News on Green Lanes
March 2023
Nightingales and motorbikes - R4 Today reported on the National Parks Soundscapes. This is a new project documenting sounds in National Parks, both natural and noise pollution. You can upload your sounds here.
If you're in any doubt how intrusive engine noise can spoil a track, just look at this Youtube video.
December 2022
After the 2022 consultation on protected landscapes, what will Defra do about green lanes?
In a letter to GLEAM, the Green Lanes Environmental Action Movement, the Defra Minister at the time, Lord Benyon, gave details about the government’s plans for the protection of green lanes. The main points:
1) At this stage no legislation is envisaged, although that remains an option for the future.
2) Defra is proposing to rewrite the guidance in order to allow the mechanism for protecting green lanes to be easier to use and empower highways authorities to implement TROs effectively.
3) Defra will identify those routes which carry vehicular rights but are unsuitable for vehicular use and gain collaborative agreement that TROs on these most vulnerable routes will not be contested by the vehicle user groups. (The original letter from Lord Benyon used the term 'unsustainable'. In a further letter the new Minister, Trudy Harrison, wrote that this would be replaced by 'unsuitable'.)
We at the LDGLA hope that this will allow the Lake District National Park Authority to tackle the green lanes problem with renewed vigour. Surely all of us share the same aim – to protect this unique landscape and help it regenerate. Defra will now make it easier to achieve this aim.
May 2021
Lakes Parish Council votes in favour of a TRO for the Tilberthwaite route.
August 2020
The High Court reaches decision in the judicial review brought by GLEAM against the Lake District National Park Authority. The judge finds that the LDNPA did not act unlawfully in refusing to consult on Traffic Regulation Orders for the High Tilberthwaite and High Oxenfell routes. However, The judgement says nothing about whether the LDNPA's decision was right or not.
December 2019
GLEAM (Green Lanes Environmental Action Group) asks for a judicial review of the LDNPA's decision not to consult on Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) for two lanes near Little Langdale, High Tilberthwaite and High Oxenfell.
A Crowd Justice appeal raises £89,000 to pay for legal costs.
October 2019
The LDNPA's Rights of Way Committee decides against TRO consultation for two green lanes near Little Langdale. Instead the Committee concludes that no action is needed for the High Oxenfell track, and that a 'partnership management group' should decide on the future management of the Tilberthwaite route.
This decision goes against a request by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre to apply TROs to both routes. The ICOMOS report containing this request was received by the LDNPA on the day of the Committee meeting and could not be taken into account.
ICOMOS (via the UNESCO World Heritage Centre) issues its second Technical Review on the Lake District in response to the National Park's Assessment Report on the High Tilberthwaite and High Oxenfell routes. It describes the conclusion reached by the National Park (i.e. the establishment of a 'partnership management group') as 'inadequate.
August 2019
The LDNPA publishes its Assessment Report on the High Tilberthwaite and High Oxenfell routes. The report ignores hundreds of impact statements made by unmotorised users on the impact of motor vehicles
May 2019
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre sends a report prepared by its official advisory body, ICOMOS, to the LDNPA. The report demands an end to the practice of green lane motoring.
April 2019
The National Trust issues a statement supporting TROs on the two routes near Little Langdale.
October 2018
Petition reaches 270,000 signatures. ITV broadcasts item about off-roading on the Tilberthwaite track.
May 2018
Defra publishes the final report of the Glover review on protected landscapes.
April 2018
Langdale residents and home owners write to UNESCO World Heritage Centre, pointing our the impact of off-road vehicles on the Outstanding Universal Value, the qualities for which the Lake District was listed as a World Heritage Site.