New green lanes?

[Horse]

If you ever head down very rural single track roads, it's not unusual to find that grass and weeds is growing along the centre.

I've often wondered whether there is a plan, or just sufficient neglect, that they will become 'green lanes' of the future. Particularly with access to many existing ones being lost or restricted.

This from the local news, effectively a road becomes a bridleway?

https://www.newburytoday.co.uk/news/no- ... a-9271146/

Lawrences Lane in Thatcham may become a no-car zone subject to the result of a public consultation.

West Berkshire Council is running a statutory six-month consultation on the implementation of the no motor vehicles restriction on this road.

The district council said Lawrences Lane has been identified as a “suitable site” to trial this restriction.

It is hoped that such an order will create a pleasant route for walkers, cyclists and equestrians between Cold Ash and Thatcham.


https://www.newburytoday.co.uk/_media/i ... NZ9YM4.jpg


https://earth.app.goo.gl/?apn=com.googl ... elRGcVEQAg


Full disclosure: there is a 'planning discussion' ongoing about land adjacent regarding non-permitted development that the council have put orders in place to stop. So a cynic might suggest that this proposed traffic order is another way to restrict access.

[PitaNaanRoti]

Also means they don’t have to maintain it in the same way so £££

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

It's not new, "The Lords Highway" in Creeting St Mary had it's vehicular rights removed over 30 years ago, it's a grand name for a narrow road between two churches, I used to use it to commute in 1983/4, it was great on a TS50, it's now pretty much a grass track with tarmac underneath, there's a few more round here like it.

[The Spin Doctor]

Oddly enough, as we bounced down a back lane that connected nothing with nothing else almost 40 years ago, my brother commented on the fact that the council were apparently no longer spending money on it. I suspect that many dead-end roads that only offer access to a couple of houses or a farm will be left to gently fall apart.