Very overgrown Rights of Way – what happens in your area?

It’s obviously appreciated that local Councils just don’t have the resources to cut grass, trim overhanging branches etc. There’s still fallen tress that need to be removed from the last blustery weather.

I now go out in full body cover and sometimes am struggling to actually see a track, let alone cycle along it. It’s of great concern that tracks could disappear due to lack of use through non-management.

Am particularly keen to hear if there are any local Councils who’ve reached out to the community to assist in this task. Has anyone helped to clear their local rights of way with the Council’s blessing?

Thanks. 🙂

Us Sustrans volunteers have work days where we do that job and we have insurance incase we injure someone walking past.

I would imagine that the council ROW person should be the first port of call and then take it from there i.e. if no interest then go DIY

The Ramblers (yes!) may have a local group who could assist. They often have both effective lobbying skills and spare time for pruning.

I’ve recently reported about 14 different issues locally. If last year is anything to go by, the local authority will contact all the landowners where the ROW goes across their land and remind them of their obligations. This will include a time limit on remedial action so those trails will be cleared within 2 weeks.

Anything the responsibility of the LA will go untouched unless someone gets injured or you hassle the local councillors/Parish councils incessantly.

DIY. I’m regularly trimming back undergrowth at this time of year,catch it before it gets too bad, trim back a little here and there,and it doesn’t take too much time or effort. If we all did a bit, the trails would be a far better place for all of us.

I have been complaining to West Berkshire council for clearing cycle paths since September, which are now physically unrideable and still nothing has been done, so imagine how ROW may well look round here, if they don’t do the main arteries for people to use.

West Hampshire here and everything is well overgrown, doubt the council can keep up at the moment. I agree about some of the trails, tried to ride one the other evening, grass/brambles/nettles were over head height when sat on the bike. Given the state of the roads here, I imagine paths/trails are well down the list of priorites. I go out now with a small handsaw, I just needs to fix some hedge trmmers and a stimmer to the front of my bike, sort of Edward Scissor Bike!

Im sure there was a case in the paper a few weeks ago of someone being charged with criminal damage for clearing over grown bushes at the side of a footpath. There might be a difference for breaking a few branches as opposed to going tooled up to clear undergrowth.

If it’s the same case then the bloke in question removed metal fencing and sold it to fund his maintenance.

FFS It’s summer, of course everything is overgrown – maybe just get out and ride more to keep the undergrowth down?

Yet another example of why Scottish ‘Right to Roam’ works, no one worries about overgrown routes and nor does anyone seem to worry if you cut fallen trees either.

I cut it down with my handlebars.

There are lots of fallen trees on routes I use when home, some have been there for a couple of years now. Paths and routes have just gone around them, small or lengthy re routes.
I think it’s all part of nature and we shouldn’t stress too much over it.
I know it’s a piano sometimes, hopping on and off your bike, to either lift or carry over trees and branches and such, but you know.. it ain’t that bad.

I’m more annoyed by Farmers and Joe Public blocking them TBH.

I know it’s a piano sometimes, hopping on and off your bike, to either lift or carry over trees and branches and such, but you know.. it ain’t that bad.

This some sort of street slang?

landowners have an obligation to keep them sufficiently clear that they are passable. ROW officer as mentioned. in particular, if tress have fallen and blocked a trail, it’s the duty of whoever’s land it’s fallen in from to clear it.
there’s one particular BW near us that’s used a lot that, we tend to take care of ourselves, but we’re not going there with chainsaws. I have the phone number of the guy who does maintenance on one of the estates, so if there’s anything bigger than i can clear with a bowsaw, i’ll give him a shout.
the council do go up there too, strimming.

Thanks for the replies and useful suggestions. My point really is that that what we have now is the cumulative effect of many years of little money and time being spent on them so much so that they’ve gone past the stage of it being just Summer growth.

I don’t contact the local Council about overgrown trails, only about fallen tress that make a trail virtually impassable or a farmer intent on ensuring that nobody can use a trail.

Having been riding around for 15 years or so I can honestly say that the trails have never looked so overgrown and neglected.

Will contact the Rights of Way Department to ask if I can help.

