BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Why are rural golf courses open, but not rural rights of way?
Why isn’t Grizedale forest closed to everybody? Outdoor users can’t enter, but 80 or so Forestry Commission workers are busy harvesting. And where do most of these workers come from? Longtown, near Carlisle, the epicentre for FMD.
Why is it that farmers affected by FMD can claim compensation at 30 percent of the market value of the beasts they have culled, but non-farming companies impacted by FMD get no such cash handout?
Why are rights of way closed to cyclists and walkers – who pose a low risk of spreading FMD – but high-risk inter-farm deliveries are still allowed through?
Why didn’t anybody kick up a fuss when the Grand National was allowed to be staged? And how come the winner – which was a horse from a farm in County Durham, where FMD is rife – was allowed to travel?
Scientific advice says the majority of trails can be safely re-opened so why aren’t local authorities being leant on by central government to open their rights of way network?
Why, when the impact of FMD on outdoorsy and rural tourist businesses, is getting worse, are plans not in place to roll out interest-free loans for those adversely affected?
Why ‘one rule for them, another rule for us’?
Please feel free to use any or all of these questions in letters to the DTI, the Countryside Agency, the Rural Taskforce, the Prime Minister, the DETR, national and local newspapers, and your constituency MP.
