I SEE from the article Drive Them Off! (November 28) that the recent electorally useful cause worth championing, of driving all motorised vehicles off the county's byways, smacks of what amounts to a hue and cry from Swindon MP Julia Drown.

Does she think that preserving the much loved but heavily used Ridgeway is the preserve of cyclists and walkers?

Or that anyone who drives along a green lane is intent on environmental vandalism?

With more sympathetic management and preventative maintenance, the Ridgeway would never have fallen into disrepair in the first place.

Of all the known 300,000 miles of green lanes running throughout Britain's countryside only six per cent allow access for motor vehicles. Only a small proportion of those tracks suffer surface erosion, and then it is usually because of topsoil wash exacerbated by heavy rainfall.

The measurable impact upon the environment is tiny compared to, say, open cast mining around South Cerney; ploughing up 100 acres for yet another hypermarket; or pouring more concrete over such green belt areas as the Front Garden for more housing.

The deep rutting evident between Barbury Castle and the Rockley car parking area has been exacerbated by some of the huge tractors regularly using the path as a through route.

How else could they drag their trailers and heavy farm machinery between the neighbouring fields; although doubtless their contribution to the damage inflicted on some of the softer areas of the Ridgeway will be conveniently ignored.

Better management and preventative maintenance will prove the best way of preserving these ancient rights of way, not discrimination based on prejudice disguised as high moral concern.

The banning of one user group will not stop further neglect, and only save money in the short term.

STEPHEN CLARKE

Masefield, Wootton Bassett