Will only get worse when more and more other users get band.People moan about 4x4s etc but at least they keep the undergrowth down.Did a bridleway last week from Flyfield common to Rockly grass etc was as high as the bars.Gets abit dodgy when you cant see the ground 🙁

The answer around our way is ‘bugger all’. The folding saw gets stuffed in my pack and I will attack nettles and the like if I feel like they are too high and I have the time. Otherwise it is ride on regardless and try to avoid any questions at work about self-harming.

Yet another example of why Scottish ‘Right to Roam’ works, no one worries about overgrown routes and nor does anyone seem to worry if you cut fallen trees either.

Bollocks. I had to force my bike through gorse and heather and all sorts of shite on a trail near the Bridge of Oykel earlier this week. 16 lovely ticks as a result.

Today I rode/pushed/thrutched/body surfed through a mile of 6 foot high grasses and nettles on a **** byway near Wantage. A machete would not have helped it was so dense. I found the best tactic was to scream “you f**king w***er” every fourth step.

Check your council website has an interactive map like we do here in Dorset.

I can highlight a section that is overgrown and report it with comments. Mention anything safety hazard related i.e ‘fell off my bike when the 6 foot high weeds caught my handlebars’ and it gets cleared in no time.

Dave, I have logged on line calls, marking a map of the areas needing clearing, made telephone calls, sent emails with pictures. Usual response of ‘we’ll look into it and come back to you’ Still nothing. Chased up again last week and got another response of ‘ we need 10 working days to come back to your response from 3 months ago’ 😯
I sent the initial enquiry in September, which they reminded me, as I had forgotten. West Berkshire council have really let it go to pot.

Bollocks. I had to force my bike through gorse and heather and all sorts of shite on a trail near the Bridge of Oykel earlier this week. 16 lovely ticks as a result.

I didn’t say that they were kept clear, just that ‘no one worries’ if they are overgrown.

If you see a problem, deal with it yourself, otherwise ride somewhere else.

Here in Suffolk emails/calls to the County Council do sometimes result in an inspection and normally the local farmer being asked to clear the blocked route. However, sometimes the farmers say the Council should do it, and the Council says it’s for the farmers to do, and……so on!

Agree with CG though – local tracks and trails have never been so overgrown. Mainly due to a very wet winter and funding cuts. The former is beyond our immediate control, the latter (believe it or no) are not. Accepting ‘we’re all in it together’ leads to passivity. Council budget cuts are not inevitable like bad weather. They’re decisions taken by people who like us to believe that we should pay for the financial sector’s screw ups. I find locally that only the Green Party councillors have a robust attitude to keeping rights of way clear.

I often go out with secateurs in my back pack, occasionally shears. And I hassle the Council. ‘Every little bit helps…’

and mild. Last summer was actually pretty good for undergrowth as lots of frosts killed stuff, decent amounts of snow flattened other stuff.

I get around 40mins continuous use out of my battery hedge trimmer. I just ordered a second battery.

If you see a problem, deal with it yourself, otherwise ride somewhere else.

I see it from a completely different point of view. I think rights of way are an important part of our heritage and can be directly responsible for encouraging people into the outdoors. As such keeping them clear is the sort of thing I pay my taxes for and equally I think landowners who benefit from large subsides for just about everything should be tasked to drive their mowers down them once in a while.

“deal with it yourself” is totally naive. I rode 35 miles to get to this section, it is nearly 1 mile long and as I said 6 foot high. When clear it provides a long flat excellent off road alternative to a busy B road, if it were clear I don’t doubt that walkers and cyclists would use it. I alone could not clear it, it would be like painting the Forth Bridge. But that does not mean it should just be left.

Maybe we need a Fixmystreet type app. for RoW’s? I know that this has made a real impact upon local councils who are compelled to respond within certain timescales for complaints.

OP, it depends if someone has recently built an enormous faux Georgian manor house near the ROW as to whether or not it gets maintained.

Or perhaps I’m being cynical.

Quote function not working properly so David B said: “As such keeping them clear is the sort of thing I pay my taxes for and equally I think landowners who benefit from large subsides for just about everything should be tasked to drive their mowers down them once in a while.”

I totally agree, but it is a win-win for lots of landowners as they

a) Get to sit on their arses and not do anything about it

and

b) Get to keep people ‘oooorf my laaaand’ by having impassible RoWs.

This is the prevailing mentality in a lot of cases, I’m afraid. They don’t regard RoWs as a public amenity, more as an embuggerance that they would much rather do without.

Why couldn’t we use Fixmystreet for reporting PROW problems?

BITD the Chiltern Society used to get members to adopt a ROW & keep them clear in the spring & summer – if you enjoy the rights of way, no real problem with keeping one or two clear yourself surely (as long as okay’d with land owner obviously).

Goes off & makes mental note to join chiltern society for the umpteenth time 😳

If it’s reasonably short- ie an hour our two’s work- I do it myself. And without fail a dog walker will tell me off for it. It’s about 50/50 whether they threaten to call the police.

Phoning around councils and rangers and that to find out whose job it is, is pretty timeconsuming and frustrating ime. Though, it’s different up here as we don’t have (or need) the super-formalised bridleways/rights of way stuff. We had some really dangerous hanging trees over a footpath last year that took about 30 minutes on the phone just to get the right dude- who, fair play, came out the next day and made it safe.

And without fail a dog walker will tell me off for it. It’s about 50/50 whether they threaten to call the police.

Yes, but that’s only because it far easier to ‘lose’ a big pile of dog shit if the place is overgrown……… 🙄

If you see a problem, deal with it yourself, otherwise ride somewhere else.

^^ this

My comment about the Piano above is dependant on how heavy your bike is 😆

I will cut back fallen trees if needed but just crash through nettles and brambles, as some have said it would be a never ending task with the miles of ROW and not many people doing it. The good news is they die back when it gets cold 😆

Why couldn’t we use Fixmystreet for reporting PROW problems?

I have used it for this and eventually it got sorted.

We go along all our local connecting bridleways once a year with the hedge cutters. Takes a few hours, but I am sure people appreciate it. I also phone the neighbours and rope them in. People that use the paths are normally very happy to help in my experience.

Every little helps.

Theres a section of FC land near me which has 15 mature trees with 3′ trunks across the main path in a 100yd section. They’ve had branches trimmed off them, but nothing cleared.
I guess the bad winds in feb just smashed them down and there are LOADS down in the vicinity.
I’ve encountered a couple of bridleways which were pretty much impassible because of lack of use and undergrowth going mad.
Things should start to calm down now things have dried out and some of the plants will die back.
Bloody hogweed at the moment is terrible. It nearly had me off a couple of times, pulling at the bars!

I think what you need to do is attach some big machetes to the ends of your handlebars, and devise some method of making them rotate at a dangerous speed by connecting them to your drivetrain. You can then ride along your favourite overgrown byways and trim them as you go 😀

I would suggest attempting not to crash though 😆

Cheers, Rich

I think what you need to do is attach some big machetes to the ends of your handlebars, and devise some method of making them rotate at a dangerous speed by connecting them to your drivetrain.

I think some Boadicea-style hub mounted machetes, but would they need to be 26/650b/29 specific? You know, to really bring the pruning alive……

Why not carry garden sprayer with Agent Orange in it. Job done.

the latter (believe it or no) are not. Accepting ‘we’re all in it together’ leads to passivity. Council budget cuts are not inevitable like bad weather. They’re decisions taken by people who like us to believe that we should pay for the financial sector’s screw ups.

Sort of, but the local authority budget cuts are not driven by local decisions, well, not the need for them, that’s down the lovely Mr Pickles and the shafting of local authorities (more so in metropolitan areas, more so in the north as well as it happens, but to some extent everywhere).

So then, locally, you’re into the lovely world of “how many hospital beds?” politics where choices DO have to be made, and hard ones at that. So, with some justification, those with an interest will make noise when the funds are cut in that area. Clearing paths for the middle classes to enjoy their leisure time on (whether on four feet or two wheels) is likely to lead to less hand-wringing in the local press than withdrawing funds for domestic violence refuges, mental health services, respite care for parents of severely disabled kiddies etc. etc.

I’m not saying it’s right, but it’s the reality, and when the people who make the decisions that lead to this situation are up for election, it’s seen as a “national” thing, votes aren’t cast for local reasons (unless impacted more obviously and directly by national decisions, such as HS2), they’re votes for “in-or-out-of-yerp” type issues, or, lets be frank, “who is going to stop this flood of immigrants and benefit scroungers who are the real reason the funding’s been cut for my local yoghurt weaving club?” reasons.