Thank you for the opportunity to express my concern about the introduction of discriminatory legislation towards vehicles using Rights of Way across the UK (Letters, November 11).
Unfortunately, your sub-editor made the classic mistake of referring to the routes in question as "bridleways and footpaths" when, in fact, the five per cent of routes available to vehicles are specifically designated Byway (open to all traffic) and Roads used as Public Paths (RuPP) - typically unsurfaced carriage roads that have been used quite appropriately that way for years.
It is misunderstandings such as this which led the Government to introduce this legislation, despite the findings of its own independent survey in 2003 which concluded that recreational use by vehicles has no significant impact on the countryside. It is heavy agricultural vehicles which typically cause surface damage.
Rather than come to a compromise solution which acknowledges the rights of all countryside users and works with them to tackle isolated problems, the Government has chosen to impose a blanket reclassification which specifically excludes leisure use of motor vehicles.
It saddens me that a democratic country seems prepared to accept such heavy-handed discrimination of any kind.
-Jenifer Morgan, Brighton
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