Devon TRF Group Forum

Hi,

I haven't ridden the lane, but am just about to move to the Hartland peninsula and have been studying the Devon C.C rights of way viewer. I appreciate that there is a disclaimer saying:

'The online version is a working map. It can be used for rough guidance and for leisure purposes, but do not rely on it without checking with us first. It is not the legal document and may be incorrect in small details'.

It does show the lane as ORPA for it's entire length. I also appreciate that not all ORPAs carry vehicular rights, but it is very unusual for one to have such rights for most of it's length and then, for no apparent reason, just stop (unless, of course, you hit the Devon/Somerset border!).

As we all know, RoW are frequently misleadingly signposted on the ground - tarmaced minor roads often have bridleway signage along them. As this lane joins directly into the bottom end of another lane it must be very tempting to believe the map and follow it all the way through. I certainly would have done so had I not read this post.

Out of curiosity, does anyone know why it suddenly loses vehicular rights and becomes a Bridleway?

11trailblazer wrote:

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We call this lane lundy view, named by "didn't need me thick jumper mike" 100 yards after the stream there is a gate that I'm fairly sure is marked as a bridleway, I don't think its an oversight or accident just ignorance that they don't turn around

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Thanks for your post Ross

Interesting info for sure, I confess to riding past the entrance to this lane before not actually riding it, Yep your right its a bridleway and marked/signed as one. 

If you do hear/see/know of anyone riding this bridleway please give them the heads up as the police will be informed on the next illegal riding of the bridleway

Hopefully it was just a 'one off' hiccup or local youngsters having a quick play

Anyways thanks

Ian  

Most of these dead end UCR's had a point or use usually to access a farm/buildings, just coz there is a farm North don't discount there being another farm just down the lane or bridleway as it is now.

We have other dead end lanes with remains of farms at the end of such a route, well before bridleways were even thought off

 

Quick update Devon PRoW are very happy with the rapid response and publicity on the subject from DTRF - Thanks,

Signs have been offered by DTRF either by paying or erecting our own

PRoW are happy to monitor the situation, however they do think it could be a one off mistake or local kids, farmer will probably have to take photos of the illegal rider/s then leave it to the police  

Cheers Ian 

I think the article below copied from the Byway & Bridleway 1999/7/55 publication may help explain why DCC may have tarmacked some farm lanes to help get the milk tanker in and out - thus resulting in dead end UCRs.

Discuss 

Brian

Where the tarmac ends.

Look to a little-known Act from 1955 to explain some of those road to

farm surfaced dead ends says Alan Kind

Forty-five years ago farming in Britain was

on something of a post-war roll and a decent

income could be had by many in the business,

if not all. While the constant sunshine of The

Darling Buds of May is probably fiction,

economic records suggest that Pop Larkins

cash-rich Kent lifestyle may not be too far

from the truth. As farming and forestry developed,

it was plain to see that the highway

system in more remote parts could not provide

the essential day-to-day communications.

Many minor (and some not-so-minor)

roads were still unsealed in the 1950s; the

move from churns to tankers and the need to

cut and ship softwoods in large quantities

soon flagged-up the inadequacies.

Enter Parliament and the Agriculture (Improvement

of Roads) Act, 1955 (Ch.20,

page 740): An Act to make provision, by

means of Exchequer grants and otherwise,

for the improvement of certain roads situated

in, or affording access to, livestock rearing

areas; and for purposes connected with the

matter aforesaid.

In essence, any county, borough or UDC

council (s.1(1)(a)) in England and Wales

(and this Act also extended to Scotland)

could submit proposals to the minister for

effecting an improvement on any unclassified

road or unadopted road in the councils

area. The road(s) had to be in, or giving

access to, a livestock rearing area (s.

1(2)(a)) and the improvement had to promote

the use, or the more efficient use, of

land in that area for any purpose of agriculture

or forestry. (s.1(2)(b)).

Interestingly, any proposals for improving an

unadopted road are conditional on the road

being adopted by the appropriate council, and

thereafter being recorded as a maintainable

highway (s.1(5)). But the councils are given

a specific power by the Act (s.1(6)) for the

easy adoption of roads in a proposal. By

simply posting notices on or near the road,

the proposer council may simply ... declare

it to be a maintainable highway and, by s.

