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.

We have just received this from the MSA:

Many MSA members will be aware of Vnuk, a 2014 European Court judgement that threatens the future of all UK motorsport.

The Court ruled that the requirement for compulsory insurance should cover any use of a vehicle, so long as that use is consistent with the normal function of the vehicle. This would require all competition cars in motorsport to have compulsory third party insurance.

In responding to the Vnuk issue, the MSA has been working with a wide range of groups including the Motorsport Industry Association (MIA), and we are now calling on the motorsport community to respond to a European Commission consultation by 20 October. To view the MIA’s call to action, which the MSA fully supports, please click here.

The MSA has previously responded to a Department for Transport consultation on Vnuk. To view the MSA’s response to that consultation, click here.

LARA was delighted to receive, from Kent County Council, notification of Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) on a number of Byways in the county. “Delighted” and “TRO” in the same sentence? Surely some mistake? But these are rather unusual TROs, made following a period of consultation with which LARA was involved.

They are all Seasonal Permanent Orders, prohibiting four wheeled motor vehicles (but not motorcycles) from using the Byways between 1st October and 30th April. So far so normal. But these Orders also permit closure “at additional times in the event of heavy rainfall, in response to the Met Office’s yellow weather warning for rain, for no longer than 5 working days”. This is just the sort of pragmatic and sensible approach which LARA has been advocating for years and, if implemented sensibly, should go a long way to preventing damage caused by irresponsible use of 4x4s during periods of wet weather in the summer. We do, of course, accept that periods longer than 5 days may be appropriate in some situations, and we’d be happy to discuss this with any other Councils contemplating Seasonal Permanent TROs.

You can read more about LARA’s approach to ‘targeted’ TROs in our Traffic Management Report, starting at Section 7.4 (19/27 in the PDF file).

The LARA paper on the background to the ‘closed roads for motorsport’ legislation, incorporating the MSA Process for application for a ‘closed road’ organising permit, is now available on the LARA Papers and Reports page.

Two days ago James Higgs, a motorcycle trailrider from Wiltshire, posted a 90 second helmet-cam video on his WiltshireByways YouTube channel. The video showed James meeting two horse riders on an unsealed road in Devon, and displaying exemplary conduct and good manners towards both horses and riders. It has now had 70 views on YouTube.

But James shared the video on his Facebook page and now, just 48 hours later, the video has had 470,000+ views and the Facebook post has had 16,000+ Likes/Loves, 4000+ Shares, and 1700+ Comments (virtually all of which are positive). This is quite extraordinary, and shows the huge power of social media in the modern world, but it also shows how 90 seconds of ‘good behaviour’ by one person can generate a tsunami of positive publicity for motorcyclists on green lanes.

James Higgs, LARA salutes you!

Helping a(nother) Horse Rider by Wiltshire Byways on YouTube
WiltshireByways Facebook page

We’re delighted to announce that the ACU has upgraded from Associate Member status to Full Member status with immediate effect. The ACU was one of the founding members of LARA and their return to full membership means that, once again, all four main user groups – sport / recreation and 2/3 wheels / 4 wheels – are represented at our ‘top table’. We very much look forward to working more closely with the ACU, over the coming months, on matters of mutual interest and concern. You can read the ACU Press Release here.

The MSWG had its second meeting on 6 April with a high turnout of members. The Group is now trying to find a member or observer from Wales, as many of the issues are common to both England and Wales and new environmental legislation is coming up in the Welsh Assembly in the near future. Each of the four sub-groups (traffic regulation, unsealed unclassified roads, surface standards, and unlawful / anti-social driving) now has a first draft report, and members will continue to develop these before the next meeting, currently scheduled for late June 2017. Read the background to the MSWG on the Current Activities page.

We are still looking for photographs, magazine articles, personal recollections, etc., showing everyday motoring (not competition events) on unsealed roads from circa 1980, and back as far as we can go. Read more on this page.

The ongoing dialogue between ACU/ LARA/ MSA and Powys County Council continues, and we seem to be heading slowly towards some sort of conclusion. This is taking an immense amount of time, and costing all three motorsport organisations a lot of money, but, unfortunately, we can’t give you any more details at the moment as we’re still involved in ongoing technical debate with Powys about the legal issues. Read the background on the Current Activities page.

Eagle-eyed users may have noticed that we’ve redirected LARA’s main web address – www.laragb.org – to point to this website rather than the old LARA website. You can still access the old website, should you wish, through this page.