WALKERS have joined forces with horseriders, landowners and cyclists in a bid to save green lanes across Wharfedale.

They want to see the often ancient rights of way protected from potentially harmful off road vehicles.

And they have formed the Yorkshire Dales Green Lanes Alliance in an attempt to toughen up the laws.

Otley man Michael Bart-holomew, working group co-ordinator for the alliance, said: "Until now, anger about the wanton destruction of the green lanes and about the nuisance of noisy off-road traffic in the heart of the Dales National Park has been widespread, but unfocussed.

"The Yorkshire Dales Green Lanes Alliance gives that anger a focus, it will not be easy to rid the Dales of the blight of off-roading, but a start has been made."

One of the green lanes the alliance claims is damaged by off road vehicles is an old Roman road originally running from Ilkley to Blubberhouses.

Mr Bartholomew said users of recreational vehicles argued that they were not responsible for the state of the lanes and other factors, such as drainage, were to blame.

He said: "This is a lane I know every well, I've been walking it for over 20 years.

"The agricultural and maintenance use has not changed at all but the one thing that has changed is the number of motor bikes using it."

But a loop hole in the law meant all recreational users had to prove was that the lane had been used in the past by wheeled vehicles.

"Off roaders can use green lanes if they can show evidence of wheeled traffic using it in the past and the law does not discriminate between a horse and cart using it 50 years ago and wheeled motor vehicles," he said.

The first meeting of the alliance was held at the end of last year at Bolton Abbey Village Hall and was attended by farmers, landowners and cyclists, as well as parish councillors and other concerned people.

Jon Avison, of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, talked to the meeting and showed slides illustrating the damage caused to the park by off-road vehicles.

Lawyer Jerry Pearlman also talked about the law around rights of way and how experimental traffic regulation orders could stop off-roaders from using the worst hit tracks.

Mr Bartholomew said that the alliance wants to see off road cars and motorcyclists banned from using green lanes in the Yorkshire Dales National Park and in the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

"The green lanes, many of which should be recognised as ancient monuments, might then recover their former beauty and tranquillity.

"Existing laws that can be used to protect these green lanes should be systematically applied, and in the longer term, laws regulating vehicular off-road need to be brought in by Parliament."

He added: "Only vehicles belonging to residents who need access - farmers and landowners across whose land the lanes pass, and the emergency services should be allowed off sealed roads."

The alliance has two aims - to encourage local highways authorities to put traffic regulation orders on green lanes in the park and Nidderdale AONB and also to persuade parliament to strengthen the law.

Mr Bartholomew said: "It should be illegal for motorised vehicles, other than those specified by the highways authorities, such as vehicles used by landowners or farmers, to use green lanes."

Mr Bartholomew said there were areas where users of recreational vehicles could go and for a fee drive over private land.

"The numbers of off-roaders are quickly rising, and their impact on the Dales is alarming. Tracks that were once grassy are now churned-up, rutted quagmires. Fellsides that were once peaceful and quiet are now routinely disturbed by groups, often of a dozen or more noisy motorbikes, thrashing along the tracks and frequently out on to the open moor, tearing up the vegetation."

l Anyone who would like to join the alliance should contact Michael Bartholomew at 9 Fern Bank, Otley.