Tidying up doesn’t pay the bills Flossie. It’s not a beauty contest, living off the land. It’s hard work.
But I’ll tell all my relatives to tidy up a bit in cases some self important townie pops by to have a look. Wouldn’t want it to be untidy now would we. 🙄

So that’d make it ok to leave litter then?

Thing is, the Peak District is a national park and surely it’s everyone’s responsibility to do their bit, by closing gates, not leaving litter, picking up dog muck, and not festooning every bloody tree and fence with black polythene.

Who was talking about leaving litter?
Your post referred to visible signs of a working farm. On a tenanted farm like the one I grew up on the landlord (council, crown, whoever) would have powers to end the tenancy if the tenant farmer did not keep the buildings etc to a good standard. Much like in a residential tenancy I guess. Except urban dwellers don’t have strangers traipsing through their back yard and then complaining that it’s a bit untidy.
Leaving litter would be potentially dangerous to livestock so no-one whose livelihood depended on the health of said livestock is likely to do it.
In my experience most litter in the countryside is left by day visitors, not people who live there.

Leave all gates as you find them, end of discussion. (in my opinion)

I think that is a classic statement Custodians of the countryside my arse.Excellent.They are out there to make money end of story.See more wildlife in the town than you see in the countryside.Because they have screwed up the land for profit.Just look at how many bees you see in your garden not the countryside.

More of the normal ignorant STW twunts then. Go look up the cross compliance requirements and other hoops imposed on all UK farming businesses in terms of both gaec and smrs a breach of which is liable to financial penalty.

I had the best ever summer’s cycling (on the road) in my thirty years of riding during the foot and mouth ‘crisis’. The trampled fields became meadows of flowers, it was noticeably and oddly quieter without the sounds of domesticated farm animals. There were more birds, more butterfly’s…. I could go on.
Oh, and adding soda to animal feed to make the sheep and cattle foam at the mouth, was just jumped on by the inspectors who couldn’t take any chances and the government then pandered to the farmers by giving them more than market value for each one which needed to be slaughtered! Don’t tell me they genuinely give a crap about their animals, other than the profit walking around on four legs.
Ok so the tidy ones are tenants, the ones I’m thinking of can’t be and as for ‘too busy trying to make money to tidy up’ imagine if that happened in any other industry?

So Nipper,

Are you under the illusion that any other industry be it the building, medical, engineering etc etc are not subject to ridiculous amounts regulation and hoops to jump through???
Regulations which stop corners being cut and ultimately keep us as consumers safer?
I would utterly guarantee that if it wasn’t for the regulations imposed and enforced on the farmers, the majority would happily put the well being of their animals and the environment way behind that of greedily making as much profit as humanly possible.

If I couldnt ride my bike I’d still love the peaks and not spoil etc. Recently I met a 81yr old walker on WLT and his eyes were full of passion for our hills. Why fight or spoil? I’d gladly walk etc these hills. Just to be here. Hence I dont like the hate from any angle. If you stopped me riding here. I’d be here in some form. We are blessed to have this place for free.

Awwww Hora,

Thanks for that!
The Peak District (my home) is a truly beautiful place! Yes I do always leave nothing to show my passing but Maxxis tyre tracks or foot prints. I get as upset by visitors untidiness as residents.

no, not to the same degree as the farming industry. Do you actually know any farmers – do you know what the income for a farmer farming lfa land is? I do and most of them are working for well below what would be minmum wage. I have my graziers assosiation meeting at the end of this month, would you like to come along and explain to members where they are going wrong?

We are very lucky to have the Peak District and perhaps because it is so well-loved by different groups that feelings run a bit high.

Leave gates as you find them.
Many reasons for leaving them open.
Our tenants often leave corral gates open to make herding in easier, people frequently close these, penning stock into areas of limited pasture, no water and to be repeatedly spooked by the next group coming through.
Several gates at a time will be left open when gathering from the open hill and may be for several days whilst getting all stock in.
Some are on disputed FMD heft fences, they should be gone, but one awkward commoner is holding up its removal.
Those of us working the ground don’t like having to (leave the warmth of the cab) open/shut gates so leave them open where possible.

That is enough reasons for one post.

I know alot of Farmers in the Cotswolds with Range rovers/bloody expensive horses and much more.They spend more on shooting a year than i earn.Look around 😉

Thank you timber, but I suspect that your appeal for common sense is falling on deaf ears as long as there is someone to “hate”.

Err – wasn’t it you that started this thread by calling other folks **** and dickheads?

“Leave gates as you find them” – when you find an open gate, how are you supposed to know whether the farmer deliberately left it open or whether it was a walker/biker etc who couldn’t be bothered to close it?

I live close to a lot of farmland, and a significant proportion of the gates have notices asking you to close them because of livestock grazing. So it would not be too unreasonable to assume that, in the absence of a note on a gate in farmland containing livestock, that the farmer would prefer it too be closed?
Surely a farmer would be more inconvenienced by escaped livestock from an open gate than having to get out of his tractor to open a gate that was closed?

dobiejessmo – not all farming is the same, upland farming is pretty marginal, more and more upland farms are being abandoned, affecting the management of the hills for conservation and wildlife. Most upland farmers have a second job that is the greater income and the only thing they get to shoot is foxes become some city dwellers voted against social community fox control, but that is another argument.

Come off it nipper!
The only reason they aren’t earning a proper wage is because they are too thick to do anything else! They were left the farm in the family will (ie they were born into farming) and if they had half a brain cell they’d get another better paying job (as I did when my industry went down the pan!) or learn some better business acumen and make more money…. There are plenty, who’s s**tty farms I cycle through (on bridleways) who are clearly making it pay. Diversification…. Remember that?
Don’t blame it on the regulations which are keeping us safe!
Remember that farmer who took a trailer load of sheep to the RSPCA as a publicity stunt? Said he couldn’t afford to keep them? He could afford the brand new shogun and livestock trailer he was driving at the time!

Flossie, your ignorance is quite astounding. Offensive and hateful. Sleep well.

Hells bells, I wonder why none of them have thought of that before 😯 -most will have looked at diversification at one point- not everyone has that oppotunity or access to the capital required. The family farm is mostly a generational thing and is not simply an assett to be given up lightly but I guess that’s a difficult concept for you to grasp. Another ignorant keyboard warrior. I take it that’s a no for our graziers meeting.