1(6)(b)) any responsibility to repair on another

person by reason of tenure, enclosure

or prescription... shall be extinguished.

But this was not totally a free ride to the lane

ends for the landowner. S.3 allowed the proposer

council to ... enter into an agreement

under this section with any person willing to

contribute to the improvement; and the extent

of the contributions... shall be included

among the matters to which a council may

have regard in connection with any proposal

to effect such an improvement. The author

has seen a number of council highway committee

minutes where it was made clear that

landowners would be expected to pay a proportion

of any upgrade cost as a condition

precedent to an application being made to the

minister. Also, the private contribution payable

appears to vary depending on the current

condition of the road.

The draughtsman of the Act appears to have

anticipated the possibility of argument over

what constitutes a public road, be it publicly

maintainable or not. In s.5(1) an unadopted

road means a road which (whether it is a

highway or not) is not a maintainable highway;

and an unclassified road means a

road which is a maintainable highway but is

neither a trunk road nor a road classified under

the Ministry of Transport Act, 1919.

Examination of a range of council minutes

shows a high degree of pragmatism in the

operation of these provisions. Where a road

was already acknowledged as an unclassified

road and remember that there was no mandatory

List of Streets in 1955 then it was

treated as a publicly maintainable unclassified

road. Where the road was not then acknowledged

as an unclassified road it was treated as

an unadopted road and no inquiry made into

whether or not, in truth, it already carried

public rights. Public-not public did not seem

to affect the amount of landowner contribution

required: this appears to have varied on

extent and condition only.

That makes things a little clearer. It helps to know how things came to be as they are.

I understood that there was a need to improve ways as the use of the motor vehicle increased and a lack of funds meant that it was common for remote farms to have been given a tarmac upgrade to the main access route needed for delivery vehicles, but not necessarily every access way would be covered in tarmac.

After all the farmer would have a tractor or 4x4 vehicle and did not need all of the ways upgraded, and desirable as it may be it would not have been practicable or affordable to tarmac every road so it is common for roads through farms to have the tarmac end at the farm, although the way carries on through and beyond.

The current system of Rights of Way with it's rolling review visiting each parish at ten or twenty year intervals leads to the situation whereby people focus on the distinction between the maintained bitumen section and the remainder of the way and conclude based on the differing surfaces that the part with the poorer surface 'must' be a lesser way, although it was only lack of funds which led to the improvement of merely part of the route and the distinction dates from then whereas previously no differentiation had been applied.

In poorer areas the public purse carried the burden and the public now benefit from this whereas the better off landowners would have paid the cost and thus retained the right to call the way private so there are gaps in the green lane network for example in parishes like Morchard Bishop and Blackawton, although their network of ways is no less extensive than elsewhere public rights there-over have been lost as a result of a combination of parish ROW reviews and their application of the various acts of parliament attempting to lay down rules to clarify things. The ruling in the 2006 Natural England & Rural Communities Act that any way not on the List of Streets shall have it's vehicular rights extinguished changed the green roads network at a stroke as the public motor user became excluded from every way previously used by the public but maintained by the landowner meaning ways always driven along as of right became in effect Bridleways, albeit called Restricted Byways now.

Had the funds been available I have no doubt the whole network would have been covered in tarmac when it was invented some time after the proliferation of the motor car so the lack of finance did us a favour by leaving many green roads unimproved and unspoiled. Better dead ends than no ways at all.

I can't remember if there is a Bridleway sign at the ford between Blegbury and Blagdon but the rules dictate that ROW signage should be placed at the nearest metalled road so I would not expect any there. Much confusion has been created by this rule as it means Bridleway signs are set at the end of unsurfaced UCRs which become, or link to, Bridleways part way along, with no reminder required by law at the actual point of transition from road to Bridleway so it is possible the riders simply do not know the status of the way changes there, and if they saw the Bridleway sign at the start of the UCR would have known that it did not correctly describe the way into which it points. DTRFG has been instrumental in clarifying a number of such instances by the addition of 'To' stickers on Bridleway or Footpath signs at the start of green roads which link to lesser ROW.