Forestry Commission Consultation--object to paying for Access

Rollin

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It was BHS who negotiated free riding on FC land in Scotland and this was re-inforced by Land Reform Act.

In 1997 when I moved to Scotland it cost me £45 per horse per forest to ride on tracks built for logging lorries. The local office sent me a charming letter each year telling me I could not canter in the forest, disturb nesting birds or light fires!! Forests I paid to ride in could be closed without notice.

Had I been a lager lout from anywhere in the UK I could have taken my bike to the forest, done 40mph on the downhill run and all for free and no nasty letter telling me how to behave!!!

I could say more about FC and Access. They really are pants.

I wish the riders of GB United every success - one of the many reasons I moved to France.
 

Gingernags

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We've got a form to send back from our yard about this.

I absolutely will not pay it and have refused to since I was about 14!

I used to regularly get stopped on the pony, and back then, I didn't have insurance or anything (we're talking 23 years ago
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) and the FC officers knew me by name, and I said I was still waiting for my Dad to sort the insurance (he worked abroad).

Then I thought about it. The next time I was stopped and asked if I had a permit - I told them no, I didn't and I refused to get one. They asked why and I said that if walkers, cyclists and illegal motorcyclists were using the woods - including the few bridleways in there - for free, then I wasn't paying. Its was discrimination and quite unfair.

They never argued, and never stopped me and asked ever again!
grin.gif
 

Shadowknight

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Not mentioned here is the scandalous case of Epping Forest...admittedly not FC but City of London, where we are charged £40 per horse per year...cyclists and other forest users pay nothing. Unbelievably it is a criminal , yes criminal offence to be caught without a 'tax' disc....you would have a criminal record with all the stigma that carries for riding your horse where horses have ridden free for generations.

There were of course the usual excuses/bleats from the city that this was introduced for the benefit of riders...that, as our horses' hooves eroded the paths, we should be the ones to pay. Mountain bikers plug completely free through mud I'd never take my horse through revelling in how filthy they are able to get...not giving a thought to how much they wreck their environment (they can always hose their mounts off in a handy car park after all). We are attacked by uncontrolled dogs, abused by pedestrians and made to feel as if we are merely tolerated in the forest while all the while subsidising it!
 
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