4×4 Magazine UK – August 2019

70 | AUGUST 2019 4x4

SURREY LANE USERS FIGHT

BACK AGAINST VANDALS

WITH MULTI-AGENCY DAY

OF ACTION

MEMBERS OF THE Green

Lane Association recently took

part in a Day of Action on a

prominent Surrey byway. Illegal

off-roading by a small number of

bikers and 4x4 drivers has long

been a problem in the county,

and the GLASS volunteers were

joined by representatives of

the Trail Riders Fellowship, the

Forestry Commission and the Mole

Valley Rural Crime Unit as well

as National Trust rangers, Surrey

County Highways and Rights of Way

Offi cers and police on both trail

bikes and horseback.

They were also joined by a

barbecue, allowing them to hand

out more than seventy bacon

sandwiches during the course of

the day. Evidence that the way

to a green laner’s heart is indeed

through his stomach...

The event, which started as an

idea suggested by GLASS Surrey

Rep Stuart Boreham at a local

access committee meeting, gained

traction when it was taken up by

Surrey’s Rural Crimes policing

unit as part of its county-wide

‘Dragnet’ operation. In the end,

three full teams spent the day

stationed on sites that were

expected to have some of the

heaZiest motor Zehicle traffi c.

These were Frensham Common,

Sheepwalk Lane and Wolverns Lane.

The idea was to try and engage

positively with the lanes’ various

user groups, rather than dishing out

the nanny-state behaviour many

of us have encountered. Readers

who use public rights of way well

may have ‘enjoyed’ the experience

of being treated with suspicion, or

indeed as downright criminals, by

police offi cers on this kind of spot-

check duty.

It would be fantastic to report

that as a result of the day’s

activities, a group of irresponsible

4x4 users was caught red-handed

and the book was thrown at them

in a very public manner – or even

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