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RIDER RIGHTS

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The Governement should sycamore rider-friendly policy !

Save England from Natural England

- The so-called bridle gates they have installed do not conform to British Standards and are so dangerous as to have caused several accidents, one of them serious.

- NE assurances to immediately address any concern about these gates have come to nothing. As a result, the number of riders (and walkers) using the newly enclosed moor have decreased by an estimated 75%.

Craig Weatherhill and PaddySays Craig Weatherhill

The problem we face is that no one in authority has the will to hold Natural "England", "English" Heritage and their equally unholy partners to account for their blatantly unlawful practices.

Down here in West Cornwall, NE and its partners have been guilty of breaching the Highways Act, the CRoW Act, the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act, and have even committed criminal trespass. Supposedly protected heritage sites have been serially damaged by the activities insisted upon by NE, with the collusion of EH, which appears to have no concern for heritage sites other than those they can make a profit from. Access for the disabled, wherever possible, has been utterly ignored by NE. The totally unelected NE also ignored calls by duly elected bodies such as St Just Town Council and the former Penwith District Council to cease their unprecedented works of enclosure.

The so-called bridle gates they have installed do not conform to British Standards and are so dangerous as to have caused several accidents, one of them serious. The BHS has condemned every one of them.

NE assurances to immediately address any concern about these gates have come to nothing. As a result, the number of riders (and walkers) using the newly enclosed moor have decreased by an estimated 75%.

We have a current case involving an area of moorland which is entirely Scheduled Ancient Monument and Registered Common Land. It is also Open Access Land under the CRoW Act. Already some items of infrastructure have been installed without any Ancient Monument Consent or application for permission required for Registered Common Land. It is proposed to obstruct a prescriptive path, by fencing across it, set up 25 years ago and used by hundreds of people every year. And no one in relevant authority gives a damn.

That NE's core agenda is the enforced enclosure of open land, not only in West Cornwall but, it seems, everywhere; and is sinister in the extreme. Exclusion of the public from these areas is intended and being achieved by active discouragement. It smacks of the infamous 19th century Enclosures Act, but repeated by stealth.

It seems that the only way to combat this is to press central government into abolishing these superfluous quangoes. If the government is serious about cutting costs, then it needs to be convinced that there is no need for two tiers of administration in the fields of landscape and heritage. Every county and region already have their own local tier in these fields, and that (combined with essential local knowledge not possessed by the centralised quangoes) is the way forward without the burden, expense and "Big Brother" influence of the big quangoes. It is also the way forward if David Cameron is in the slightest bit sincere about his stated policy of "localism".

We somehow have to get every MP on board with this, with a combined and powerful call for the complete abolition of Natural "England" and "English" Heritage, and the devolution of their powers and funding to the counties and regions. We know that Ian Liddell-Granger MP (Exmoor) has called for the abolition of NE; and George Eustice MP here in Cornwall has done likewise in respect of EH. We need more of them - a whole lot more.

Do you agree with Craig Weatherhill ?
Have you got other examples of Natural England's shocking treatment of riders?
Please e-mail us and let us know

Says Steve Yandall

Says Steve Yandall Could I add to Craig's email the NE breaches of disabledlegislation.The breach of contract, and law, in failing to use BS hardware.The breach of contract in failing to abide by the rules of grant funding.Their failure to abide by the Aarhus Convention.Their failure to abide by their own policies.Their failure to achieve the benefits for which funding was supplied.Their failure to manage and apply science correctly.Their failure of duty of care in releasing staff names, addresses, bank details. Using false information to generate public support.

Were I not such a generous soul I would be thinking that NE were running riot in a very similar way to the adolescent rioters of this Summer except the 'fires' and damage are to our heritage, our exchequer, our respect for authority and humanities future!!!!!!

Your email made me wonder if the Tax Payers Alliance would be interested in the huge drain on public funds, with little benefit, being made by NGO's?

I pine for a more sensible approach to saving our forests

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