North Yorkshire Country Council have asked the GLASS rep to try to find out is much green laners contribute to the economy. Unfortunately, they want to know before 1st March so there's no time to do a proper study.

So, he wants to ask as many green laners as possible how much they estimate they spend per year going laning. This includes fuel, accomodation, food & drink, vehicle modifications and repairs etc.

If you can help the Rep with this question, I can pass on your answers to him.

Thanks.

The full request from NYCC is below:

Quote:

Hi Barrie,

As you may be aware North Yorkshire County Council is currently trialling the handover of the management of unsealed unclassified roads from our Area Highways Teams to our Public Rights of Way Team.

One of the key advantages of this approach will be to provide a dedicated budget for programmed UUR maintenance rather than it having to compete with higher priority road works on an ad-hoc basis.

However the size of this budget is yet to be determined and I have been asked to prepare a report outlining the economic benefits of recreational green lane use by motor vehicles to inform the decision. While this subject would very much benefit from an independent study as I need to get this information to our senior managers by April this is not feasible.

Instead I am hoping that UUR user groups such as GLASS can help by providing an indication of how their members contribute to the local economy. Ways this might be could include:

· Purchase and maintenance of specialist vehicles at local garages
· Companies and organisations which organise paid guided trips
· Purchasing fuel, food and drink
· Overnight accommodation

I am also considering other benefits of green lane motoring such as:

· Access to the countryside for the disabled
· Volunteer activity to maintain green lanes both as a financial benefit to highway authorities and a social event for participants.

Any figures you can give me on these activities by your members in North Yorkshire would be much appreciated. Ideally totals over a twelve month period but any information you can give, even if anecdotal, would be useful. Ultimately the more information I have the more budget I will be able to get.

I appreciate it is a tight deadline but if you could let me have your response by 1st March that would be very useful.

Kind regards

Andy Brown
Public Rights of Way Officer, Hambleton and Richmondshire
North Yorkshire County Council
County Hall
Northallerton
North Yorkshire
DL7 8AH