How would you find your local County Council BHS Bridleway/Access/Rights of Way Officer?

Good question!

I’ve paused the search after 3 mins 52 secs and still I’m no nearer finding the answer! I’m getting all sorts of irrelevant links even after putting ‘rights of way officer’ in the BHS search box.

ETA Got there in 6mins 12 secs.

The search function on the BHS site is rubbish. I had missed out using the term ‘access’ on my previous searches, and it couldn't compute.
 
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Not long at all - I started by googling 'bhs access officer norfolk' then a few more clicks once on the BHS website - in all maybe 30 seconds
 
About 10 seconds.

Three lines, in your area, Ireland.

But I don’t know if that’s specifically what you are looking for?
 
Quite quickly but I know the BHS website well - this is the page you need as it lists contacts by region https://www.bhs.org.uk/bhs-in-your-area/

TBf this is only regional contacts just to clarify. Having dealt with the BHS a lot, I'd always email someone who was an employee first over any form of volunteer. It gives you cause to go higher if they don't respond. Coucil wise, it's just a generic form sadly.
 
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teapot said:
Quite quickly but I know the BHS website well - this is the page you need as it lists all contacts by region https://www.bhs.org.uk/bhs-in-your-area/
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On the basis Peter was asking us to go through the main search function - forever and with a tonne of stuff coming up that was irrelevant.

Teapots link didn't come up at all!
 
cauda equina said:
Not long at all - I started by googling 'bhs access officer norfolk' then a few more clicks once on the BHS website - in all maybe 30 seconds
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I did the same for Surrey, absurdly I just got more links to anything not even remotely county connected and not our county...
Then similar for bridleways Surrey.

I too am familiar with the website, but I put my 'just follow links as a non member might do' head on and what a pain! I lost the will to carry on....

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Above, This is what came up 1st....

Then below.....
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Irritating indeed! And the Our access work hasnt got any county link in at all.
Its unwieldy, very efficient for making potential new members not join if they cannot even find BASIC information at a couple of clicks.
 
Just googled the council and rights of way officer and her name came
Up with an email address so less time than it took me to type this… why do you want to know?
 
About 4 minutes, and then to find that the information for my area is still wrong 🙄

BHS Ireland claims it can only lobby for existing routes, of which there are not many, yet it has been complicit in allowing access to several forests to be lost. Locally we are doing far more to regain that access than the BHS has ever done 😕
 
Took me about five minutes when I did it a few months ago, after discovering an access issue on the West Highland Way. She said she was looking into it. No idea if the bloody council has fixed the problem, though. I haven't been that way in a bit.
 
It's not great.
About 5 minutes but it wasn't easy, trial and error

I had to go to Go Riding, Riding out and Hacking and then pretend I wanted to report an incident Clicking again to report a problem and then got to BHS in my area.

and what I got was a contact for the whole of east of England when I know there's a few in Herts Peter among them.

At one point I found an area search box but you could only search on a map or use your location but not put s postcode in.

I would expect there to be a section for ROW or Access on the main menu top right or a directory where I could search by county.

And if you type in Hertfordshire in the search box, you get results for Herefordshire so they may want to fix that

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Not long. Found mine online on the council website last week as I had a bridle way issue. I filled in the online form and have already had an email to say they have inspected the problem and are contacting the farmer.
 
6 minutes, would have given up if it wasn’t for the challenge being set! Seems to be a glitch in the search function for East Yorkshire.

Why don’t they put a link in the Contact Us tab at the bottom 🤷‍♀️
 
haven’t tried but doubt anything will be done as it seems that the bridleways are always overgrown here and in neighbouring counties. We have secateurs in saddle bags!
 
Could do with a link to BHS in your Area under one of the main menus, like under About the BHS.
Appreciate it's in the top right corner, but that's usually the place for log in/account details (it even has a little user icon). The eye tends to block that out/skim past it, assuming it to be a log in link.
 
I timed it & it took under two minutes, but I did have to hop about all over the place as it wasn't very intuitive.

I did in fact contact that particular bridleways officer a couple of weeks ago, & she replied within a few days.
 
Ican never find anything on the BHS website. Always takes ages and if you do get to what you’re looking for - say training courses, or information sheets - there is no guarantee you’ll ever find them again.

Also, for ages I kept looking to see if there was anything on in my area, and just assumed nothing was happening. Then discovered that any pleasure rides etc are listed on the Facebook page but not on the website. I don’t really use Facebook.

ETA there is actually a lot of really very good information on the BHS site, eg the information sheets and leaflets on say suitable surfaces for horses, or one which can be handed to farmers about electric fencing etc on bridleways.
 
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PeterNatt said:
catembi said:
I timed it & it took under two minutes, but I did have to hop about all over the place as it wasn't very intuitive.

I did in fact contact that particular bridleways officer a couple of weeks ago, & she replied within a few d
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I ask you to let me know how long it takes you to find the contact details for your local BHS Bridleway/Access/Rights of Way Officer by searching on the www.bhs.org.uk web site?

Many thanks
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PeterNatt said:
May I ask you to let me know how long it takes you to find the contact details for your local BHS Bridleway/Access/Rights of Way Officer by searching on the www.bhs.org.uk web site?

Many thanks

Peter
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The BHS website has become notoriously difficult to usefully find ANYTHING, other than by chance.
Seem to have employed techies instead of equine enthusiasts, which deters existing members - never mind fresh ones. This has been remarked in our local riding group, and is disappointing.
BHS used to publish the direct contact details of Access officers; phone, email etc; but now you can only make contact via a clunky BHS email address - for data protection and corporate monitoring reasons - altho all Access officers are non-salaried volunteers - and it drives some of them to distraction.
Do keep trying, but you might manage more quickly by asking local riders / riding groups who is the local Access Officer, and for their phone number - just cut the complication.
 
Are some people googling for their local council rights of way officer as opposed to trying to find their local county BHS volunteer access officer on the BHS website as Peter asked?

Two different tasks and one will lead to a paid council employee or contact and the other (eventually) to a probable local volunteer within the BHS.
 
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