The work we have been doing over the last 18 months on theDeregulation Bill has paid off. We have not got the Bill amended to protect green lanes (we never expected to achieve this). But the tactic of repeatedly tabling an amendment calling for government action, and threatening to interfere with the smooth passage of the Bill by dividing the House if we did not get it, has worked. New legislation to protect green lanes is back on the political agenda.
The government has a) acknowledged that there is a problem, b) has accepted that something must be done about it, c) has agreed to set up a motor vehicles working group to advise it, and d) has said there will be full public consultation after the group has reported.
The group will be set up ‘on completion of the passage of the Bill’. We take this to mean early this year. We pressed for this, for the group to have a limited life (18 months has been agreed), to be free to produce majority and minority reports if necessary rather than having to reach a consensus, and to include representation from the National Parks, the Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the National Trails.
The working group will have an independent Chair and a secretariat organised by Defra and Natural England, ‘will contain a balance of interests across all sectors’, ‘representatives of users of rights of way’, will set its own terms of reference, and ‘will be expected to look at all the issues in the round and include assessments any economic and social benefits of the current use of unsealed roads as well as an assessment of costs and burdens’.
We have been working with the Green Lanes Protection Group (GLPG) on the Bill. PDGLA is a member of GLPG and we expect GLPG to be represented on the working group.