YORKSHIRE DALES.

To add to the recent victory at Public Inquiry last October in getting Gorbeck Lane as Byway status(from Langcliffe to Malham) we can now add another successful Byway in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

This is Long Lane almost 3 miles long that runs from Helwith Bridge to the Stainforth/Halton Gill road( grid 816697 to 843715). All objections to Byway status have now been withdrawn and so no Public Inquiry will be needed. You can now alter your maps accordingly. Confirmation will appear in local papers by the end of February.

This Byway application like Gorbeck Lane was made by the Yorks Dales Nat Park with TRF evidence and support.

Adjoining Long Lane is Moorhead Lane at from 816697 to 835685 which is the subject of another TRF supported Byway claim. Objections to Byway status have not been withdrawn on Moorhead Lane and so a public inquiry is likely at sometime in the future. Presently Moorhead Lane has the status of a valid claim and so can be used at your own slight risk of course.

Future use will depend on the result of the Public Inquiry result. I will keep you informed. With only 24 miles of Byways in the Yorkshire Dales Nat Park (there should be 150 but never will be) we must cheer every new Byway we can get.

A total of 25 valid Byway claims exist in the Yorkshire Dales nearly all of them thanks to sheer hard work by a few TRF members. The status of Byway will have to be determined at some time in the future most of them involving a fight at Public Inquiry unless of course the objectors(usually the Ramblers Association) withdraw as they have on Long Lane. For once we can celebrate some good news with Long Lane as a new Byway safe for the future.

NORTH YORKSHIRE MOORS NATIONAL PARK There are no valid Byway claims in the North Yorkshire Moors National Park.

The TRF only had one success in NYMNP and that was a valid claim on the 3 mile Arden Bank(Hawnby to Kipwick)which I negotiated as a new UCR with vehicular rights confirmed in writing by the county council to save everyone concerned a lot of time and expense. The hostility shown by powerful landowners to TRF Byway claims was astonishing. The worst I have ever experienced in 36 years working for the TRF.

Public Inquiries usually brings out the worst in people and the RA have been known to stir everyone up beforehand with alarmist stories about scramblers churning up your local footpaths so if we can avoid them and yet quietly confirm vehicular rights its worth a try. I managed to do the same in Co Durham on Spitley Tongue in Upper Teesdale. It makes good sense to me.

The TRF did not do very well in the North Yorkshire Moors National Park and I apologise for the lack of valid Byway claims. We have had a raw deal and were tricked into thinking we had much longer to claim Byways. There is however some hope of saving a few which the National park are offering the TRF in a project if we can come up with the evidence per NERC which Matthew Wedgwood and I are working on.

BRIAN THOMPSON NORTHERN CONTRACTOR. JAN 23RD