this isnt specifically bike related i have had a friend who rides horses ask, if there is something up (within reason) on a bridal way i ride i usually will sortit myself ie cut a branch back or something. but if a bridal way is heavily overgrown/rutted/rough who would be the contact you would go to? the land owner where the bridalway goes through? anybody have any ideas?

You mean no one has been grooming the bridal way?

I’m shocked.

either land owner or council

You mean no one has been grooming the bridal way?

You’d hope the bridalway was well kempt on such a big day 😆

Too late for the wedding…

but I believe it’s the landowner’s responsibility not to allow any right of way to be obstructed. If you contact the Rights of Way Officer at the local authority they will sort it out for you.

ta very much

Best Man, shirley?

😉

Don’t call him shi..

Ok, it’s the council… 🙂

Council cut back obstructing bushes for us a couple of years back when we emailed them. Did a good job.

This is my contribution to the thread – I go out maybe one ride in ten with pruning shears and a saw.

It’s a form of cross training.

It’s bridleway, to start with.

Local authorites are supposed to maintain them to a good enough standard, which is why on the new “definitive maps” of the sixties 95% of Britain’s bridleways were quietly relegated to the lower standard of footpath. Thus thousands of miles of great cycling and horse-riding routes were lost for ever.

There’s a group near Hebden Bridge called South Pennines Packhorse Trails Trust who campaign to get ancient bridleways reinstated as bridleways but it takes hours of historical research then a court appearance to prove that a trail was once used by horses.

If the vegetation is overhanging from adjacent land then it is landowner responsibility who the Highway Authority can serve notice on to remove the offending material. This can take a while as the landowner usually is given 4 weeks to respond initially.

Most bridle ways are maintainable by the local council.

The council has no statutory duty to maintain bridleways to a standard that is suitable for bicycles. It only has to maintain them so as to be passable by foot or on horseback.

Restricted byways are dealt with differently. The council has no statutory duty to PROVIDE a surface that’s suitable for vehicles, however, as many of these routes were historically made up to accomodate motorvehicles and/or horse and carts/pedal cycles they do have a duty to keep that surface in repair.

Many restricted byways/BOAT’s are incorrectly recorded as bridlepaths.

Thanks to NERC act the task of having these correctly recorded has been made much harder in practical terms, even at restricted bywyay status.

If anyone wants to report overgrown bridleways or footpaths then the FixMyStreet website and smartphone app is really good. It automatically figures out which council are responsible for the RoW and sends them a grid ref and any photos you take.

http://www.fixmystreet.com/

A lot of local authorities have had their budgets cut for RoW stuff, which combined with the wet year has really taxed their ability to keep routes clear. Last time I reported an overgrown BW I was told that they were unlikely to get round to clearing it.

In the long term they’re looking to arrange more volunteer work parties, which could be a chance for MTBers to get more involved with the RoW network and have a bit of input into it.

OP – Is there a specific bridleway you have in mind? If so does it have a junction with a road at either end? If so the highway authority (HA) has a statutory duty to install a sign at these points. The percentage of these signs that are in place used to be a key performance indicator for the HA and so was quite an easy thing to get put in. Once there’s a sign at the end of the path/way then you find it gets used a bit more often keeping the vegetation down and any other problems get reported to the HA more quickly.

Tell your friend to organise a vegetation cutting party! Don’t just assume someone else will do it. Local horse riders tend to be very keen to come to help when we ask them to.

We cut back the vegetation on all the bridleways adjoining our land once a year. We also do the side not adjoining our land as our neighbours don’t bother. We also tend to continue down the full length of them to the parts not adjoining our land. I think it is just a good thing to do.

I’ve used http://www.fixmystreet.com/ before.
I don’t know if it was solely my report that did it, but I’ve got a couple of obstructions removed that way.