Published at 10:18, Friday, 06 June 2008

CHILDREN are putting their own and other lives at risk by using powerful motorised scooters on tracks through Slaley Forest.

Group spokesman: Maggie Kyte

That’s one of the consequences of opening up BOATS (Byways Open to All Traffic) in the forest, according to the Allen Valleys Action Group.

Group spokesman Maggie Kyte said this week: “Insofar as AVAG understands the law, children are not allowed to drive motorised scooters either on a public highway or off a public highway, without the landowner’s permission.

“It is reported that children regularly drive motorised scooters at a speed which is dangerous to other members of the public, both on and off BOAT in Slaley Forest.”

She also noted that during the three and a half years since confirmation of the Slaley SET of BOATs, a police presence had almost never been noted in or around Slaley Forest.

And Mrs Kyte warned that Slaley was being primed to become the BOAT Mecca of the North East.

She said: “It has connections from its western fringes, along short stretches of tarmac, to the Broad Way, a 10km long claimed BOAT currently under appeal.

“This makes a high altitude traverse of the heather moor and blanket bog of the Hexhamshire Common sector of the North Pennines Moors.

“This route is currently used both by trail bikers and by drivers of four- wheel-drive vehicles, and I understand a user website has already been posted.”

It is now routine for trail bike groups to commence using Slaley Forest tracks at 9am on a weekend morning until evening sets in.

There is now an interconnected network of approximately 13.8 miles of BOAT, roughly centred, on the Ladycross Quarry public car park.

Although most of the network is 60 feet wide – wider than a dual carriageway – many off-roading trail bikers take to the woods on their machines, according to the group.

Mrs Kyte said: “A significant contingent of trail bikers does not enjoy the use of a broad surface-remediated highway ribbon.

“So they opt for more challenging exploits OFF-BOAT, and amongst standing trees, and thus, indeed the habitats of protected species such as red squirrels and nightjars.”

The Slaley BOAT network was confirmed in October 2004, after three public inquiries, when off-roaders produced conclusive evidence that the roads were used by the public in horse drawn carriages in 1771.

The Slaley BOAT SET extends over Embley Fell to the west of the Forest and to Penny Pie, Blanchland and to the east of the Blanchland – Slaley road.

Renewed interest in the network has been sparked following remedial work carried out on parts of it by Northumberland County Council.

Mrs Kyte explained that a BOAT can legally be used, in all weather, and under all conditions of track surface, by all classes of Recreational Mechanically Propelled Vehicles, and the roads have the same speed limit as major roads.

A stop can be put to use by motorised vehicles by imposing a Traffic Regulation Order, (TRO.)

Mrs Kyte said: “Voluntary traffic bans can also be imposed, but one on the Gingleshaugh Road BOAT, within Slaley Forest, was continuously breached by groups of trail bikers last year.”

Slaley Forest is identified both by Save our Squirrels and by the Forestry Commission as one of the seven red squirrel sanctuary forests of Northumberland.

The BOAT SET extends into the vital “buffer zone” for the Slaley Forest sanctuary.

The Slaley Forest to Penny Pie BOAT traverses heather moorland which is protected under some of the most stringent conservation legislation in the world.

Mrs Kyte said: “Use of the Penny Pie BOAT by RMPVs has shown significant increase and wear and tear has increased on the hard core track.

“The condition of vehicles used by the Blanchland Moor shooting syndicate is thereby being affected. The shooting syndicate has been forced to undertake its own remediation works.”

Embley Fell is an important black grouse habitat while another BOAT extends to the Devils Water where there are records of otter habitats. There is, on the western fringes of the Slaley BOAT SET, ancient broad-leaved woodland recorded as a Site of Interest for Nature Conservation (SINC).

Despite the importance of these habitats, they were deemed irrelevant by the planning inspectorate during the three public inquiries.

Mrs Kyte pointed out that a landowner is required to remove all illegal obstacles from a public highway.

She said: “The Forestry Commission had unwittingly planted timber over some of the no longer claimed or used ways of the 1771 Bulbeck Common Inclosure Award, with the result that timber not yet ready for harvesting has come down.

“The Forestry Commission is required, in future years, to remove further stands of timber from other, as yet uncleared lengths of BOAT through the forest.”

She said there were many questions about BOATS that needed to be answered, such as the cost of remedial work, the threat of loss of bio-diversity and the effect of noise from RMPVs on ground-nesting birds.

She went on: “One of the remits of the new Natural England is access to the countryside and health.

“The loss of tranquillity and the effective loss of routes for walkers, pedal cyclists and horse riders, within Slaley Forest and in its environs, have not been addressed by Natural England.

“Since the confirmation of the Slaley BOAT SET in October 2004 it would appear that both the county council and the Forestry Commission have done all that is either within their powers, or within their budgetary scope, to facilitate the use of BOATs.

“Perhaps the general public which perceives a loss of amenity in Slaley Forest and its environs, should become engaged in presenting a wide range of questions to a wide range either of relevant public bodies, or of those national government organisations which receive public funding.”

Published by http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk