A GROUP fighting in the High Court to allow motorcyclists to ride on minor roads near Stonehenge has vowed to also battle a move to ban motor vehicles from an ancient North York Moors monument.

The Trail Riders Fellowship has warned North Yorkshire County Council it would challenge the lawfulness of a Traffic Regulation Order on the Kirby Trod, the only path in the county granted Scheduled Monument status by English Heritage.

As the highway authority, the council has been asked by the North York Moors National Park Authority to stop erosion by motor vehicles on the trod, a stone-flagged route built by the Cistercian monks of Rievaulx Abbey to transport their goods.

Trains of up to 40 packhorses would be a familiar sight taking the 12th century route across the moors near Great Broughton to the Tees, also once used by the alum and jet industries.

A section of the route planned for the ban runs through a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a Special Area of Conservation and a Special Protection Area, which is the highest level of protection which can be given under European Law.

A report to the council’s Business and Environmental Services Executive Members Committee states there has been “considerable erosion to all sections of the route described above caused by wheel ruts, and water run-off channelled down the ruts”.

It adds: “It is considered that the wheel ruts have been caused predominantly by motor cycles as there are no parallel ruts which would be consistent with the use of four-wheel drive vehicles.”

However, the Trail Riders Fellowship has claimed the order would be unlawful because the council has failed to properly consider, or give adequate reasons for rejecting its proposal to exempt motorcycles authorised by the fellowship during events organised by the group.

A solicitor’s letter to the council adds the authority has also failed to give adequate reasons in respect of its duty to “secure the expeditious, convenient and safe movement of vehicular traffic on the route”.

Council officers said allowing the exemption would mean the ban was difficult to enforce and  its duty to  enable vehicles to use the route needed to be balanced against the damage motor vehicles caused.

When a Traffic Regulation Order is made, anyone questioning its validity can appeal to the High Court within six weeks from the date it is signed.

Officers have recommended the authority’s leading members approve the ban, despite being put “on notice that Trail Riders Fellowship will challenge the lawfulness” of the order.