What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread

[Cavcraft]

Fdb , that should be a grump . that sign is a tro ( traffic regulation order) it prevents vehicle use on a byway. Basically it means the ramblers have won

Surely we need some places vehicles aren't allowed to go?

[twosmoke300]

Exactly , what really pisses me off as a responsible trail rider is that most ramblers/ horse riders dont even know what a Byway or Ucr is . Doesnt stop them shouting at you and hitting you with their sticks .

 

Ignorance !!

[dave21478]

What also doesnt help is the "Its gripped, its locked, its sorted, lets offroad" brigade ripping the tracks up with their mega-knobbly tyres. Just because you CAN drive a certain track doesnt mean you SHOULD.

[daveb47]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Magic-carpet-Barn-find-/151441413282?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item23429c94a2

[inconsistant]

Last week I was teaching pewter casting and one of the students shouted across the room that the sign had fallen onto the bunsen burner.

How we loled and rofled when we realised what we had done!

 

[twosmoke300]

Lets not forget that at least the landrovers and trail bikes pay to be there. Anyone that believes that pedestrians and cyclists do not damage is very blinkered

[Cavcraft]

Lets not forget that at least the landrovers and trail bikes pay to be there. Anyone that believes that pedestrians and cyclists do not damage is very blinkered

 

 

What do you pay to be there, sorry if point has been missed?

[Richard]

Unless the ramblers have walked from home they will have paid VED to be there too.

[Cavcraft]

Well in that case, just take the VED and use it fund to out of town shopping centres, swimming pools, airports, roadside chain pubs, new build flats or anything else with a car park.

 

Have I got news for you!

[dave21478]

No but banning things because of problems rather then sorting the issues helps nobody.

Those who abuse the system because they don't care will continue to do so.

 

I fully agree - but there are plenty of hardcore off-road nobbers who post photos of their convoys all over the internet, having chewed a lane up to hell, and they are the first ones to get shirty because lanes become closed to vehicles or ramblers have a go at them.

 

Unfortunately, people cant be trusted to regulate themselves or their clubs and make sensible decisions, so the decision has to be made for them, which is why lanes get closed. Im not saying its right, its just the way it is.

[TimothyClaypole]

Not sure if a grump or not but I'm being positive. 

 

Got my Astra back from it's 2nd mot today, ended up costing more than I paid for the car back in January, 4 brake pipes, 2 wheel cylinders, 2 track rod ends, a wheel bearing, new brake dust shield, etc. fitted new discs and pads myself before the 1st mot.

 

A lot of faffing about and a cut to my hand that probably should have been stitched... between me and my dad we fitted the track rods and wheel bearing on my "two strip" sloping concrete drive to save the garage labour.  

 

Passed today after cleaning the sensors and some gas treatment - snake oil? as it had failed on the emissions.

 

Anyway the positive is I've just taxed it and while technically losing 20 days of that I've not been molested with a fine from the DVLA for not taxing it on the 1st when it was due. They sent a letter today reminding me about it, which stated I could use the renewal number until the end of this month.

 

Now it's sorted I'll be taking a trip to Halfords with some home made buns as thanks for giving me the Torx socket I'd needed. 

[inconsistant]

Have I got news for you!

Are you suggesting that our money is being used to give tax breaks to the companies that build and operate shopping centres, leisure centres and out of town supermarkets (and their car parks) so that even tax payers that don't drive are effectively funding the car centric infrastructure that makes their life more difficult, dangerous noisy and polluted than they would like?

 

There should be a separate thread for this sort of thing.

[richardmorris]

VED.

 

These Byways are roads in just the same way the A1 is.

 

 

Which as I'm sure everyone knows is in no way linked to paying for roads. I had hoped that this place would be free of the "I pay road tax" ignorance.

[Pillock]

It is a payment to use the road, as in if you don't pay you can't keep your car on the road.

 

However, I think everyone has given up trying to pretend it actually gets spent on roads.

[richardmorris]

It is a payment to use the road, as in if you don't pay you can't keep your car on the road.

 

However, I think everyone has given up trying to pretend it actually gets spent on roads.

No it isn't .

 

You can quite legally drive a brand new car on the road and pay not a penny for the privilege. You can also quite legally drive an older car on the road and pay nothing to do so. You may not agree with the system, and goodness knows it needs some common sense knocked into it, but road users do not pay to use the road. Winston Churchill knocked that on its head in 1936.

[richardmorris]

It is a tax paid by the users of roads which contributes to the maintenance of roads, it may be called VED and the money no longer ring-fenced but the whole SORN thing ( "don’t use or keep your vehicle on a public road" ) indicates it to be road tax.

Not true at all I'm afraid. See above.

How much tax does a horse pay?

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I'm going to refuse to SORN my old crocks in future. Why should I pay a tax (admittedly a free one) to park my car in my own garage? I already paid my council tax etc. Its just another way for the government to get more money from hard working British car stashers.

