Vintage cars on road to nowhere

Judith Cummings
BBC News

Vintage car rallies may disappear from our roads.

The sight of vintage and classic cars ambling along country lanes, en masse, this summer may become less frequent as car clubs navigate the red tape now needed to get the show on the road.

The organisation of classic car rallies was forever changed with the creation of parading legislation, brought in to monitor contentious foot parades.

Classic car clubs now found themselves filling in 20-page-long applications forms.

Rally organisers had to give details of which roads were going to be used, the names of those marshalling the event, how they would be communicating throughout the day and give locations of any stops the rally may make.

On top of that 28 days notice was needed of any gathering.

The Association of Old Vehicle Clubs in Northern Ireland (AOVCNI) represents the interests of 32 classic car clubs in Northern Ireland and has been campaigning for the last few years to gain exemption.

They attended public and private meetings with the Parades Commission and in January of last year it seemed there was light at the end of the tunnel as the then Secretary of State, Peter Hain, announced that the process of notifying the Parades Commission would be simplified for classic car clubs.

There are 32 classic car clubs in Northern Ireland.

Last year the AOVCNI met with the review body from the Strategic Review of Parading, submitting a comprehensive report on the effects of the current legislation on classic car rallies.

At the time they were complemented on their submission and the panel agreed that some sort of exemption was needed.

But now the review body has issued its report and it seems none of the AOVCNI's recommendations have been taken into consideration. In fact there may be even more obstacles on the road for them.

The notification period may rise from 28 days to 35 days, a difficulty for many organisers as rallies are often planned at short notice, dependent on the weather.

And as many organisers like to have two routes planned, one for a good day and one for a rainy one, they could be faced with a mountain of paperwork.

The newest proposals have yet to be rubberstamped and car clubs hope for some room to manoeuvre.