Writing to the council for a bridle path?

[LaurenBay]

This could be long so I apologise in advance!

There is a grass track directly infront of our Yard, YO has ridden down it to find that it is blocked by fallen trees, just enough space for a person to walk through but not the Horse so turned round and came back. Yesterday we took the YO's Dog for a walk on the same track, once we got past the trees it opened up into really nice open woodland, absolutley perfect for a hack as no roadwork and great canter places, nice and open etc. Grass tracks,the scences are beautiful.

There are 2 bridges that are not Horse friendly at all, they are not strong enough and are not wide enough. We could jump the ditch though as is very small, but trees would need to be clipped back for us to jump saftley. There is also a wooden gate leading out of the woods which can only be climbed over, so again not suitable for the Horses. That then leads past another yard and a really nice open field that leads back to my yard, there is another wooden gate at the top of the field but it has been cut in half, and the barbwire pulled back and tied to a tree, so guessing the other yard has done that

It's by far the nicest route we have near us! and would be great as a hacking route if only it was made more Horse friendly, we wouldnt mind cutting the trees back ourselves it's just the gates and bridges that are a problem. We were thinking of writing to Essex County Coucil and asking them to turn this into a bridle path. Has anyone had any experiences of doing this ?

There are plenty of yards near us, so we could get a petition together and send a copy off to local MP and Essex County Coucil, any other ideas off who we would need to contact?

It isn't private land as has lots of signs around that say "Public footpath"

Thanks, Ben and Jerrys cookie dough ice cream if you got this far!

 

[Gluttonforpunishment]

There was a similar thread on here not so long ago - might be worth searching.

Rights of Way are the domain of the County Council so they are the first point of call.

Changing a Public Footpath to Bridleway takes a long time as it has to go through various consultations. It is highly unlikely to happen unless the circumstances are exceptional, you will have objections from local ramblers associations etc.

Sorry for the negative response but from past experience you would be wasting your time.

 

[Pipkin]

Contact both your Rights of way dept at the council and also your BHS bridleway office!
I`ve recently moved house and have no bridleways in my area, all roads are used by lorries going to the ferry port so are really really busy!
There used to be a bridleway at the end of my lane that leads to the ebach but the property owners have built on this and caused a bit of a hoo ha is now getting sorted finally and both BHS and Council are looking for other routes to be opened as bridlways.
It`s worth contacting someone.

 

[Christmas Crumpet]

Is it actually a footpath already? If it is not and it is on private land I think you would be very, very unlikely to get a bridleway put in.

If it is council land then who knows?

 

[Foxy53]

Hi Lauren
ECC has a very good website with a direct link to the highways/bridleways, which is where you need to go.
I contacted them some time ago about bad ruts on a byway but didn't get much help. Apparently ECC pass the buck to what appears to be a self-appointed committee; I haven't had time to look into this in more depth, but it looks like it consists of general members of the public. I don't know who they are or how they become 'elected', but they appear to have a lot of clout as to where ECC spend money on it's bridleways.
It would be interesting to see what areas these people live in and what condition their bridleways are in.............. or am I being a tad cynical?

 

[LaurenBay]

Thanks for the replys

CarolineB its already a public footpath, as far as I can tell all the land belongs to the council.

Thanks for the advice, this is the only path near us that would be suitable to ride around, we do have other paths near but first we have to hack down a very windey country road were drivers zoom round! and then across a very busy road.

 

[OWLIE185]

First of all you need to determine if this is a 'Public Right of Way and also what status it is recorded as at this moment of time on the definitive map held by the County Council' by contacting the Definitve Map Officer at the Essex County Council.

If it is a Public Footpath then you are not allowed to ride on it.

To change a Public Footpath to a Right of Way of Higher Status i.e a Bridleway or Restricted Byway you need to be able to demonstrate that it has been used for 20 years continuously by horse riders and then get them to complete evidence forms sttating this. Alternatively you could do historic research on the track and find evidence that it was used by horse riders. Alternatively you could persuade the land owners concerned to dedicate the section of the route that passes over their land as a Bridleway.
I would suggest that you initially contact your local BHS Bridleway officer who will be only to pleased to help you. If you e-mail me at peter.natt@btinternet.com I will send you their contact details.
Peter Natt BHS Volunteer Access/Bridleway Officer North Hertfordshire