Roger Fairclough
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2010
- Messages
- 1,106
Roger, I'm not a "green laner" and I'm not even in the UK to experience it.
However, I do support maintaining the road system we have because it's a slippery slope for older less used roads, as you very well know and you are actively campaigning hard against closure of these less-used rights of way.
Just look at Beaching in the 1960's when he decimated the Railway Networks. Because the railways are not public rights of way and not Queens Highway, the general public had little say in the railway debate.
These roads are public rights of way and are the Queens Highway .
It's only a thought, but it is of course important to be lobbying the right people. A local authority with very tight budget constraints will have little option if there's no money in the pot, despite their feeble efforts to allocate some of the budget to these worthy projects, will be able to do very little however much they are lobbied.
I'm a member of the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CIHT) and it may be beneficial to express your concerns and objections to them. And, although it sounds twee and pompous, I would also suggest a letter to the Queen, it is her "highway" after all and she does have strong views on civil liberty and maintaining heritage, which essentially is what this is all about.
The problem is, although I would be pleased to open a post on the CIHT forum (of which I'm a member), because I have no idea of the terms you're using (GLASS, TRF, TRO, CROW, NERC) and even less idea of the process and procedures behind local authorities' obligations to maintain rights of way and their "escape routes" such as closures, if I did post an objection to the closures, I would enter into a subject I know nothing about and I would be lost to a continuing discussion.
It sounds as though I might be one of the millions that "tut tut" and say "what a shame", and end up doing nothing about it.
However, I'll gladly write a letter to Mark Stafford-Tolley Head of Legal Scrutiny and Democratic Services (Law and Governance), County Hall, Llandrindod Wells, Powys, LD1 5LG (plugging the address again) but I do think it may be beneficial for you to lobby the CIHT :
The Institution of Highways &Transportation
6 Endsleigh Street
London
WC1H 0DZ
UK
Good luck and success in at least slowing down the demise of these precious roads and rights of way.
As a PS, how would I go about joining GLASS?
pm on it's way Clive.
Roger