Green Lanes - Our Heritage
These pictures illustrates the appalling condition that a greenway that is composed of soft earth and peat can fall into when it is used by off-road bikes. In 2011 it was 'regraded' by the Dept. of Infrastructure after a rather long, heated debate with Maughold Commissioners. This track serves as an example to all of us of what will happen to a greenway if off-road motorbiking is allowed to go unchecked.
Extreme damage caused by off-road motorbikes and quad bikes. The Green Lane Users Group was set up to report to the DoI when tracks were becoming damaged, but completely failed in this respect. Annual photographic monitoring by the DoI would also have recorded and flagged up this track's deteriorating condition, as was required in the 2006 Upland's Damage report, but no monitoring has taken place.
How deep do the ruts have to become before a greenway is closed?
These pictures illustrates the appalling condition that a greenway that is composed of soft earth and peat can fall into when it is used by off-road bikes. In 2011 it was 'regraded' by the Dept. of Infrastructure after a rather long, heated debate with Maughold Commissioners. This track serves as an example to all of us of what will happen to a greenway if off-road motorbiking is allowed to go unchecked.
This greenway runs from behind the Glen Mona Hotel to the Black Hut on the mountain road. By 2005 the soft ground was becoming seriously damaged by off-road vehicles, but it wasn't untill 2011 that it was 'regraded' and 'repaired' by the Dept. of Infrastructure. It is no longer a greenway, but a brown dirt road running across the hills. This track will never recover. Unless it is closed permanently and the grass is allowed to grow back over the track again, the Isle of Man Govm't has allowed another of its greenways into the hills to be lost forever.