Can the BHS rethink their affiliated bridleway insurance changes?

[Suechoccy]

For many years the BHS has charged £30 per year for bridleway groups to affiliate to them. Very good value - groups get lots of free advice, access to (usually chargeable) training, and liability insurance cover for the group's work and any events which those groups want to organise (tack sales, fundraising rides, bridleways clearances).

Last year the BHS insurance changed to a new two tier system. The renewal notice came through - £30 to affiliate including free advice and access to (usually chargeable) training, and a massive price hike to £100 if you also wanted liability insurance.

Now why would any group not want the peace of mind of liability insurance? Especially as in any bridleway group all the members are VOLUNTEERS, unpaid, doing bridleway work for the good of horseriders, horses, and ultimately for the good of the BHS's reputation too. We need to know we are covered for this work.

The group which I'm secretary of doesn't charge a membership. (We tried for several years running and very few people coughed up each year yet all would be on the phone as soon as they found a bridleway problem expecting us to solve it for them. So we changed tack and became a free membership group, raising funds on an as-and-when basis for specific items and this has gone down well with members - eg we needed to raise £70 to cover the cost of some road planings, so we asked members to cough up and they did).

In 2018 we had to ask them to cough up to cover the new much higher charge of affiliation, and they did, just. But it means if 3 months down the line we ask them for some roadplanings, and then 6months after that we ask them to club together to replace a broken gate ... you can see where I'm coming from - ask too often and the sources will dry up, and sod's law it's always the same few people coughing up which isn't fair.

So as the BHS is a rich organisation, and as the bridleway group VOLUNTEERS are doing massive amounts of work FREE OF CHARGE on behalf of the BHS and horseriders in general, could the BHS cover the £70 increase themselves as a thank-you to the bridleway group committees and their members for the hours, days and months of work year after year, decade after decade, which we put in. (The group I'm in formed back in 1999 so that's a heck of a long time of volunteering).

(We do fund-raise - ran two ParknRides for Access Week netting £30 in total (just six riders turned up at £5 each), and an indoor tack sale netting £70 in total after we'd paid the hall rent) so that was three days of our volunteer time gone in order to cover the affiliation fee for 2018.

 

[Goldenstar]

Are all your volunteers BHS members ?

 

[Suechoccy]

Yes they are, gold members too. But with the gold being a last resort insurance for horse riders, it wouldn't surprise me to find out the small print excludes bridleway activities, hence the need for bridleway liability insurance on top of existing individual gold membership insurances.

 

[honetpot]

As I see it you are helping the BHS carry out part of its charitable aims, so should be supported for free.
If you members can vote against the changes that will give members less of a voice in making changes to policy I think that would be a good thing. I think most of us think the BHS management just see us as a cash cow.
There is still time to send off your vote, or attend the meeting.
http://www.bhs.org.uk/our-charity/p...il&utm_term=0_ce97b82f97-49d192a8c3-208449535

Please pass this on to your members, if we stick together we can make a change.
https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/threads/another-british-horse-society-c-k-up.767675/

 

[Orangehorse]

I am secretary of a group too, and yes it was a large increase. Due, I guess, to the increasing cost of insurance with everyone so quick to sue (it must be someone's fault).

WE are fortunate that we had some really good fundraising ideas when the group was first formed, so we have a healthy balance in the bank. We had some really generous people who put up very good prizes for quizes and raffles and so on.

 

[Lovethebeach]

I agree it is bad, has anyone thought that perhaps one of the Bridleways Group could become a BHS Access Officer, then get that person to organise what ever event or clearance you want to do, using the group as volunteers. That way the BHS as organiser would cover the insurance. It is something our group is thinking of doing because, as you say, we are doing BHS work for them

 

[Orangehorse]

I agree it is bad, has anyone thought that perhaps one of the Bridleways Group could become a BHS Access Officer, then get that person to organise what ever event or clearance you want to do, using the group as volunteers. That way the BHS as organiser would cover the insurance. It is something our group is thinking of doing because, as you say, we are doing BHS work for them

That could work, although there is a great deal more in being a BHS Access Officer than just doing path clearance.

 

[oldjumper]

I agree it is bad, has anyone thought that perhaps one of the Bridleways Group could become a BHS Access Officer, then get that person to organise what ever event or clearance you want to do, using the group as volunteers. That way the BHS as organiser would cover the insurance. It is something our group is thinking of doing because, as you say, we are doing BHS work for them

I think ‘they’ are doing our work rather than other way round! Our local BWG raise affiliation fee from one pleasure ride. Having investigated other insurance options I think it is the insurance companies that merit more criticism than BHS.

 

[honetpot]

Keeping bridleways open by BHS volunteers for the benefit of all users is helping the BHS fill its charitable aims, so it gets any tax paid back, amongst other things. What ever the insurance premium it must be a lot smaller than the £138,000 it spent on a converted lorry this year, the real purpose for, and the running costs of, the members have not been informed of.

 

[Suechoccy]

The cost of that lorry would have covered the insurance costs at £100 each (ie the top level of insurance) of all the BHS affiliated groups. And absolutely yes our members are doing BHS work as Honetpot says, keeping bridleways open, researching historical bridleways, spending 100s of hours of our spare time in consultations/meetings/presentations with developers to get new bridleways. I dread to think how much of my personal spare time has been spent in such meetings over the last 20 years with Cambridgeshire County Council, South Cambs District Council, Huntingdon District Council, many many parish councils, Cambridge Cycling Campaign, Sustrans, Ramblers UK, Cycling UK, RSPB, Cambridge Preservation Society, National Trust, Cambridge Wildlife Trust, Environment Agency, Highways England, Greater Cambridge Partnership, Cambridgeshire Local Access Forum, Network Rail, Gallaghers, SuperCam, many different consultancies working for council or Highways England, .....not to mention all the housing developers, let alone all the private landowners! And that's just me. Multiply that by every other bridleway group official nationwide and we are doing a MASSIVE amount of work for the benefit of horseriders (and the benefit of BHS).