In reply to Chris the Tall:
> (In reply to Rampikino)
> It's an example of the danger of applying a urban solution inappropriately
Exactly. I recall walking from Redmires, along the Packhorse 'road' over Stanage Pole and down the Causeway in the 1960s. Up to Stanage Edge, the 'road' was a line of stone slabs, never more than 2 feet wide.
OK? The 'road' was 2 feet wide. It was a Packhorse Road. A 'road' built for pack horses. not for any wheeled vehicle.
Down the causeway it was a stony track, about 6 feet wide at the time, but I'm certain that it too was once a 2 foot wide line of slabs.
For hundreds of years it was never thought necessary for any wheeled vehicle to use the 'road', obviously because it wasn't a road in the modern sense of the word. It was also rarely necessary in those hundreds of years to maintain the road. It could stand up to the wear imposed by horses and human feet. A great design.
Somewhere along the line, and I don't think this was until the late 1980s, someone decided to try and get a 4x4 up the path, given that there was yielding vegetation, grass, heather etc. either side. They succeeded. I remember the horror I felt when I first saw the vegetation churned up either side of the slabs. At its worst point, around 4 years ago, I measured the churned up mud as being 22 metres wide. This because when the ruts got too deep, the vehicles forced another road to the side. Then another.
Somehow, the fact that the law defined it as a 'road' and a right of way, all laws pertaining to any road was applied, including it seems, the right for 4x4 vehicles to widen the 'road'. No council or authority widened the road, the users did.
I see no reason now why 4x4 vehicles will not one day be driving all the way along the top of Stanage. I have seen a vehicle attempt to cut across from the Stanage Pole towards the Popular End. One day someone will succeed. How about a road all the way along the top of Froggatt and Curbar?