I have written the following e-mail to Councillor Richard Edgell and Devon Highways....

Good day to you all

I was illegally detained on this road in 2009 (Saturday 12th Sept) along with 5 of my friends whilst we were attempting to ride down the lane from Bouchland Farm to the A377.

The Police log number was the date and 465.

The outcome was over a year trying to get the Northern Area Highways to persuade the owners of Bouchland Farm and their neighbours, Mr & Mrs Watts, to open the lane and to stop diverting or blocking it.

This lane is a legal right of way which the Northern Area Highways has deemed to have a dangerous exit onto the A377. This is absolute nonsense of course. I believe that the road further North, going to Braggamarsh House, is far more dangerous as it is right on the apex of the bend. I have taken quite a few riders along this UCR and there has never been a problem with the junction of the lane and the A377.

I can only presume that the owner of Bouchland Farm, and perhaps Mr & Mrs Watts, have decided to pay to have this lane TRO'd? If this is the case I would like the Highways and Traffic Orders Committee to have the lane logged to see how much traffic it gets along it before legitimate users of the lane are denied access by a TRO. This is a similar case to that of Whipples Lane - near Ermington - where the local HATOC had the lane logged to find that the use of the lane didn't justify the closure of it and the costs involved. Please contact Steve Gardner, Rights of Way Improvement Plan Officer DCC, (steve.gardner@devon.gov.uk) as he has plenty of vehicle loggers and has offered his services whenever a lane needs logging.

This would enable you to see if the 'perceived threat' is as bad as you are being led to believe.

I would also like to ask a few more questions....

1) Why should the owners of Bouchland Farm and their neighbours, Mr & Mrs Watts, Valle Vue, profit from the closure of the lane when so many law-abiding citizens would be deprived of this lovely lane?

2) If the TRO is successful, and if I am correct that the land owners are paying for it, then there will certainly be a challenge from several quarters. This would have to be defended out of the Devon County coffers and as a ratepayer/taxpayer of Devon I am aghast at the extra cost to me and my fellow Devon inhabitants. The Trail Riders Fellowship is already geared up for a fight ever since I was a member and got stopped on the lane. Please note that I do not belong to that organisation at the moment as this year I decided to take my trail riding to a whole new area, namely Mongolia. Please see www.joatmoa.com if you are interested.

3) Has the HATOC investigated how many accidents have been at this junction in the last 100 years? There is not so much traffic using the A377 now the North Devon Link road has been successful, so I suggest a good look back into the past is required. Please note that one incident will be my illegal imprisonment in the lane by Mr & Mrs Watts.

4) Has the HATOC looked into accidents at the junction to the North - Braggamarsh House lane? This would seem a much more likely lane to TRO.

5) I believe that, under the guidelines laid down by the Government, alternatives have to be looked into before the extreme case of a TRO is applied. Has this been done? I would believe that making the lane one-way (going up - SW) would be more agreeable.

6) Why have the motoring fraternity been singled out? If the lane is as dangerous as someone is insisting then the thought of a horse and rider exiting onto the A377 becomes almost unbearable. How about small children/infirm walkers exiting onto the A377?

7) Where is DCC finding the money to do this (if it isn't being funded by the landowners) when they are always saying they have no resources?

8) Are the landowners willing to pay for the long and protracted battle within the Law Courts if the TRO is applied without the correct procedure being followed or am I to assume that DCC will pick up the tab - £100,000, see question 7 above?

9) It is illegal to aggressively appropriate a highway. Why have the owners of Bouchland Farm been allowed to lawn and place kerbstones across the lane?

I look forward to your reply to this e-mail and all the questions it contains. The TRO at Whipples never happened because the right procedure wasn't followed and the HATOC realised they would be costing the DCC a lot of money had they continued. I am still waiting for answers to my questions from my robust defence to keep that lane open.

I look forward to meeting you on the 25th October at the HATOC meeting. I will be presenting all of these points, and more no doubt, at the meeting as I believe I have to right to say something before the meeting starts?

Thank you for your attention to this matter. As you can see, I am extremely unhappy that it appears that the 'gentry' are using money to make laws.

If any of you have time, take some of these points and write your own letter to Clr Edgell and Highways. The e-mail addresses are...

csc.roads@devon.gov.uk

richard.edgell@devon.gov.uk