A more mis-informed than usual article has appeared in this month's Private Eye magazine regarding off-roading. Text from article as follows, OCR'd so mistakes might be present;
---------------------------------------- A CURIOUS episode in Wiltshire again highlights the strangely intimate relationship which exists between council officials and the lobby groups which campaign for country footpaths and bridleways to be made accessible to vehicles such as motorcycles, quad bikes and off-road
4x4s.
In recent years the bikers have caused increasing havoc on hundreds of such "green lanes", and their aim is to get as many as possible "upgraded" from RUPPs (roads used as public paths) from which vehicles are barred, to BOATS (byways open to all traffic).
When a Mr Bill Riley applied to Wiltshire County Council for vehicles to use a narrow, leafy "green lane" in West Grimstead, the villagers who enjoy walking down the footpath were horrified. 4x4s would inevitably tear of the branches of protected trees, gouge out the steep banks and churn the footpath's surface to mud. But officials of the council's rights-of-way committee nodded through Mr Riley's application without even a site visit.
It then turned out that Mr Riley had a rather closer association with these officials than had been clear. It seemed he had often put in such applications before, either privately or representing the Trail Riders Fellowship, a body innocuously described on the council website as promoting the "conservation of heritage of green lanes". On its own website, however, the TRF rather more honestly admits that it is for people who "enjoy exploring green lanes by motor cycle". Mr Riley had also, it seemed, been consulted by the council on such issues many times.
When council representatives were challenged on their relationship with Mr Riley, the rights of way manager merely claimed that he "assists the council as a voluntary researcher". The council's chief executive, Dr Keith Robinson, denied even this, stating unequivocally that "Mr Riley is not consulted by the council". The chairman of the regulatory committee, however, was rather more forthright: Mr Riley is "consulted on every application".
At this point Dr Robinson backtracked, explaining that Mr Riley was not consulted in his "private capacity" but only as representing the Trail Riders Fellowship. He refused to clarify the position further. A bemused councillor commented that Mr Riley seemed to be acting as "batsman, bowler and wicketkeeper" all at once.
So enraged were the villagers by all these evasions and contradictions that they complained to the local government Standards Board, which replied that, since the decision to upgrade the lane had been made by officials, not councillors, it was not their business. The Audit Commission also declined to get involved, saying that such matters were the responsibility of the local government ombudsman. He replied that it was not in his remit either. So they then wrote to the minister, Jim Knight, who also said it was the responsibility of the ombudsman. When they went back yet again to the ombudsman, quoting the minister, they were told the matter would now be given "further consideration". Meanwhile, as one body of officials after another passes the parcel, the villagers of West Grimstead grimly await the day when the first convoy of 20 bikers roars its way down their green lane, chewing up its grass and wild flowers into a sea of mud.
----------------------------------------
A letter has been written to them.