Here Pidgley Was Represented Track
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SOUTH EAST No. 106 June 2019 'Richwalker List' property developer thwarted in byway hearing amblers members Communities Act which sought to the county council's barrister. defending a Walton & limit the creation of new Byways Both the witnesses and numerous RWeybridge new byway Open to All Traffic. others who gave written statements order had to contend not only At a public inquiry at the end of praised the quiet rural nature of the with a wealthy neighbouring 2018, where Pidgley was represented track. Several had taken both their golf club boasting two 18-hole by a barrister, the Inspector children and grandchildren there for courses which hosts national appointed to hear the matter upheld country walks, later teaching them the Order, though excepting the and international competitions, to ride bikes in the absence of motor but also a well-known property short initial surfaced part leading traffic. developer who appeared in the to a council cemetery. Both the The objectors' claims of top 400 of the 2018 Sunday Times Ramblers and county council had 'predominant motor use' of 'Rich List'. anticipated the modification and the track were dismissed by the Tony Pidgley CBE, chairman won't oppose it. of the publicly-owned Berkeley The Inspector had heard evidence Inspector. The modified Order has Group, had appeared in person at from a dozen local walkers called by now been published but remains the 2015 Surrey County Council Ramblers Local Footpath Secretary open to High Court challenge for a committee which declared the Rodney Whittaker working with few more weeks. track to be a Restricted Byway with no rights for public motor use. Both he and the Burhill Golf Club own adjacent land and they Put paths first claimed that the 1,500 metre track, most of it unsurfaced, should his year's preserve its ancient vehicular a n n u a l rights. The Ramblers joined the Tg a t h e r i n g county council in opposing this, of the Ramblers' citing the provisions of the 2006 General Council Natural Environment and Rural The track where 'predominant motor use' was claimed. Photo: Rodney Whittaker held in Manchester on 13-14 April, gave unanimous backing to an Essex Area motion Getty application withdrawn asking the Board of r Tara Getty, grandson Trustees to increase of oil tycoon John Paul the publicity given to MGetty, has withdrawn our charitable aims his controversial planning and, in particular, the application for deer fencing work carried out by alongside a public bridleway, members to improve making the route appear private. public rights of way. The bridleway runs past Mr Len Banister, who Getty's farm at Ibstone in the proposed the motion Len Banister, Essex Area's Rights of Way Liaison Officer. Chilterns. Mr Getty wanted on behalf of Essex Area, to erect 1.8 metre-high deer said: "Ramblers have fencing alongside part of the to step in where local authorities are failing. We need to increase the route and then across it, install electrically-controlled gates, move large number of volunteers working regularly on path maintenance the bridleway off-line and create and make sure that the public appreciate what we do. Ramblers pinch points. The application should be known as the charity which looks after public rights of way. was opposed by a number of I look forward to the time when every gate and waymarker we install organisations including Bucks and every bridge we build bares our logo. All this will have serious The bridleway at the Ibstone farm. Photo: Kate Ashbrook Ramblers. implications for the distribution of funding for groups." 2 South East Walker June 2019 A Chiltern Journey n the autumn of 1874, the her walk, highlighting perhaps the then young and unknown mostly negative changes in Chiltern IRobert Louis Stevenson set wildlife over the years. out from High Wycombe on a While Gail Simmons walked all three day walk to Tring, staying the way, Stevenson hired a horse- the first night in Great Missenden drawn cart to take him on the final and the second in Wendover. He stage from Wendover. His playful wrote about his journey in an comment: "Tring was reached, essay published the following and then Tring railway-station; year in a magazine under the title for the two are not very near, the In the Beechwoods. It was later good people of Tring having held renamed An Autumn Effect and the railway, of old days, in extreme included in a collection entitled apprehension, lest some day it Essays of Travel published should break loose in the town posthumously in 1905. and work mischief" might lead us Almost 150 years later and to ponder on what he would have inspired by Stevenson's journey, made of HS2, especially as civil travel writer and journalist