Blocked bridleway – Council being idle so what to do?

A landowner has taken it upon himself to remove a metal gate and chop off the top of the bridleway sign, followed by the erection of new fencing and the planting of saplings. It is not passable.

I checked on the Council’s website to see if there was a notice of bridleway extinguishment etc. and there wasn’t. I informed the Council some 6 weeks ago of this and have received an acknowledgement advising of its second-highest priority as it’s completely blocked.

To date nothing has been done and I’ve sent another reminder to the Council. I’ve also informed the Ramblers’ Association.

This is obviously giving out the message to landowners that they can do what they like which of course they can’t.

What to do next?

Where is it exactly? Just get loads of folk to use it, soon won’t be any saplings or a fence!

Well, a few saplings looked to be the victim of windy weather conditions. 😉

Edit: to be fair, it’s a quiet area and reckon that it’s aimed at the horse riders. Bare field now has something growing in it.

In your position I would expect a terse and unhelpful reply from the council (*based on personal experience), oh, and the gate in my question is still locked 2 years later.

Where abouts is it , is there a local byways and bridleways association
Opps just seen that’s been asked

Sony useful stuff here
http://www.bhs.org.uk/helping-horses-and-riders/bridleways-and-routes/bridleways-and-routes-faq

towzer – what happened?

Speak to the PROW officer and ask them to serve notice. Is there a planning application in progress at the property or any development going on.

Presumably if a planning application was in place there should have been a notice attached to a tree or something? There is no property on the field, not even a barn. Funnily enough the bridleway notice at the other end is still there. But of course it doesn’t go anywhere!

Welcome to the cuts people. You really think councils have money for ROW stuff when here they are struggling to collect the bins?

You can serve notice on the council requiring them to take action under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000

derbyshire county council are swimming in cash. they have enough to pave the peak district

Derbyshire County Council are not the Peak District National Park 🙄

Put up your own bridleway sign just to piss him off & to let him know that someone’s noticed what he’s done.

Next time you Could threaten to freedom of information the council to chivvy them on a bit. Councils hate that.

Local paper might be interested.

matt_outandabout – Member
Welcome to the cuts people. You really think councils have money for ROW stuff when here they are struggling to collect the bins?
POSTED 21 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

They seem to find an endless supply of money to cover the bridle ways in bloody gravel.

derbyshire county council are swimming in cash. they have enough to pave the peak district

Hardly – 1400 jobs are at risk at their head offices due to cutbacks

yet despite losing so many jobs they can find 250,000 to flatten long causeway. shame on them

Is this near Romsey CG ? I might be able to get out and use it now & then – maybe it’s one I already use

All things being equal, 6 weeks is generally enough time to get a problem of that nature sorted out, with the time being between the first complaint and all works on the ground completed.

For me if things take longer than normal its usually because after serving notice on the landowner they then prevaricate and problems take MUCH longer: –

e.g. ask them nicely to sort out so give them ~7 days (generally), then if nothing is done serve notice requiring them to open it, so thats another 2-4 weeks depending on caseloads / etc, then at the last minute they say ‘well I’m only a tenant so write to Mr X up the road’ (despite them saying they’re the landowner), so that’s another 2-4 weeks, then the landowner says ‘ok I dispute this notice because I have evidence the route isn’t a BW / the route is wrong / whatever’. So, it may appear a simple obstruction but occasionally its far more complicated.

I always do my best to update complainants if there are any problems like this though, so hopefully its just an oversight on your local teams behalf. Speak to them on the phone, its the best way to get an answer there and then 🙂

It’s not time yet for a Section 130 notice, these are only useful in situation like towzers (which simply isn’t good enough TBH)

Shout if anyone needs more info

[edit]

Regarding the ‘well they spent £x on path Y so they can’t be short of money’, part 2 of my – now ancient – article[/url] explains that the money for such work comes 99% of the time from central government capital grants; completely separate from general council maintenance budgets, despite them being used for broadly similar things and delivered by the same people.

scaredy – no, it’s in Alresford. 🙂

schnor – thanks for such a helpful post. 8) I guess what I’m really worried about is that other landowners could do the same and it becomes a free for all.

I seem to remember a case from years ago when a Council didn’t have sufficient money to take a landowner to Court so Joe Public were inconvenienced.

In fairness, the delay may be due to the number of fallen trees that needed dealing with. Some rights of way have been completely obstructed and I’ve reported anything that I’ve come across.

Will take a read of your links. 🙂

matt_outandabout – Member

Welcome to the cuts people.

What cuts?
I haven’t cut the amount of money I pay my council. 💡

CG – let me know where abouts in Alresford it is and I may be able to get a direct contact with the landowner as we work with loads around that area.

I think you have my e.mail if you don’t want it on here.

Andy

Welcome to the cuts people. You really think councils have money for ROW stuff when here they are struggling to collect the bins?

