As reported by Bolesławiec Municipality:

The end of the harvest does not mean the end of fieldwork. It is a period of intensified preparation of fields for next year’s sowing, including ploughing. Unfortunately, some less cautious farmers sometimes plough over, and in extreme cases completely plough up, country roads. Such actions cause communication difficulties and often lead to conflicts between neighbours.

There are fewer and fewer agricultural transport roads. Joanna Kmita, deputy inspector for managing the municipal real-estate resources at the Bolesławiec Municipal Office, explains:

This problem does not concern Bolesławiec Municipality alone; it is a nationwide problem, as in many areas the consequences of ploughing up or damaging country roads are deplorable.

What action has the municipal government begun?

Bolesławiec Municipality has begun the process of regulating the legal status of agricultural transport roads owned by the municipality but occupied by farmers for agricultural cultivation. The office states:

Farmers may apply to the office to purchase or lease the occupied property—the road. Therefore, any farmer who submits an application by 30 October 2022 to purchase or lease a country road occupied by them will not be charged for the entire period of unauthorised use of the property.

Under Order No. 386/22 of the Head of Bolesławiec Municipality dated 1 July 2022, the annual rent for leasing a country road for agricultural purposes is PLN 400/ha (but no less than PLN 70). The lessee is obliged to pay the tax and other charges associated with possession of the leased property.

However, where the property serves as an access road to other properties, the farmer will be ordered to stop ploughing it up and to restore it to a condition in which it fulfils the function of a country road, through geodetic reinstatement. If, after being twice summoned to bring the actual state into line with the legal status, farmers show no willingness to cooperate, the owners of adjacent plots will be charged a fee for unauthorised use of the land—country roads—amounting to five times the rent rate, as well as property tax

.

The local authorities add:

If the fields have been leased and it is found that an adjacent road has been ploughed up, the above charges will be imposed on the landowner, not the lessee.

To determine the plot numbers of the roads you are using, the Geoportal of Bolesławiec County may be helpful: https://geoportal.powiatboleslawiecki.pl/ergogeoportal/f?p=110:113.

(Illustrative photo).