On-Line petition against the closure of the Okehampton Loop Road.
There has been a report in an Okehampton newspaper to say that the Duchy of Cornwall with the backing of the National Park intend closing the Ring Road that goes out to OP15 to members of the public in vehicles, from OP 22 on the East side and the gate at Row Tor on the western side. This will mean that if you want to go to Cranmere Pool you will have to walk from Op22 or Row Tor car park. The Army vehicles, plus farmers and Range Wardens will still be able to use it.
Well it will be a very sad day indeed if that gets pushed through. Its a case of double standards to let the army vehicles use it and think they should be banned. Seems the DNPA won't be satisfied until the general public are banned from the moors completely. There are a lot of elderly folk, even non letterboxers, who use the road to get out to OP 15 to enjoy the views and feel better for it. Its not as if the road is overrun with vehicles, we all know its the army vehicles that are digging it up.
The road is also an important safety link to the inner moor especially for Ten Tors training. It saves time and possibly lives by allowing trainers to reach any emergency quickly. If the road closes then there will be people taking on longer walks to get to the remote parts of the moor and as an unfortunate consequence of that there may well be an increase in rescues required. It would be a terrible tragedy if lives are lost because walkers attempt a journey that is too far for their ability purely because they couldn’t travel out on the ring road.
Dartmoor is supposed to be a National Park and one of the its biggest appeals is the open access and this effectively closes the remote areas of North Dartmoor to many. Dartmoor is meant to be enjoyed by everyone, how can the less able get to see this part of the moor if the road is closed.
If you feel the same, that this proposed closure should not go ahead, please sign the on-line petition at:-
http://www.petitiononline.com/ringroad/petition.html [nofollow]Please help us to keep Dartmoor freely available to all.