Councils have a legal responsibility to fulfil their statutory duties, if they need more resources to do so, then they can either cut budgets in their non-statutory discretionary spending, or put up their council tax – the choice not to do this is a political one by local councillors, not of central government.

I don’t think 6 weeks is that bad to be honest. Keep on at them though and something will get done.

Cut backs, as a PRoW Officer I was made redundant last year!

Councils have a legal responsibility to fulfil their statutory duties, if they need more resources to do so, then they can either cut budgets in their non-statutory discretionary spending, or put up their council tax – the choice not to do this is a political one by local councillors, not of central government.

Yes Eric Pickles, whatever you say.

Councils have a legal responsibility to fulfil their statutory duties, if they need more resources to do so, then they can either cut budgets in their non-statutory discretionary spending, or put up their council tax – the choice not to do this is a political one by local councillors, not of central government. – See more at: http://bikeradar.com

If so it’s one of the few problems with local government which can’t be blamed on Eric Pickles central government.

I happen to be related to a local PROW chap, I am sure he covers alresford, Hampshire.
Funnily enough he also rides a single speed.
Email me and I will put you in touch.

if they need more resources to do so, then they can either cut budgets in their non-statutory discretionary spending, or put up their council tax – the choice not to do this is a political one by local councillors, not of central government

But if discretionary spending was only 25% of the local budget, then for 4 years central government cuts their grant funding and limits the amount they can raise council tax, they run out of discretionary spending to cut. It’s driven by political choices of central government.

Some guy near me built a house and blocked off an old footpath that loads of residents used to get to the railway station.

Needless to say, this guy wasn’t popular. It saved about a 15-20 minute walk and he blocked it off as his driveway was literally part of the footpath and he didn’t want to put a fence up to separate the drive from the footpath.

Took ages to get it reopened and even included the local papers and Facebook pages being set up etc. Think it was about 2 years or so till he removed this bit of his fence.

Because of his stubbornness the fence he erected all round his garden now just has a panel missing to reopen the footpath. Looks stupid, but you can get a bike through and blast through his garden whilst he’s having a BBQ 😆

simmy – there’re loads of footpaths and bridleways around Winchester which seem to go down peoples driveways and through their gardens. It always brings a smile to my face when my mate and I run through ’em.

If somebody blocked one as per your example Simmy I’d take great delight in using it regularly and giving a cheery hello and wave every time I passed and saw the owner 😈

limits the amount they can raise council tax, they run out of discretionary spending to cut. It’s driven by political choices of central government.

There is no rigid central government limit on raising council tax – your local council could put up your council tax by 40% and increase the level of services they offered to the public if thats what the elected councillors feel the local residents want – the only qualification is that they would have to put it to a binding local referendum.

When I see the council turning off their office lights at night and stop sending out free newsletters, I’ll believe they can’t afford to enforce their rights of way duties 🙁

great to see STW and it’s contacts hopefully getting things done.

good luck in getting it cleared CG

Show your council this list…. http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/201waystosavemoney.pdf

201 ways to save money

Hi CG

in a nutshell – nothing, gate locked, but as you loose about 1/4 mile across a flat field (*there is a sort of alternative) it’s not world ending

Also dropped them another mail – about issue of inappropriate/over use by certain user types resulting in tracks becoming unusable by other user types – currently underwhelmed as they suggest there was nothing other than asking for voluntary restraint, I *thought(*still internetting) you could raise a TRO against a specific user type.

good luck and keep us posted on any useful discoveries

Tax Payer’s Alliance – the only thing they’re aligned about is looking after number one and protecting their offshore accounts.

Still, I suppose if they have an ear and can save the common man a few bob – we can always hang them when the revolution comes. 😉

Show your council this list…. http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/201waystosavemoney.pdf

201 ways to save money

I get pissed off with Councils wasting money but that list is pretty stupid.

There a few good ideas on there but the vast majority is just Daily Wail nonsense.

yet despite losing so many jobs they can find 250,000 to flatten long causeway. shame on them

So far they have spent considerably less than that, having just done the easy section. The expensive bit – repairing the revetment – is still to be done and the speculation is that it will be delayed indefinitely. So we’ll be left with the pigs ear combo we have at the moment – half bowling green smooth, half bowling balls !

As to their squandering money on Wigley Lane, apparently it is justified by the fact that it won’t need to be done again in the foreseeable future. Suggestion from Ride Sheffield is for those living or working in Derbyshire to hassle their councillors about it

CG

http://www.ctc.org.uk/sites/default/files/file_public/bridleways-byways-cycle-tracksbrf.pdf – see bottom p6

If the highway authority fails to respond to reasonable requests to deal with obstructed
or ‘out of repair’ bridleways or restricted byway, be prepared to serve Highways Act
1980 section 56 or section 130A orders on them.