Stretch of local cycle route has become almost unrideable. It is part of the Moors to the Sea cycle route in North Yorks and advertised heavily as a family route. Bits of it were torn up by some private forestry work about 2 years ago and all of it has been ridden illegally by trailbikes - I met 8 of them blasting through it on Sunday morning in the mist.
As a result the parts of the surface that was firm chippings has regular water filled potholes and some more extensive lakes some of which are about 30 foot across and up to 18 inches deep, and the section that was doubletrack on sandy clay has closely packed ridges and foot deep ruts running parallel to the direction of travel with regular deeper trenches where the trailbikes have spun their back wheels in.
I have managed to establish that the stretch in question is in fact an unmade road and comes under the jurisdiction of the local highways department - even though to look at it it looks for most of its length like singletrack through some woods. The Moors authority say it is outside their jurisdiction and the area office for the highways forwarded my email to County HQ saying that HQ "were reviewing policy in this area". That was 9 months ago. I have seen 2 cracking accidents during the summer of people losing wheels down one or other of the trenches.
Anyone know how I take this further? Anyone on STW have experience of rights of way issues? Anyone know if the council have a legal obligation to do something about this? Anyone aware of a group in North Yorks with an interest/some influence who might be interested in taking this up? Anyone able to give me any pointers for my next round of communications with the relevant authorities?
It seems strange to me that they can indicate that it is a road on their county map on the internet but allow it be damn near impassable - it is certainly unrideable for the likes of me and if at all greasy fairly difficult to even stand up in places.
Grateful for any advice.
