"Man at B&Q" wrote
I should wait and hear what the council has to say. In my experience they
are much keener on closing rights of way than opening them, and they may
even be sounding you out as an ally in trying to get the thing closed.
Our
council are also chainsaw happy and even tried a similar ploy, ringing up
people along our road to ask them if they found the trees a nuisance.
Luckily the locals saw through the deception and told them to leave the
trees alone please! Some of your residents may be using the track for
access: others might be campaigning to have it shut down. On the other
hand
it may be ramblers or horse riders who have complained of the conditions.
The 4Wheel Drive clubs are campaigning vigorously for access to all the
old
'green lanes' - thereby making them unusable to anyone else:

Horses are just as bad, even worse in that they can churn up the whole
width of a track rather than just leaving a couple of ruts.

And use for their original purpose - drovers' roads for driving herds of
cattle - is even worse!

Funnily enough, I didn't notice any of the Rambers, horsey types etc.
complain when local 4x4 green laners cut up and winched off the trees
blocking our local RUPPs after the '87 storm...

Dave H.
--
(The engineer formerly known as Homeless)

"Rules are for the obedience of fools, and the guidance of wise men" -
Douglas Bader