SYNED RAMBLERS PRESS RELEASE

WALKING CHARITY URGES PEAK PARK USERS TO LOBBY FOR STRONGER POSITION ON DAMAGING OFF-ROADING


For immediate Release                                                      Date:   30 January 2007

The Ramblers' Association (RA) is dismayed that one of England's finest national parks is turning a blind eye to damage caused by off-roading, despite having new powers to stop it.  The national walking charity is today (date) calling on users and residents to lobby Peak District National Park Board Members before footpaths and bridleways are turned into swamps.

Legislation was introduced by Parliament in April last year which will enable National Park Authorities to make traffic regulation orders to control motor vehicle use of rights of way.  Yet the Peak District National Park's proposed policy relies on voluntary restraint which counts on off-roaders agreeing not to use badly damaged routes during certain times of year.  The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has called this approach ineffective.

The RA is calling on the National Park Authority to uphold its legal duty to protect the national park and is baffled that it is promoting off-roading on tracks that are not designed to carry speeding motorcycles or long convoys of 4X4s.

Peak Park resident Bob Kelly said: "A track near me once popular with walkers, cyclists and horse riders is now a sea of mud following regular use by convoys of up to 20 4X4s.  On New Year's Eve a Landrover took two hours to go 100 yards because the conditions were so bad and in doing so did further damage.  The new Pennine Bridleway is being seriously damaged too."

John Harker, a volunteer with the RA, said: "It's appalling that the National Park Authority is putting the interests of off-roaders ahead of duty to protect the park especially when it can take swift decisive action to curb the problem."  

To get in touch with the Peak District National Park Authority please log onto www.peakdistrict.org.uk or send your letter to Tony Hams, Chair, Peak District National Park Authority, Aldern House, Baslow Road, Bakewell, DE45 1AE.  

Ends

For more information please contact the RA's Press Office on 0207 339 8531 or John Harker on 07929 051978

Sharon Woods,
Media Manager,
Tel: 020 7339 8531
                 
The Ramblers' Association - The charity working for walkers