Falkirk Area Riders Access Group

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Archive of items from past newsletters

JANUARY 2008

RIGHT OF WAY CF136 WESTER JAWCRAIG TO BEAM FARM - Landowner still not given permission for any work to take place.

MUIRAVONSIDE - Central Scotland Forest Trust will be undertaking some work to divert the path near the badger sets.

DRUM WOOD, BONNYBRIDGE - This woodland was also scheduled for regeneration but it requires a financial contribution from the Forestry Commission and this is not currently available. The Forestry Commission has not been making any awards recently because a number of rural grants, including forestry grants, will be brought together into an integrated system for rural support called Rural Development Contracts. This new rural programme should come into force early in 2008 and funds should be available thereafter. Timing on Drum Wood is therefore not known at present.

Annual General Meeting 2007

Tim Lucey was thanked for all his work in getting FARAG started and keeping the group going during the intervening years and he was presented with a small gift on behalf of the members.

December 2007

THE HELIX PROJECT - As you will probably have heard, £25 million will be spent in Falkirk District on this project. On 300 hectares of urban waste ground between Falkirk and Grangemouth around 34 kilometres of paths and tracks will be installed. The original plan also included an equestrian centre. If these new paths link in to the existing path network there could be many miles of good riding in the fairly near future. Work will start next year but this is such a big project that it is likely to take a few years.

ROUGHCASTLE - FARAG supported the Environmental Justice Fund bid and we applied for additional funds to support the Roughcastle project. Falkirk Environment Trust has made a provisional award of £28,000 to FARAG so that we can contribute towards the paths and tracks in this area. Callendar Estate is project managing this work as they own the land. This project has a target completion date of March 2008. The livery yards in Bonnybridge should benefit from these new tracks, although path improvement in Drum Wood will help even more. We do not have a timescale for the Drum Wood improvements yet.

BONNYBRIDGE BLOCKED ACCESS - This problem will have to be solved by the Council. They assure us they are working on it. However, this may take a long time as the Council will be very reluctant to spend any money on a court case.

LIMERIGG DRAINING PROJECT - No progress. There has been no tree felling and we have been unable to get any information out of the Forestry Commission. Regular checking of the Forestry Commission website has revealed very little activity recently, i.e., very little planting or felling. Falkirk Environment Trust is involved with another project in Limerigg Woods and they are making no progress either. We will keep trying to get this completed.

SLAMANNAN RAILWAY TRACK - Ongoing project which is going to take some time.

RIGHT OF WAY CF136 WESTER JAWCRAIG TO BEAM FARM - No news on this.

NORTH LANARKSHIRE CORE PATHS PLAN - They seem to be struggling to find any paths connecting to Falkirk. They also have a lot of roads included as possible core paths!

THE HIGHWAY CODE - The updated Highway Code is now in force. This can be viewed at www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/
Highwaycode/index.htm. Read the Introduction first so that you can distinguish between the legal requirements which say “Must/Must Not” as opposed to the advisory wording such as “should/should not”. Riding two abreast is a “should not” but riding on the pavement is a “must not” and riding on a cycle lane is a “should not”. There are recommendations on the amount of hi-vis clothing that riders should wear. The Highway Code is admissible in court so if you were unfortunate enough to be involved in an accident and not wearing the recommended hi-vis gear it would be held against you. Everyone should read the new Code to remind themselves of the rules.

COMPLAINTS ABOUT HORSE RIDERS’ BEHAVIOUR - Unfortunately, the Council have had a couple of complaints about riders going too fast down tracks and in one instance causing a pedestrian to fall over. This happened in an area where we have no members. This sort of incident does not help our cause when we are trying to get new tracks opened up and present horse riders as responsible access takers!

AUGUST 2007

BHS COMPANION HORSE WARNING - The BHS has issued a warning about selling or lending a horse as a companion. There have been instances of companion horses being sold on. The BHS has a template loan agreement which may prove useful in such cases. The BHS Welfare Department can provide help and advice and can be contacted on 01926 707804.

COURT CASES - Highland Council won their court case against Mr. Tuley. This was great news for horse riders as it related to a forestry track which had a gate installed specifically to exclude horse riders. The BHS access officer, Pat Somerville, gave evidence in this case and obviously she did very well on our behalf as a credible and reasonable witness. The other case which was resolved was Stirling Council v Ann Gloag, where the Council lost. This case did not involve horses but from the reports in the newspapers, the Ramblers representative may not have made the right impression on the Sheriff.

RESPONSIBLE ACCESS CAMPAIGN - This has gone well and all the livery yards, feed stores, saddlers, etc who have been approached so far have been willing to put up the posters and issue the leaflets. This campaign is still ongoing as there are still more livery yards to be visited.

Earlier

RESPONSIBLE RIDING CAMPAIGN

At a recent Access Forum meeting the National Farmers Union representative said that he had received complaints from farmers (no specific area mentioned) about riders galloping across grass fields in winter when the ground was very wet. We therefore agreed to undertake a campaign on responsible riding using the new leaflet and poster which has just been produced by the BHS. These are being distributed around the area and a copy of the leaflet is enclosed. At least we can be seen as being responsible about access and it puts us in a strong position with the Council when we complain about access being blocked.

ON LINE ACCESS SURVEY

Can all members who have not taken part in our on line survey please do so. We do not have enough replies to extract any meaningful results. Please give us your opinions of the tracks and paths in your area.