Ah yes,
The Peak District. The only place in the UK (other then
Dartmoor) where the local National Park Authority have seen
fit to make it a criminal offence, carrying a fine of up to
£500, for anyone cycling on a path other then a 'green
lane' or bridleway... This covers all 'access' land in the
Peak District.
I tried to find out more about the whys and wherefores of
this bye-law and was consistently fobbed off and lied to by
the Peak Park Authority. Sean Prendergast (the PPA chief
warden) told me no new bye laws had been introduced in the
12 years he had been in office. Balls, it was only
introduced a few years ago and I have press cuttings in
which the PPA warden service state how they intend to use
the new bye-laws. I was then told that the bye law was
brought in to 'control erosion' and that it also affected
horses. Balls, only cyclists were singled out and by far
the biggest cause of erosion in the Peak is walkers! I was
then told the PPA brought in this bye law under pressure
from landowners. However when pressed there seems to be no
documents available to show who requested it (probably
because it was the work of the anti-cycling element of the
PPA). I asked about the wording of this bye law and where
it was in force and was helpfully told by the PPA to 'go
and look for the signs.' The only user group who got
nothing from the Stanage forum were off-road cyclists,
supposedly because seeing a cyclist spoils the 'wilderness
experience' of red socked rambler types who have driven in
to the heart of the Peak District and parked up at the foot
of their favourite bit of 'wilderness' before wandering off
along with all the climbers, paracenders and so on who have
open access.
I am glad there are a few route where the powers that be
condescend to allow off-road cycling (or rather can't ban it
because it uses cycle-legal ROW's), even if there are HUGE
areas in the Peak district without a single cycle route see
http://www.thebikezone.org.uk/thebikezone/campaigning/offro-
ad/peak.html I also hope your book sells well. However I
don't think the Peak District is at all 'cycle friendly'.
Many would like to see cyclists banned altogether and the
whole area kept as a reserve for the provisional RA. I
understand that the PPA even objected to cyclists having
access to the popular High Peak and Tissington Trails!