"MOST Ridgeway ruts caused by farmers," alleges Vic Price. No evidence provided, of course. Why spoil a good story with facts?

But I know of one local farmer whose tractors cause considerable damage to local tracks during wet winters, but he makes them good the following spring.

Farmers might be more likely to do the same on the Ridgeway if it was only their own damage they were making good.

And there are one or two other inconsistencies in Mr Price's rant. He says trail riders don't like to cause or use rutted trails. But he also says they like to test themselves. Not much of a test unless the trails are rutted, I would have thought.

As for his anguished plea that off-roaders and trail riders should be allowed to retain the 4,000 miles of legal trails available to them, what a laugh.

He knows perfectly well many trail riders ride wherever they like, whether they have a legal right or not.

As he says, some of them like to test themselves over a wider area, a fact acknowledged by the Access Officer of the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority who told me recently that, "illegal vehicular use of rights of way is increasing."

So I'm with Mr Ritchie. I also want non-essential vehicles banned from The Ridgeway. And I'll go further. I want to see them banned from using all unsurfaced rights of way. The legal rights Mr Price is so anxious to invoke were never framed with off-roaders in mind. It's time they were rewritten so the loopholes exploited by Mr Price and his mates are closed

M WHITE

Bromham