Rosher.Net

It’s not easy being a Councillor and sometimes we get it wrong. There’ve been some recent examples where, in my personal opinion, inappropriate decisions have been made. Remember earlier this year, a parish council near me became the first in the world to assert a charge for a Park Run being held on their playing field. Yesterday, North Yorkshire became the first to approve Fracking since the ban on it was overturned in 2012. And I’m in receipt of protest emails regarding an injunction in Harlow, Essex, which rather takes the biscuit.

I can understand how the charge on Park Runs came about – there is considerable impact from hundreds of people running on a small track all at once, and costs for remediation of the damage. It’s reasonable to try and recoup these costs, especially when funding from central government and national award schemes is culled in the austerity push. I might not have tackled it the way they did though. I can understand too that Councillors in North Yorkshire might have been under some degree of pressure from central government to allow Fracking, although I suspect for me that would have been a resignation issue. But Harlow…

Harlow have taken out an Injunction to ban groups of more than one motorcycle (other vehicles are included but the stated aim was to stop motorcyclists) riding together across a wide area of the town. It even covers the A414 northbound, and so could conceivably include folk passing through on the trunk road network. And apart from some intensely precarious and discriminatory aspects, all of the Injunction is already covered by existing legislation. Indeed, it makes it a criminal offence punishable by prison to carry out actions required in the Highway Code.

Harlow, you have a problem, and it’s not motorcyclists…