PARWICH.ORG

Thank you to Lynne Burrow, Area Peak Park Ranger, for information relating to a voluntary restriction for motor vehicles on Gallowlow Lane, south of Mininglow over the winter and the erection of drive with care signs on Green Lane near Pikehall. It also explains how the action being taken on these lanes links to wider work that the National Park is carrying out to address problems caused by motor vehicle activity in the Peak District, which may also be of interest. The restriction/signs refer to motor vehicles and not pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders:

Issues relating to Green Lanes near Parwich.

The use of the Peak District landscape by 4x4s, quad bikes, trail bikes and other motorsport enthusiasts is one area that often arouses strong emotions. Concerns often centre around motorsports causing:

• Damage to the landscape
• Noise disruption to residents
• Potential safety issues for other users, like walkers or cyclists.

The National Park understands these concerns and are working with all the agencies involved to try to resolve problems that may arise. We are working on a variety of areas. Two of these are:

Taking action to stop the illegal use of the Peak District by motor vehicles. Responsibility for stopping illegal activity by motor vehicles rests with the police. We help the police by installing logging machines to monitor the number of vehicles using the land – the police can then use this information to target their resources at the busiest areas. They can take a range of action from issuing warning notices for first time offenders to confiscating vehicles for repeat offenders.

Operation Blackbrook is an on-going initiative launched in April 2007 to look at complaints about ‘off road’ bikers and 4×4 drivers travelling through areas such as Taddington, Longstone Edge, Pilsley, Baslow, Eyam and Millers Dale. Although the operation has now moved into other areas where there are continuing problems. The Operation is a joint exercise with Derbyshire Police, the National Park and members of Off road and Trails Bike Organisations.

The aim is to encourage motorists to:

• use lawful unsurfaced roads and byways
• understand the impact that their activities on the lives of local residents
• use peer pressure to stop the minority driving unlawfully or inconsiderately

Identifying areas to make improvements.  We have surveyed all 180 non-classified highways in Derbyshire to ensure that efforts to improve the condition of routes are being targeted at areas of greatest need. The condition of each route was assessed as either:

• Sustainable
• Unclear
• May be unsustainable

For each of the 23 routes that fell in the ‘may be unsustainable’ category a comprehensive management plan will be drawn up analysing all the issues involved based on reports from National Park Authority rights of way officers, conservation officers and area rangers, Derbyshire County Council highways engineer and the Local Access Forum sub-group.

The management plan will have targets for all the organisations involved to meet and the deadline for doing it by. The actions could range from putting up more warning signs, resurfacing, voluntary restraint, and temporary prohibition through to issuing a traffic regulation order that bans all traffic from the route. One of these routes is Minninglow Lane/Gallowlow Lane, Ballidon.

Gallowlow Lane , just south of Minninglow, has deteriorated in condition over the past 10 years to the extent that it was extremely difficult to walk and cycle along it, and impossible to ride a horse. Earlier in the year, the landowner kindly carried out some work on the track to remove the deep ruts. It is now in a reasonable condition, but we were concerned that this work would be destroyed over the winter months as the weather deteriorated. For this reason we approached the 4 wheel drive organisations and they agreed that there should be a temporary and voluntary restriction placed on Mininglow Lane from 1st November 2010 until 1st May 2011. The organisation will supply us with some of their voluntary restrictions signs and will work with their members to encourage people to 4 wheel drive elsewhere for the time being. Hopefully this will allow the Lane a little more time to recover and regrass. The landowners do still have access along the route in case they need to reach their fields, but hopefully use by motorised vehicles will drop off almost totally. The route remains open to pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders. We will reassess the route in May and in the meantime we will be monitoring use of the route by motor vehicles. We may also carry out some surfacing work on ruts across the fields over the winter months, if conditions allow.

Green Lane, near Pikehall was resurfaced some years ago as part of the Trails Link project joining together the High Peak and Tissington Trail. This track was previously in a similar condition to Gallowlow Lane, deeply rutted and impossible to use on a bike or horse. After the surface repairs were made, the numbers of 4 wheel drivers actually using the route declined significantly, but motorbikes still use these routes for off-road journeys across the Peak District. Recently some motorbike users have been riding up this lane at high-speed causing stones to flick up and hit cars parked outside houses adjacent to the lane. We have installed a vehicle logger on this route to assess the level of use and shortly we intend to install some signs just off the main highway asking users to proceed with care along the track. We hope this will remind users to consider local residents and other users and will be monitoring the situation and talking to motorcyclists on site to encourage them to drive carefully along the route. Should this fail there is the potential to include this route on an Operation Blackbrook police day.

I hope that this information will help explain why it has been necessary to erect these signs. If you would like further information relating to this matter, then please feel free to contact me on 01298 84992 or by e-mail: lynn.burrow@peakdistrict.gov.uk

Lynn Burrow, Area Ranger, Peak District National Park Authority.