GOVERNMENT plans to crack down on motorbikes and 4x4s using ancient green lanes were given an overwhelming thumbs down yesterday.

Off-road groups said the proposed legislation was not needed, and groups campaigning to ban vehicles from the tracks said it did not go far enough.

Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael said yesterday that inappropriate use of public rights of way by motor vehicles would be curtailed through new legislation.

Use of the lanes by motorbikes and 4x4s has been a controversial issue for years, with campaigners fighting for an end to vehicle activity to protect them from damage.

Mr Michael said: "We need a rights-of-way network that responds to the needs of the 21st Century, not a network based solely on historic use patterns.

"It is not right that future use for leisure purposes by four-wheel drive vehicles, quad bikes and motorbikes is established because horses or horse-drawn vehicles used a route long before motorised vehicles were commonplace."

But Mike Bartholomew, chairman of the Yorkshire Dales Green Lanes Alliance, a campaign group set up two years ago to demand an end to offroading in the Dales, said motor vehicles should be banned from all green lanes.

He said they should all be reclassified as restricted byways, where motor vehicles are not allowed.

"The national parks are not going to be any better off," he said. "The Minister is not going to change the status of existing vehicle rights of way. He should have reclassified all unsurfaced byways as restricted byways and the problem would have been solved."

Ian McCormack, chairman of the North-East 4x4 Club, said: "There is really nothing wrong with the existing system. Certain user groups think that they are the only ones who should have access. Our stance has always been that it is equal access to all, whether that is cyclists, off roaders or horseriders."

Last year, North Yorkshire County Council brought in traffic orders banning off-roaders from four green lanes in the Yorkshire Dales.

Last month, a petition signed by 3,700 people living in the Dales was handed to the national park authority, seeking a green lanes ban on recreational motor vehicles.