[fordperv]

mrs fordperv is a 24 carat gold legend, i said to her i wanted to make a clock for my shed out of a wheel trim so keep her eyes peeled for something interesting at the side of the road when we are out and about, we were heading home from tesco along the a50 about an hour ago and she spotted the perfect thing in a bush to make a clock from............ a truck wheel trim, it had a couple of kinks on the edge from flying off at 50 mph its fairly straight though, perfect for the job

 

here it is in the shed cleaned with the clock mech in

 

[vulgalour]

Really, you need to find a way of changing those diddy clock handles for spanners or screwdrivers or something.

[fordperv]

i was thinking something silmilar, its the only mech i had , im sure ebay will come up with something if not it wont be hard to make something out of sheet metal

[richardmorris]

Probably the same as a hamster or a cheesecake, do I really need to point out that Vehicle Excise Duty is for cars/trucks/buses etc?

 

Its a tax levied on vehicles used on the road, if you wish to NOT use said vehicle on the road then you DON'T PAY the tax.

 

And yes, a small number of vehicles are exempt. Children's clothes are exempt from VAT that doesn't mean that adult clothes don't exist or there's no VAT on the moon or any other nonsense.

 

 

You're changing your position then. You mentioned road users. NOT vehicle users. Please be consistent.

 

 

"It is a tax paid by the users of roads which contributes to the maintenance of roads, it may be called VED and the money no longer ring-fenced but the whole SORN thing ( "don’t use or keep your vehicle on a public road" ) indicates it to be road tax."

[DS20]

The whole VED / 'road' tax / road users / road maintenance debate reminds me of the old joke about the competing truths that yes, tomatoes are a fruit - but no, you'd be mad to put them in a fruit salad.  There is value on both sides of the debate, but the deciding factor for me is that, since the absolute rejection of hypothecated taxation, it has become ridiculous to look at VED as anything other than one of the many ways the government uses to extract money from the general population.  That said, the amount of money I pay in tax to keep the cars on the road and fuelled, means that the abuse I sometimes receive from walkers / cyclists when on a Byway Open to All Traffic (BOAT) in my car perfectly legally is particularly galling.  

 

And I'm not an OLLI-type, either - the last time I went green-laning, it was on a well-surfaced gravel BOAT and I was driving the Saab, not some mud-churning Bowler Wildcat.  

[richardmorris]

Where are all these green lanes? I don't think I've come across a vehicle (other than the occasional tractor) on any off-road walk I've done in wales or the lake district.

[The Moog]

My missus is thinking about changing her Saab as she doesn't quite click with it. Everything has been rejected.. Except mk1 insight!

[dugong]

Drove some very silly cars in the grounds of a mansion today. I also wore a hat. 

[DS20]

The countryside still has many 'green lanes'  (correctly known as Byways Open to All Traffic) that have not been closed, either permanently or temporarily.  They appear on 1:25000 and 1:50000 scale OS maps, I think.  Definitely on 1:25000 anyway.  Here's a linky to a sample OS map legend section; BOATs are marked on OS maps in this sort of way:  - + - + - + - + - + -  They criss-cross the country, and are basically those most minor of roads that were not given a sealed surface (i.e. tarmacked) in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  They are not some sort of footpath or bridlepath with vehicular rights granted later; they are part of the road network, albeit unsealed, and in some enlightened parts of the country, are well-maintained by the local authority's highways office.  In other parts of the country, they are left to fester and degrade (whether subject to heavy use or no, they will, because weather has at them), and unfortunately, wherever we are in this country, there are some who use them irresponsibly, just as there are irresponsible cyclists who, in the wet months of the year, chew up the footpaths in the countryside where I used to live.  

[twosmoke300]

Leaving the ved issue aside , what about insurance ? Trail riders and four wheel drives ( should) have third party insurance to cover them if they injure someone or damage their property . what happens if a horse rider / cyclist/ walker damages someone or something ?

[vulgalour]

Drove some very silly cars in the grounds of a mansion today. I also wore a hat. 

 

You are the me I want to be AICMFP

[mat_the_cat]

Leaving the ved issue aside , what about insurance ? Trail riders and four wheel drives ( should) have third party insurance to cover them if they injure someone or damage their property . what happens if a horse rider / cyclist/ walker damages someone or something ?

 

You'd have to claim it back through the courts. As I understand it, the requirement for motor vehicles to have 3rd party insurance is because costs for damages tend to be much higher when there is a collision.

[twosmoke300]

And if the guilty party doesn't have a pot in which to piss then the poor fucker who is innocent gets cock all .

I wonder if there is any historical cases of people being injured by cyclists and horse/ riders ?

 

Just imagine the nightmare it would be if an uninsured horse ran away and caused a massive pile up .