Forestry owners have called on Coilte to ban car rallying in state forests because of the “collateral” damage to private property.
Coilte gets annual government grants under the forest road scheme 2008 to construct forestry roads for the extraction of timber.
But it allows rally driving on them in return for lucrative fees.
Private forest owners say rallying and motorsports should be banned on forest roads. They say that before, during and after legal rallies, illegal joyriding is rampant and spills over onto their land. Wrecked cars are dumped and there is destruction of private property.
John Jackson, a forest owner near Stranorlar, says he’s against rallying in forests:
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