National Clubs

There is one which you will come across called GLASS, membership is £30 pa, (or club affiliation see later) but before you go and pay out think about what they have to offer, if you get into greenlaning and feel it may be for you then by all means join. Its come under critism over the years for been very secretive and treating its members like mushrooms, but we think its more down to disorganistion.

Its organised on a regional level, if you are luckily your local area could have a very active group which organises greenlaning maybe once a month, great value for your money and there was a few areas which did this. The problem is many regional areas have a small membership and rarely go out, its hard to find out which are the good ones. Its not helped because they do not pubish what they are up to and where they have been to the general public, so you cannot find out about them until you join.


Many clubs now have affiliation to GLASS, so in theory you get most of the benefits of GLASS membership if you join the club but with no voting rights, I am a member of a few of these clubs and couldn't say I benefit from it much. Nor have I had free access to there forums or website. The biggest bone of contention is the guideline which states no more than 4 vehicles. Any one who organises greenlanes knows this guideline is a nightmare, more about that in another post.


They also offer the way-finder project a kind of national list of rights of way. There are two types one free to all, the other you have to pay for. I know of existing GLASS members who are still having problems accessing the site. Nor do I know if affilicated club members can either, I have tried to find out, but no GLASS rep has ever responeded to my requests. Since 2006 when the RUPP ban came in nearly 60% of our lanes have been lost, many of these lanes were small but interesting, whats left is generally known to all. Finally they have a forum but again access is restricted, so no wonder quite a few laners are disalulsioned, so why join?

Same applies to those one make vechicle owner clubs, they are a must for those who have a rare model as a good source of parts, plus many like to show off at local & national shows. Problem is there is too many of them, often someone got on the bandwagon some years ago and formed a club. They often charge £30 a year, send out 4 newsletters, go to one national show and organise 1 greenlane day half way across the country, the only person who benefits is the chair who owns the club. I was at a National Show some years ago and security had to be called to break up a sit in on a club stand , the members got together and demanded money back because they were so dissatisfied.

One forum member summed some of them up wonderfully "Join my crappy 90 club, all credit cards, debit cards paypal accepted, you get 3 c*****y newsletters, 1 sticker, access to a c****y forum, go out once a year, have 1 club stand at a c******y national show and 10% off ferry trips to Ireland during the low season. we've a club online shop stickers, badges extra"

Not all clubs are like this and again check to see what they actual do, some have great websites and forums so one can check back, others don't but had don't mean they are no good just having or not botheing with the websites.

In North Wales there is another called CRAG, only been going a few years and they seem stronger in the North West and North & Mid Wales, certainly better at putting there message across by using forums and the like, and seem to be doing somthing posistive about issues such as lane maintance. Again they go laning and i've meet them a few times wether its private or among there group i don't know, they have a forum but its not open to all so couldn't tell you more.

Oh any complants email me and we will discuss it