MOTORISED BYWAY USERS WIN VITAL LEGAL JUDGMENT OVER POWYS COUNCIL Great news for our members, after fighting passionately for what is right, we have succeeded in gaining this vital judgment and the Council has been shown to have acted unreasonably and wasted loads of precious taxpayers’ money in the process at a time of severely limited budgets. The parallel attacks of those selfish minority groups and local landowners who seek to have exclusive use of byways all to themselves have been completely unsuccessful in swaying the judgment of the judiciary. The Green Lane Association (GLASS), in conjunction with its two-wheeled counterpart the Trail Riders Fellowship (TRF) has secured a vital legal judgment over Powys Council in their battle to ensure that two well-known, iconic byways, known as Moelfre City and Water-break-its-neck are kept properly maintained and open to all users. A High Court Judge in Cardiff quashed two Permanent Traffic Regulation Orders on the byways, which, for decades, have been used by ramblers, horses and vehicles. Following years of neglect by the council and pressure from some minority groups of activists and local landowners, Powys Council had tried to close the routes to avoid their duty of maintenance - initially by an extended series of temporary orders and then eventually by a permanent order. A local resident, together with support from GLASS and the TRF, used an expensive Judicial Review at the High Court and, on October 3rd, in his written judgement, Mr Justice Cranston found Powys had acted incorrectly. The Radnorshire Committee, in making the orders, had responded to an officers report that told them it must make the orders to protect Powys in another separate and on-going case, when the possible reasons for such orders have to be quite specific. The situation was complicated, though, as a result of illegal obstructions on one of the routes that Powys Council had failed to deal with as the Highway Authority. Substantial costs were awarded against Powys Council and the case is estimated to have cost them and local taxpayers over £50,000, which is far greater than the cost of the repairs would have been. “Byways are part of our national road network and every person in the country pays taxes to maintain them,” says Martin Sullivan (PR Officer from the Green Lane Association). “We should no more accept their closure by Councils in an arbitrary attempt to save money than we should the M25 or the A1. They are Rights of Way and this judgment shows that the judiciary recognises the need to protect those rights and will force Councils to comply with maintaining them for the benefit of all users. The fact that some Councils seem intent on wasting more taxpayers’ money on attempting to close Rights of Way than it costs to keep them maintained and open is something that will outrage taxpayers the length and breadth of the country.” MPV USERS, PLEASE TAKE NOTE: However despite the removal of the TRO’s we would ask both 4x4 drivers and trail riders to use restraint on these two routes and avoid use in wet weather, or we could find that Powys CC have a new reason to place further TRO’s on them. We can only take action like this with your financial support. Please join us or contribute to our fighting fund. shop.glass-uk.org/index.php?act=viewCat&catId=6
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 17:46:28 +0000
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