Letter to the Editor: I agree largely in principle with your article Moronic petrolheads destroying nature (Cambrian News, 4 January).

The big problem with your rather ‘blunderbuss cures all’ approach is that some rights of way in the Cambrian mountains and beyond do carry vehicular rights of way and have done and been signed up accordingly for decades.

Just because they’re not tarmac sealed doesn’t mean a legal right to drive/ride down it providing the vehicle used is also legal.

Simply venting your spleen at the problem might make you feel better but defining a clear difference between legal and illegal use and managing it has been poorly managed for decades despite councils being given millions to do so.

You mention the Monks Trod which has all but returned to nature at the Ceredigion end, not from user damage but neglect, and the fact that Elan Valley Trust and the council haven’t spend a bean on it which, given the money they take out of the area, is a crime in itself.

I personally have cycled and walked the Cambrian mountains and have so for decades and have seen all manner of misuse — flytipping, fence damage, bonfires, sheep rustling, timber theft, agricultural and forestry off-roader damage etc, — but in general it all adds up to this: there good and responsible landowners as there are bad ones and the same can be said of all users of rights of ways.

Does it need special status? Yes, it definitely does, but un-elected park officials and more talk without proper planning will no doubt disenfranchise the people who already struggle to make a living out of this wonderful but very unforgiving landscape. That’s the last thing it needs.

David Holt,

Machynlleth