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Just saw from the link this is in Dorset. Where about? I have had nothing but excellent responses after filling in the on line forms numerous times over the last few years. Always sorted quickly and kept up to date with swift action if the landowners ignore the request clear the RoWs.
I also started strimming the local mtb track 'cos it was un-rideable. Met the guy who was contracted to be doing it in the process! Gladly let him carry on and get on with him fine anyway so now it's clear.
I don't take tools out on long rides but will remove the odd overhanging branch etc.
Just go and clear it, if you get any problem with the landowner or his staff give a false name or just walk/ride off. I doubt the police will come just for someone clearing a path so no one will ever know your name to prosecute if that is a worry
no advice to give, but I was arrested (and usually subsequently de-arrested) for aggravated trespass with tedious regularity pre- hunt ban, so the subject is quite nostalgic! A clear demonstration on where the allegiance of Essex/Suffolk constabulary lay, or at least which hunt the chief super belonged to.
Having checked the link as others did, i'd say taking a full sized rotovator on to a bridleway to clear is a bit OTT, unless you have sought the landowner and/or ROW officers permission, i was thinking you were more about some secateurs, lopers or a trimmer at most, but a rotovator is a tool i'd be using to create a bridleway or path through a wooded or grassed area.
Would definitely make more sense to offer a service around your area to 'assist' landowners in carrying out their duty of care for RoWs on their land, and those that reject this offer without an alternative would be worth then raising to the RoWs Officer.
As others have said, dark green jumper, hi-vis, quiet tools, start in the middle and work out, only as wide as you need, look official, clean up as much as you can after yourself and if stopped, accepting it and move on (and consider an alias if asked for a name).
Surely the easiest way to clear a trail is offer some neds a bottle of buckie to rag their motobikes up and down it a few times?
Will also just mention that during nesting season, March – end of August, hedges, trees and bushes shouldn’t be touched*, hence why councils, farmers and landowners won’t cut them during that time.
This thing about nesting birds is increasingly used as a diversion imo - if the foliage wasn't allowed to overgrow RoWs in the first place then the birds wouldn't be nesting there.
Our local development trust has taken on insurances - and some simple risk assessment / SOP's for doing work like this.
You can now volunteer with them and they cover all sorts of work the council would do - repainting benches or railings, clearing paths, repairing water damage on paths, maintain street planters etc. All stuff that is 99% hand tools and some labour.
It works with the powers that be and landowners, and is a good way of local development trust getting the windfarm funding every year. It has become quite a social club for some of the retired folk.
https://dunblanedevelopmenttrust.com/what-we-do/paths-and-maps/
Thing is foliage doesn’t grow much sept-feb, so a good cut back over winter is needed, still the risk of it growing back to cause an issue in spring
It is - a tad 'exclusive' at times, ahem, but it works well.
The only powertools are simple things like drills, as the council wanted the LANTRA (?) qualifications for strimmer's and reciprocal saws for branch removal.
A couple of the landowners still seem rather reluctant, but at least improvements are made where they can be.
Having relooked at the link I'd agree with Grum, this
is taking things a bit far without anyones permission
Yeah, very commendable work in clearing what you have, but maybe tone down the machinery aspirations.
“ @matt_outandabout – that looks like a really good setup” - agreed
Where I am the ramblers do some good stuff (* and have kit, training, dayglo, “authority support and contacts” etc etc) but I suspect I’d have to be a member (which I don’t want to do), to go on their work parties.
Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 section 13 1 a
Might apply if any plants in schedule 8 are destroyed.
It strikes me as pointlessly confrontational to go onto someone's land with machinery without their permission, particularly when you know it's not welcome.
Land owners that don't want to encourage more people to cycle and walk about on their land rely on a bit of overgrowth to limit it, do the minimum until the council forces them and so on, the last thing they want is someone taking control of it and encouraging more pesky mountain bikers.
I'd exercise diplomacy and speak to the council and see what can be done before doing something that could cause conflict.
If it's the Council's duty to clear vegetation growing on the ground on a PRoW, then the way forward for the OP, I suggest, is to offer his services to the Council on a voluntary basis. I would start by approaching a Councillor, not a Council Officer, as the best way to avoid being blocked by a jobsworth, as once that's happened there's no way back.
You can clear most stuff with a thickish whacking stick, forget the machinery and rules, just walk it regularly with an appropriate length of branch and fling it about. Nobody will stop you for that.
My lunchtime loop has a 400m section that's impassable in summer due to nettles. I used to get angry, now I wear winter gloves and long shirt and trousers. Every time I go through it, I snap the nettles and brambles that get in my way using my hands. Because I've snapped them near ground level, they can't come back quickly.
Over the last month spending 5 minutes a ride has made it passable to walkers. I previously spent a couple of hours with a weed whacker but this seems more effective and I don't feel guilty doing it in full view of the farmhouse at the end (the farm are pretty good, they cut it back every winter but it grows back during the summer).
I could clear it all in an afternoon with a lawnmower and hedge trimmer but that would take more than 5 minutes and would probably piss of the farm and the owners of the horses in the field next door.
Youve already broken the first rule of trail clearing.
If you clear the trail with a petrol-powered unit the landowner will likely hear you from a mile away. You’ll probably end up in some sort of altercation which could be far worse than a trespass charge.
Get something electric or manual if you’re going to do it!
consider an alias if asked for a name
My cheeky riding alias (if I ever need it) is Michael Souris (it's Latvian originally). My false address is a random number on the street where I lived as a kid, so the postcode would check out.
🙂
Mine is dannyh off singletrackworld
I'm curious..why the need for a false name and address??
Mine is dannyh off singletrackworld
Too much of a well-known arsehole, you'll get in trouble.
I’m curious..why the need for a false name and address??
I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you. Plus I like the faux jeopardy.