Gail engineering featured in his family Simmons has walked a similar background. He would likely agree Author Gail Simmons. route (Stevenson did not detail with the view held by a couple his precise route) and produced of Gail's interviewees, that once a less destructive and more direct an entertaining and very readable the requirement for HS2 to serve route avoiding the Chilterns could account of her experiences and the Heathrow airport was abandoned, have been devised, potential effects that the route of the HS2 high-speed railway will have on this part of the Chilterns, particularly between Great Missenden and Wendover. It also includes Stevenson's original essay. Published in May, The Country of Larks takes its title from Stevenson's comment on the abundance of larks he found throughout his journey: "Overhead The Country of Larks: A Chiltern Journey in the footsteps of Robert Louis Stevenson there was a wonderful carolling and the Footprint of HS2. Bradt Travel Guides, £11.99, ISBN 9781784770808. of larks which seemed to follow me as I went. Indeed, during all the time I was in that country the larks did not desert me. The air was alive with them from High Wycombe to Tring; and as, day after day, their 'shrill delight' fell upon me out of the vacant sky, they began to take such a prominence over other conditions, and form so integral a part of my conception of the country, that I could have baptized it 'The Country of Larks'. Our present-day writer did not see Sibley's Coppice near South Heath was once threatened. The HS2 route will now A HS2 work site near South Heath where trains will emerge from the northern one skylark until near the end of tunnel below it. tunnel mouth. Walking in New Zealand - is it different? n last December's South East Walker. safety. Interestingly, there is no equivalent DEFRA, National Trust, English Heritage to Department of Conservation sites, wild Peter Hallinan, a visitor to Essex of the Ramblers. No over-arching national and Youth Hostels Association, with camping is permitted unless otherwise from New Zealand, wrote about the DEFRA very much in charge. This is the I organisation, albeit many local walking advised. Throughout the national parks, differences between walking in his home New Zealand government's Department you must 'carry out what you carry in'. Not clubs. Think instead of a grand amalgam of country and here. Since then one of Essex of Conservation - responsible for the a litter bin in sight, so you know they mean Ramblers members has been to New access and enjoyment of the environment, it. Zealand and repays the compliment. not just its preservation. This results in The walking experience is simply For walkers, New Zealand must be well-maintained, waymarked trails in outstanding. The ongoing investment close to paradise. The biggest similarities each of the national parks. There are nine with the UK are in what walkers prize: an 'Great Walks', each a multi-day hike, with in trail maintenance is evident. While untamed outdoors, paths on high ridges, registered campsites and 'huts'. In all there waymarking is perhaps more basic than spectacular vistas. Superb though our are 950 huts (think of upmarket bothies), in the UK, consisting of coloured arrows own country can be, New Zealand delivers the largest of which have full time wardens, indicating direction held with two nails to a in spades. Imagine five million people at least for the summer. tree, much attention is given to the ground distributed over a land mass the size of the Beyond 'Great Walks', there are dozens underfoot. 'Benching' is commonplace UK. Then factor in a terrain sculpted by of tracks and trails throughout both islands. where the surface has been prepared to glaciers and erosion, rising to over 12,000 All are maintained and regulated, with come out horizontally from the hill. There feet, carrying on its slopes original dense online booking for 'Great Walks' and a are rope bridges aplenty across the frequent sub-tropical vegetation:tree fern, eucalyptus, first-come arrangement for other walks. gorges. Key to the walking pleasure, at least beech. Finally add the coast with its fiords, Accommodation for these lesser trails is on South Island, is the canopy of foliage long inlets (or 'sounds;) and ready water paid via vouchers pre-purchased in $5 which even on ridges gives shade from the transport. Finally the people, who are denominations. All accommodation has sun. As you walk by, the cicadas rise in incredibly welcoming and behave as if you some sort of toilet, long-drop included are the first visitors they have seen. Oh, (details withheld!) and a cold-only water clouds. Oh, and the birdsong is varied and and of course the climate, having a latitude supply, sometimes requiring treatment superb.