After Chris Porter’s piece on the partisan nature of access arguments between different users groups drew quite a lot of ire, PC Harry Carpenter, mountain biker and Singletrack regular, got in touch to clarify the law that relates to you riding your bike on a footpath and how it’s very different to the laws that govern motorised off-road access.
“My name is PC Harry Carpenter, I work at Settle Police Station in the Yorkshire Dales. I work closely with the Yorkshire Dales National Park and have been quite proactive with regards to illegal off-road driving.
I’m also a keen mountainbiker and Singletrack regular so I’ve been reading with interest the recent “Access All Areas” articles. I think there’s a lot of positive stuff being discussed and I’d like to point out what we, the Police (well, at least in North Yorkshire) are doing about off-road use (and what we’re not going to do).
Firstly, cycling on a Public Footpath is not illegal, it is purely a Civil matter, trespass. The police won’t and cannot do you for it, only the land-owner can. Don’t confuse this with riding on the pavement (next to a road, you know, the safe bit) which you can be issued a fixed penalty ticket for.
There are specific laws covering trespass which have had to be brought in as there is no general law of “trespass” i.e. Aggravated Trespass, Hunt Saboteurs, Raves, Going for Game etc. but you’re not breaking those laws whilst Just Riding Along.
A park warden or land-owner could object and they can call the Police but there’s nothing the Police can do, they’d have to identify you and try and take you to court or get an injunction out on you, the practicalities of that aren’t worth thinking about.
In Scotland, anything done by a member of the public in exercising their access rights under the Land Reform Scotland Act 2003 does not amount to trespass.
Off-Road driving is a completely different beast, it’s covered mainly by Section 34 of the Road Traffic Act. NERC (Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006)allowed us to clarify the status of trails, in years gone by we couldn’t prosecute for driving on a number of our local Bridleways due to their inconclusive status, now we can.
Despite what a previous article suggested we don’t have a dedicated off-road team round here, nor a helicopter. We do carry out the odd joint patrol with the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA) Rangers but mainly we rely on members of public coming forward to complain about illegal vehicular use.
We have adopted quite a positive stance against illegal off-road use and we do seek to prosecute whenever we can. The Park is a naturally sensitive area but it does need protecting and unfortunately irresponsible vehicular use has caused a lot of damage in the past (Gorbeck prior to the repair work is a good example).
If someone does make a complaint to us we take a witness statement from them, identify the driver, interview them and report them for summons, they’ll then most likely end up at Skipton Magistrates Court.
Most off-road driving organisations can offer advice on routes, www.trailwise.org.uk is a useful mapping tool and a lot of local Councils now have their Definitive Map online, also the YDNPA lists the TROs in the park.
Any further laws restricting cycling would be very difficult to enforce, bikes aren’t registered to a user, you don’t need a licence or insurance – tracing the user of a vehicle can prove difficult at times, a cycle? I’m certainly not worried about it.
Cheeky trails ahoy!”
So, there we are. Just for your own enjoyment, here’s a link to the Countryside Rights of Way Act (2000), which makes for interesting reading.
If you work in the legal world and have a good grasp of the law then we’re quite keen to have a chat – get in touch at access@singletrackworld.com…
Replies (46)
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I was stopped by the police, cuffed, spent 24 hours in the nick, remanded for a week before ebing sentenced to being tagged, reporting to the local police station every 24 hours and 5 hours of community service daily for 10 weeks.
That’s aggravated burglary.for you, but never had a problem with cycling on a footpath.
I’ve read the article and comments – I don’t get it. It seems like the gist of it is that you can cycle on footpaths as long as you don’t cause any proper damage. But isn’t that true of Bridleways, i.e. if I set fire to a gate on a bridleway i’d expect to be liable for it’s replacement? I can’t see any difference between footpaths and bridleways – but there must be or they’d all just be called tracks (or something).
I have to cycle over private land on a regular basis in order to burn the houses of the rich and release mink from their farms..!!Whhooppss…what have I said!
“It seems like the gist of it is that you can cycle on footpaths as long as you don’t cause any proper damage.”
My understanding is that it’s a bit more complicated than that. You don’t have a right to be there, the owner of the land can ask you to leave by the quickest route, and the owner of the land is under no obligation to make access easy for bikes. What the owner cannot do is have you arrested.
The owner could in theory sue you for damages or obtain an injunction preventing you from trespassing – but both these measures are very unlikely to happen.
I would guess that what happens in most cases where cheeky use becomes a big perceived problem is the local authority makes a byelaw. Then everyone carries on merrily as before (see the “Ride Along Stanage Edge” thread, if it’s still up).
Spot on. Many thanks to the officer.
Shred, so wrong and so ignorant on so many levels. Where to start?