§ Mr. LaxtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what discussions she has had with Her Majesty's Royal Engineers on the maintenance of unsurfaced roads when drafting the consultation paper Use of Mechanically Propelled Vehicles on Rights of Way; and what plans she has to do so during the consultation; [159714]
(2) on what basis her Department decided to reduce the time for the classification of highways to one year; [159715]
(3) how much the Highways Agency has spent on the maintenance of unsurfaced byways (a) in 2003–04 and (b) over the last decade; [159716]
(4) how much recreational traffic on unsurfaced roads has changed in the last decade;[159717]
(5) what (a) evidence her Department has collated and (b) investigations it has carried out, on (i) the level of motorcycle use of unsealed roads and (ii) the extent of the damage this has caused; [159718]
(6) whether her Department examined the Hierarchy of Trail Routes in the Lake District National Park and how the scheme could apply to the maintenance of unsurfaced roads when drafting the consultation paper Use of Mechanically Propelled Vehicles on Rights of Way. [159719]
§ Alun MichaelAs set out in the recent consultation paper "The use of mechanically propelled vehicles on rights of way," I consider it inappropriate and unsustainable that historic evidence of use by horsedrawn vehicles or dedications for vehicular use at a time before the internal combustion engine existed can give rise to rights to use modern mechanically propelled vehicles. I have proposed that this should no longer be the case, but that a period of one year might be allowed for the recording of byways open to all traffic based on such evidence. I will consider carefully the responses to these proposals.
As explained in the consultation paper, we intend to revise the advice andguidance on managing the different sorts of traffic on vehicular rights of way in the publication "Making the Best of Byways (1997)". In doing so, we will examine the Hierarchy of Trail Routes in the Lake District National Park and how a similar approach might improve the management of unsurfaced roads elsewhere. We will also look at various techniques for maintaining unsurfaced roads, including those used by Her Majesty's Royal Engineers, which have been applied with some success on the Ridgeway National Trail. The consultation paper invites views on any other ways in which "Making the Best of Byways" might be revised.
Local highway authorities are responsible for maintaining rights of way, not the Highways Agency. Information on how much these authorities have spent on the maintenance of unsurfaced byways could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
3WWe are currently conducting a year-long study of a representative sample of byways open to all traffic, to collect evidence of the level of use of these ways by mechanically propelled vehicles and their surface condition. What is important and what we want to establish, is not how much the volume of traffic has changed, but what it is now and whether it is sustainable.