The LARA Forum

Without access to land there is no motor sport and recreation in the countryside.

The Motoring Organisations’ Land Access and Recreation Association formed in 1986 as a direct response to pressures on stage rallying in Mid-Wales. The founder members, which included all the main national organisations involved with motor sport and recreation, realised that it was time to draw a line in the sand and say that our sport has 500,000 thousand participants and enthusiasts, and is not going to be squeezed out of the countryside. At much the same time, the Sports Council (now Sport England) published the seminal report, ‘Providing for Motorsport - From Image to Reality’, which advocated the formation of a ‘national forum’ to give motor sport and recreation a strong voice with government, land managers, and providers.

Over the next twenty-four years, LARA has developed a strong reputation with national and local government as a helpful and well-informed single point of contact for issues concerning almost all types of off-road (and some on-road) car and motorcycle sport and recreation, and LARA has handled hundreds of individual cases with a high success rate. LARA has led or assisted on some landmark issues:

  • The defeat of the proposed motor vehicle prohibition on The Ridgeway in 1992.
  • Developing schemes to provide facilities to stop illegal motorcycling.
  • The introduction of the ‘Off-Road Events Regulations 1992’.
  • A national system of volunteers and respondents.
  • Persuading the Government not to proceed with the effective removal of ‘permitted development rights’ (the 14/28 day rule).
  • Developing the ‘Hierarchy of Trail Routes’ scheme in the Lake District.
  • Introducing a system of ‘voluntary restraint’ for unsealed roads.
  • Mounting a successful High Court challenge to the rules for the Single Payment Scheme for farmers, which would have ended many trials and moto-cross events.
  • Successfully challenging the imposition of traffic regulation orders by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority.
  • Hosting national seminars and publishing comprehensive guidance on land use issues.

LARA is funded only by its Member Organisations, except for some grant aid by Sport England in the early years. This funding allows the employment of specialist contractors who advise LARA Members and take a lead on national, and some important local issues and cases. LARA’s role has always been ‘technical and specialist’, rather than ‘political’, and, while policy change is important, so is protecting and expanding facilities, site by site.

LARA was heavily involved in the run-up to the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006. We had a good rapport with the Minister, and our balanced ideas were taken on board by the Government, only for a ‘backbench rebellion’ to enact provisions that have been very damaging to the interests of motorists. With climate change, ‘tranquillity mapping’, increasingly stringent European noise regulations on the horizon, more emphasis on non-intensive land use on farms, ‘Quiet Lanes’, and many more initiatives, motor sport and recreation face as many problems now as back in 1986.

We face what maybe the biggest threat yet: the High Court case of Fortune v. Wiltshire County Council, which threatens the very existence of the ‘unsealed unclassified county road’. If your members need ‘white roads’ for events or recreation, then this affects you, and could wipe out your activity overnight.

Over the last decade we have seen the long-established volunteer base wither making the continued availability of LARA even more important in not allowing land and byways be lost by default. Now, post ‘credit crunch’, the availability of funds in the sport itself, and serious spending constraints for national and local government does not put motor sport in a strong position.

LARA’s Members have addressed the need for the Association to adapt to the new circumstances. We are therefore going back to LARA’s original purpose and structure and, while keeping the ability to deal with national issues, are creating the LARA Forum to bring together regional and small national associations, independent promoters, companies within the motor and motorsport industry, interested individuals, and the media. The LARA Forum will initially meet three times a year, and will receive reports on current issues from LARA’s officers. How the LARA Forum develops will depend upon its Members needs. The membership subscription for 2010-11 is set at £200 to cover just the cost of meetings and officer time. One hour of a specialist planning solicitor’s time costs well over £200.

Why should your organisation join the LARA Forum? At least some of the issues that we have faced, coupled with some of the new ones, are likely to affect all types of countryside motor sport and recreation, either now or in the future. Land and minor roads are a finite asset and it is hard to find new sites to replace any that are lost. There is a lot of common interest between the different disciplines, and a great deal of knowledge and experience to be shared. When LARA was formed there were fewer organisations with a national or regional remit, but those were mostly large. Now, with the evolutionary split into more, smaller, organisations, LARA needs these smaller organisations to join the forum in order to maintain a strong voice. It is your sport, so you have to look after the resource you use and need.

The inaugural meeting of the LARA Forum will be at the headquarters of the AMCA, Cannock, on the afternoon of Tuesday 6 July 2010. LARA invites you to come along and hear about the land use issues facing our sport and recreation, and you can tell us what you want in the way of information, support and representation. You do not have to commit to join the LARA Forum in order to attend this meeting.

You are very welcome to ask questions about LARA and the LARA Forum. Please email to:

Bill Troughear, Honorary Chairman. [email]

Alan Kind, Motor Sport & Planning Specialist. [email]

 

 

rally Ford