SIR I think it is time to reply to the many letters written about Stone Lane. It is very sad to see that has been blown out of proportion.

All highways are legally vested in the highways authority, including footpaths, bridleways, byways and restricted byways and the roads outside your house.

The highways authority never asks you if it wishes to cut hedges or repair or tarmac roads. However the parks do usually ask landowners before they do the work.

In the case of Stone Lane, I asked Exmoor National Park to look at it and see if they could do some maintenance.

As they completely ignore me, I served a S56 of the 1980 Highways Act on Somerset County Council, the responsible authority.

Somerset County Council commissioned a report on Stone Lane from an experienced civil engineer and horse expert to deal with the issue. A copy of this report is on the national park website.

This engineers findings in his own words were:

1) Stone Lane is out of repair to the extent that it is not available to general cycling and horse riding use, especially in wet weather when the surface is treacherously slippery.

2) It was slippery and would be extremely hazardous by horseback.

This report does, I believe, fully support my actions and is in complete contrast to the view of the national park which was expressed by ranger Tim Parish in his article in the Harbourer: In the past we have felt that, whilst the surface is not ideal for riding, it is acceptable.

The difference between acceptable and extremely hazardous is so great that I will leave it to your readers to judge if it would be wise to walk or ride a horse up or down Stone Lane.

The park authority has a duty to assert and protect the rights of the public. I do not believe it is doing this.

Further, I find it quite remarkable that anyone who is involved in anyway in equine tourism or walking holidays, after reading the engineers report, could possible object to the action I have taken.

Some of the first comments in your paper on Stone Lane were concerned with the cost of the necessary remedial work (this money was ring fenced last year and cannot be spent on anything else but on rights of way ).

However, for reasons unclear, a new dimension has been added to the issue.

Mr Parish is claiming that there is conflict between restoring Stone Lane to a useable and safe condition and the objective of the national park to conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the National Park.

As wildlife is not an issue, we must be talking about beauty and culture.

Stone Lane in the past was a necessary and useful link (as all the other roads everyone uses today) in the road network of Exmoor and would have been in frequent use and kept in good repair by the parish, district council and before these the waywarden.

It was made and kept, not existing as a feature in the landscape for aesthetic reasons.

In the past the route from Exford to Simonsbath was across wild untamed country and was something to be endured rather than enjoyed.

It is now claimed there is an aesthetic and cultural similarity between Stone Lane, Winsford Hill and Culborne Church.

True, Stone Lane has a charm and a certain appeal, as do many other places and tracks on Exmoor, but it exists to be used and enjoyed by all and that is certainly not true in its existing sorry state.

The claim now being made by some people, and now seemingly supported by the national park, that the action that will now have to be taken to bring back to use Stone Lane, an action instigated by me, is a threat and danger to the natural beauty and peace of Exmoor, is completely unfounded and is unproductive and mischief-making.

V Craggs

Address supplied.