This was debated a while ago. Now it seems that Graham Stringer MP has been forced to withdraw his deeply flawed bill that would have demanded all bikes be road legal, including racing bikes.
News release reads:-
?The collapse of the Off Road Vehicles (Registration) Bill is a victory for common sense,? according to Mike Owen, head of the Motorcycle Retailers Association,? (MRA), a part of the Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMIF).
Graham Stringer MP, who originally proposed the bill has been forced to withdraw it due to opposition by Government, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), and lobbying against the bill by the MRA and other organisations.
If the bill had passed, trials bikes, motor cross bikes, circuit bikes, and quads, could have been forced to carry number plates. Under the law as it stands, vehicles that are only used off-road are not required to carry number plates.
Owen commented: ?There is already adequate provision for registration, as the DVLA operates a register for off-road bikes, using the chassis number as a marker.
?What we need to do is to expand the DVLA?s programme, so that all off-road bikes are issued with a registration certificate. This would reduce problems for people who are buying and selling vehicles.?
Tansport Minister Jim Fitzpatrick has suggested an Interdepartmental Task Force to make sure that the existing regulations are fully enforced.
Owen added: ?What is required is robust enforcement of existing rules, and hopefully the new task force will work towards this practical and positive goal.?
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Common sense prevails.
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Im pleased to see this.
I would also like to see the registration of all off road bikes as stated, but know this is pie in the sky as only responsible citizens would comply and cough up the due charges while the local youth will still ruin my sundays driving down my lane uncatchable
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Just to say, this also applied to 4x4s so would have hit companies offering any off road drving experience, farmers etc etc so as I say common sense prevails.
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"..make sure that the existing regulations are fully enforced."
Which would be a good start! Not a lot of point in a new hard-to-enforce law (how many farmers would rush to register their old tractors, I wonder?) when the allegedly simple task of ensuring that road users are properly registered and legal seems to be causing so much difficulty.
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