Lydia00
Olympic Poster
I have nothing to fear; and here my story ends. My troubles are all over, and I am at home.
Posts: 922
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Post by Lydia00 on Jan 3, 2006 1:24:15 GMT 1
Im just sick of the fact that around me, there are no safe places to ride! And that goes for all livery yards in my area! Im just lucky that where i am now has there own xc course and the YO lets us ride on his land! But this isnt always convenient and is besides the point really. Anyway, the other day i read an article in the local paper and it was all about the fact that our council no nothing about Equestrian related statistics and didnt realise how many horse riders there were in Burnley! It doesnt surprise me as there are no Bridleways ANYWHERE is burnley! Crow wood made a link Bridleway that connects us to the other side of town but isnt always ideal because you have to cross a River Ford at the end, and even though my pony will happily walk through, you cant pass in winter!! So how can ANYONE get our council to build Bridleways if they obviously dont have an interest if they dont even have a Rights of Way officer? Behind my yard there is LOVELY country side so you would THINK there would be access to SOMEWHERE but instead, just a busy By Pass!
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carol
Grand Prix Poster
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Post by carol on Jan 3, 2006 8:09:06 GMT 1
Hiya Lydia. I just had a look on your area on Multimap, hmm, I can see your problem....plenty of footpaths but hardly a bridleway for miles.
Things maybe worth thinking about...are there enough riders in your area to form a group to start putting pressure on your local council? Is there a bridleways officer in another area who you contact for advice and help? Start a campaign, contact your local paper, get some horse road accident statistics to quote at them....the BHS might be able to help you with that.
To start with though, I would get your local maps out and work out exactly where you need a bridleway, and then call a meeting somewhere for riders....advertise it like mad, and see where it goes from there......oh, and get to know other local landowners who might let you have a permissive route across their land!
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anon
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Post by anon on Jan 3, 2006 9:38:23 GMT 1
Contact BHS "Arow" group - they will help you
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Post by gilly on Jan 3, 2006 11:19:00 GMT 1
You said the council don't have a rights of way officer. They should at least have a rights of way department and someone there who could speak with you about access for horses.
Contact any local walking/nature groups- they will probably know who the contact person is at the council for footpaths and access. They may be able to help you or point you in the right direction. Also local farmers may be willing to discuss access through their land.
The more people you can get involved the better. Perhaps you could start a local bridleways group, get your local BHS bridleways officer involved and start a campaign.
Also one thing we have often done round here is fill in evidence forms, to state how long you've ridden in the area, problems with access, rider's views of where they can and where they can't go etc....this has been done several times in this are where there has been a dispute over access or local riders have requested a change in status of a footpath to birdleway.
These things do take time though- you would be looking at years for anything to happen unfortunately.
One way to get the council to see things from a horse riders point of view is to show them! One of my friends who is quite involved with rights of way and bridleways plonked one of the clueless council blokes on a horse and took him for a ride- after he had struggled to cross a few busy road and been attacked by trees on overgrown bridleways he soon got the message!!
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Lydia00
Olympic Poster
I have nothing to fear; and here my story ends. My troubles are all over, and I am at home.
Posts: 922
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Post by Lydia00 on Jan 3, 2006 17:46:15 GMT 1
Thankyou for your advice everyone. I suppose theres just one problem though and thats that im not confident enough to get people going! Mayeb i could get someone else to take charge though! LoL.Carol, what website did you go on to find maps of footpaths and Bridleways?
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jinglejoys
Grand Prix Poster
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Post by jinglejoys on Jan 3, 2006 19:13:27 GMT 1
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carol
Grand Prix Poster
Posts: 3,084
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Post by carol on Jan 3, 2006 19:22:41 GMT 1
Lydia, do a search for 'multimap'. When you get it, type in the name of your town/village/city, and it will come up with a map. You can then zoom in and out of it, also you can look at ariel photos on there, always interesting, but then I'm a mapoholic....
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