GoosE#69
Well-Known Member
Does anyone know the law regarding riding on your own private property?
Not talking small suburban backyard this is a semi rural property among farming and grazing land.
My mate lives on a 3 acre block out between smithfield and gawler which has his house also on it.In the last acre or so of land down the back we have built a dedicated pit bike MX track for usually upto 5 of us(but generally only 2-3 at a time)to thrash around on,pitbike FMX ramps with dirt landings and also a dirt 6 pack for the mountain bikes.All made from clean fill.
Today in the mail he gets 2 letters from Gawler council ordering the track stop being used immediately and to remove earth mounds within 60 days!!
Apparently the track doesn't have development approval,but from what we've been told anything lower than 6 foot doesnt need approval anyway,but not sure if thats true or not.
We first we knew that there were problems was a couple of months ago,when one of the neighbours down the road apparently got other neighbours to sign a complaint(dust and/or noise we're not sure as no-one had the guts to approach us first) to lodge to council,we know for a fact that at least one of the people who's signature was on there did not sign it and they forged the signature.
Since then we contacted the council to see where we stood and was told that it wasn't a council issue and only the police or the EPA could possibly have an issue because of dust or noise.
The country was/is in a drought and water to keep the dust down was not possible with water restrictions,but we came up with a way to recycle water so we could water the track down a bit.
We have made all efforts to quieten bikes as much as possible but they do have motors so are always gonna make noise.
The nearest house has a three acre block between them and the track so their not excessively close to the action.
We usually ride there 1 sunday a month but occasionally an extra ride here and there but in reality about 20 times a year tops,well for the year that we've been developing it.
Every other week there is a story or a letter in the local paper complaining about pitbikes on streets and reserves or about lack of places for bikes to be ridden legally.
Here goes someone who buys a bit of land so they can have a small track at home and the council are trying to force us basically out to ride the streets or reserves that they complain about the hoons tearing around.
We are all 30+ years old with family's so we can't afford to be dicks and ride illegally and want to do the right thing.
What legal grounds do we have if anyone knows?
Can they really shut us down?
Not talking small suburban backyard this is a semi rural property among farming and grazing land.
My mate lives on a 3 acre block out between smithfield and gawler which has his house also on it.In the last acre or so of land down the back we have built a dedicated pit bike MX track for usually upto 5 of us(but generally only 2-3 at a time)to thrash around on,pitbike FMX ramps with dirt landings and also a dirt 6 pack for the mountain bikes.All made from clean fill.
Today in the mail he gets 2 letters from Gawler council ordering the track stop being used immediately and to remove earth mounds within 60 days!!
Apparently the track doesn't have development approval,but from what we've been told anything lower than 6 foot doesnt need approval anyway,but not sure if thats true or not.
We first we knew that there were problems was a couple of months ago,when one of the neighbours down the road apparently got other neighbours to sign a complaint(dust and/or noise we're not sure as no-one had the guts to approach us first) to lodge to council,we know for a fact that at least one of the people who's signature was on there did not sign it and they forged the signature.
Since then we contacted the council to see where we stood and was told that it wasn't a council issue and only the police or the EPA could possibly have an issue because of dust or noise.
The country was/is in a drought and water to keep the dust down was not possible with water restrictions,but we came up with a way to recycle water so we could water the track down a bit.
We have made all efforts to quieten bikes as much as possible but they do have motors so are always gonna make noise.
The nearest house has a three acre block between them and the track so their not excessively close to the action.
We usually ride there 1 sunday a month but occasionally an extra ride here and there but in reality about 20 times a year tops,well for the year that we've been developing it.
Every other week there is a story or a letter in the local paper complaining about pitbikes on streets and reserves or about lack of places for bikes to be ridden legally.
Here goes someone who buys a bit of land so they can have a small track at home and the council are trying to force us basically out to ride the streets or reserves that they complain about the hoons tearing around.
We are all 30+ years old with family's so we can't afford to be dicks and ride illegally and want to do the right thing.
What legal grounds do we have if anyone knows?
Can they really shut us down?