SWINDON Borough Council is pushing ahead with plans to temporarily ban traffic from the Ridgeway, in a bid to prevent erosion.

A Traffic Regulation Order is being introduced so that a six-mile stretch will remain temporarily closed to all motorised vehicles, such as trail bikes and four wheel drive vehicles, from next month.

The order will come into force on August 1 and will remain until January 31 2003.

Councillors plan to monitor the site and discuss the best way to tackle the problem of damage to the land.

Meanwhile, the Govern-ment's countryside advisers have warned that the 85-mile trail which runs from Overton Hill, near Avebury, in Wiltshire to Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire, is being ruined by four-wheel drive vehicles.

John Rennie, of the Countryside Agency, said: "The problem is too much vehicular access.

"Four-wheel drives have a right to use the trail but now it has potholes and is badly rutted and damaged. We are asking for views on the best way of dealing with it."

Julia Drown, MP for South Swindon, has said she is not entirely adverse to motorcycles using the Ridgeway in spite backing a campaign to ban all non-essential vehicles from the ancient route.

But Swindon Motorcycle Club (SMC) has issued a plea for all interested parties to sit down and talk about the matter. Coun Jemima Milton (Con, Wroughton and Chiseldon) said: "We are going to be closing a section of the Ridgeway because the surface is so bad and are looking at meeting with users to see what the way forward is."

A full-scale audit on the ancient path has been carried out for the Govern-ment and the Ridgeway National Trail Management Group has begun to formulate the plans.

It is calling for interested parties to submit constructive ideas to improving the surface of the path, which once stretched from the Dorset coast to The Wash.

Audit results show that 51 per cent of the rights of way on the National Trail do not meet the surface standards set for the route.

Only 39 per cent of the Byway Road used as Public Path sections, which constitute nearly half of the National Trail, meets the grade.

"The Ridgeway National Trail Management Group believes that the best way of resolving the problems with the surface condit-ions is to draw on the ideas of all groups and individuals interested in the trail, as well as those of the local authorities responsible for the route.

The Ridgeway Manage-ment Group will be presenting its action plan in September.