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As Britain's oldests road the importance of the Ridgeway is greatly underestimated. It is arguably Britains' largest ancient monument. It needs to be properly cared for.
It would seem ironic in a way to ban vehicles from any road but the Ridgeway is simply not built to take the increasing traffic of 4X4's, let's face it it wasn't really built at all, it is organic, it grew through necessity and use, now it is being over used and it cannot cope.
I have walked it from end to end as thousands of people have and I did it partly for the atmosphere, linking as it does so many ancient sites it feels as if the footprints of our ancestors are still there. They won't be much longer if they have bee soundly squished by tons of traffic all yrear around.
The idea of banning motorised traffic from November to April is good, but doesn't go far enough. There should be a total ban, except for farming traffic on farming business for at least an entire year to allow regeneration, of course the plant life would take longer than that to recover.
What ever people say, motorized traffic does damage these ancient rights of way and they need to be properly protected. The police patrolling them isn't enough, I don't believe that many 4x4 enthusiats or particularly motorcyclists will be held back by a law they can't see, I'm afraid the only answer is physical barriers. These would have to be temporary, for the lifetime of the ban but they'd have to be strong to avoid "accidents".
The Ridgeway must be preserved, it is too important for half measures.
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road