West Yorkshire Green Lane awareness/education day

On Sunday 22 October the Green Lane Association in partnership with West Yorkshire Police and Peak Park Rangers, held another green lane awareness/education day in the Holmfirth area of West Yorkshire.

In attendance were a good turnout of Green Lane Association members, two personnel from West Yorkshire Police (complete with the Police Land Rover) and Gordon Danks (one of the Peak Park rangers). Unfortunately the tail end of storm Brian was also there making it a little wild up on the moor. This is an area which has, for some time, suffered from off-piste and illegal off-road driving and the various agencies involved are keen to work together to demonstrate that this is unacceptable and to do what we can to educate people as to their responsibilities when driving/riding our green lanes. We spent the day on one of the popular BOAT’s in the area talking to 4x4 drivers and motorcyclists regarding keeping it legal on the lanes, where they can and can’t drive/ride and how they can research what is legal to use. On these events we also like to talk to local people out walking themselves and/or dogs to promote the fact that we are trying to address an issue in the area and to inform them of what they can do if they witness illegal activity.

The day was a little disappointing in terms of the volume of 4x4/motorcycle traffic (possibly that was storm Brian’s contribution), however these days are also valuable in networking with the other organisations and building relationships. They are also seen as valuable PR showing that, where there is a problem, the Green Lane Association are working with all concerned to alleviate this. To this end, an article was published in the local newspaper (Huddersfield Examiner) reporting the days action. As the clocks have now gone back, heralding darker evenings and winter approaches, bringing wetter weather and muddier conditions the problem will reappear but the police have confirmed that if they start receiving more reports of illegal activity they will be happy to repeat the exercise. Watch this space.

Many thanks to all who attended and helped out at this event.

Alex Davidson, West Yorkshire rep