers – The GLASS Code of Conduct.

For motorsport, the procedures for event authorisation cover similar topics to the LARA Byway Code.

After our oral evidence session to the House of Lords Select Committee reviewing the NERC Act 2006 – see previous posting – we were invited to submit further written evidence. This, together with further written evidence from the TRF, GLEAM, and others, has now been posted on the Parliament.uk website. To read the submissions, follow this link, then scroll down to Written evidence, select View all, and look for documents published in January 2018. We will be reviewing the written evidence submitted by GLEAM (all 23 pages of it) in due course, but remain unaware of the Lords’ overall timetable for reporting and recommendations (if any).

LARA and the TRF were both invited to give oral evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006. This followed written evidence submitted by LARA in September. The oral evidence session took place on 21 November, with Alan Kind representing LARA and Mario Costa-Sa representing the TRF. As usual with Parliamentary Select Committees, the members of the Committee (all Members of the House of Lords in this case) had been well-briefed and asked pertinent, and searching, questions. Overall we felt that both motoring organisations had been given a fair hearing.

You can read more about the Committee, and its work, here – http://bit.ly/2BwY75U – selecting “View all publications” for links to transcripts of the various evidence sessions and a link to watch the proceedings on Parliament TV.

During LARA’s work on the MSWG it became apparent that many of the non-motoring organisations were unaware of the vast amount of previously-published information on the subject of motoring in the countryside. We are therefore gathering together, and publishing on the LARA website, every document that we know about and which we believe is still relevant, however old. Many of the documents are re-published from the old LARA website, but many are ‘new’ and are made easily-accessible for the first time in many years. We’ve just finished adding the first batch of documents, and more will be drip-fed onto the website over the next few weeks. Have a look, starting at the Reference Documents introductory page.