revtothelimit - motorbike forum

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.

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

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.

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.