Rights of Way Office

Just had a interesting conversation with one of the council officials not planning on saying who, after being passed from pillar to post I got someone who at least new what I was asking about and although quite pleasant and as helpful as he could be the gist of the conversation was;

I can't be expected to remember all the routes with restrictions on them ( wasn't near his desk), the ones that have TROs will be signed as such don't drive them and the locals don't like it!

The more I do this the more obvious it become that the response from the ROW office of different councils seems vary from brilliant to appalling.

MrMayze said:

Just had a interesting conversation with one of the council officials not planning on saying who, after being passed from pillar to post I got someone who at least new what I was asking about and although quite pleasant and as helpful as he could be the gist of the conversation was;

I can't be expected to remember all the routes with restrictions on them ( wasn't near his desk), the ones that have TROs will be signed as such don't drive them and the locals don't like it!

The more I do this the more obvious it become that the response from the ROW office of different councils seems vary from brilliant to appalling.

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I've heard that some councils are excellent I remember somebody saying the row officer for the sailsbury plains, Wiltshire is excellent, friendly and helpful.

Really they should be happy and helpful to those who want to use the byways responsibly and not be some where they shouldn't...

Ive had some very different conversations with ROW departments in the last couple of years. Ranging from; not having a clue what I'm trying to achieve, not understanding the question and wanting to tell me i am the devils spawn and i shouldn't be allowed in the countryside in my car. :lol:

In my experience, Northampton are a pleasure to deal with, also all the info you need is online and updated as soon as a restriction is placed on a ROW or a UCR, you absolutely don't need to speak to anyone to see if a ROW is open(thats from the horses mouth as well).

Warwickshire are a bit backwards; you get through to a switchboard and if they can direct you to the right person you can talk to the ROW team for info about all PROW but they can't tell you about UCR's as they come under highways now (i still need to get a decent contact for warwickshire, but I'm working on it)

Leicestershire are the worst for knowing what I'm talking about. I called them about the LZ10 meet, i asked if they knew of any restrictions on lanes in the area and they said no, i got to some lanes and there were TRO notices on posts(didn't drive them obviously) called them again to ask and they hadn't a clue about them! :doh:

Sometimes the process is made unnecessarily hard, it is easy to see why people don't call to check these things as often the left hand does not speak to the right and either the wrong info is given or no info is given.

Only dealt with the Essex one - very helpful although through the website enquiry it took about a week to get through the the right person. For Cambs, Essex & Norfolk a lot of the information about TRO's is online anyway - not difficult to find using Google.....

I very quickley gave up with email enquiries, if its not on their web site its a phone call.

gloucsestershire row officer is very polite, helpfull no problems in this neck of the woods

channi said:

gloucsestershire row officer is very polite, helpfull no problems in this neck of the woods

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Is that the GLASS officer or the actual ROW officer at the council?

Ive been meaning to get down to gloucester to do some laning. Its the next county i haven't been to

rights of way, the glass rep john askew is ok though ive only contacted him through email,but their all good as gold down here

leeds is good, I dont even have to ring, email with the co-ordinates of the start & finish to the lane and they email back within 24hrs (usually same day)

In fact Leeds has a whizzy new map online that you can just get all the information you want off it. It even includes stuff like roads that aren't really roads but are used as such (permissive I think they call them) and Byways (plus permissive byways).

It's a lumpy file to use on your phone but a very useful bit of kit to look at on a proper computer.

NYCC is probably the best (North Yorkshire) as it has everything you could every want at your finger tips.

gloucestershire county council has a online mapping service too,even if you ring them with a one off query their really helpfull i cant fault them

DaninLids said:

In fact Leeds has a whizzy new map online that you can just get all the information you want off it. It even includes stuff like roads that aren't really roads but are used as such (permissive I think they call them) and Byways (plus permissive byways).

It's a lumpy file to use on your phone but a very useful bit of kit to look at on a proper computer.

NYCC is probably the best (North Yorkshire) as it has everything you could every want at your finger tips.

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got a link, cos Ive looked but not found it yet

Yeah, some are brill, some are sh1te .. that's why some of us are happy to lead a group, but not to just pass on laning info .. it takes a lot of tedium to get that info. There are some people I'd happily swap info with, people on LZ who've led groups elsewhere, for instance, or who give a lot back to the community.

Newbies etc might think I'm a bit of a sad old git, but I don't pass that info on to people I don't know. Nothing personal, I just have no idea how they'll use it .. no matter what they say!

The newer online mapping systems are a godsend, provided they are kept up to date, which many seem to be, and it's often to a website that I'll point someone I don't know and give them a clue how to get the info.