British Horse Society calls for access to more off-road routes
With road accident figures appearing to indicate escalating numbers of horses and riders being injured, the British Horse Society is injecting new impetus into a campaign to help increase access to off-road routes.
The campaign is being launched after the original cut off date for changes to the Definitive Map, which was set a quarter of a century ago in the Countryside and Rights of Way Act for January 1.
If the cut-off date had not been put back to January 1 2031 by the previous Government it would have meant nobody could have claimed any new or historic bridleways or byways at a time when many routes in Yorkshire are continuing to be considered by officials.
To date, the society has submitted 4,255 Definitive Map Modification Order applications, 661 of which are in Yorkshire –some 15.5 per cent of applications nationwide.
Nine of the application routes have been confirmed in Yorkshire, totalling 8.95km of length, representing 9.2 per cent of confirmed orders.
The British Horse Society says the many of the historic routes would be useful in joining up the bridleway network as well as providing more routes for horse and carriage drivers.
The society points to how horse riders have access to just 23 per cent of the rights of way network and carriage drivers, who are limited to restricted byways and byways, to just five per cent.
The British Driving Society has described taking a pony and carriage on the roads as “extremely challenging”, however good a pony is in traffic.
The situation facing equestrians is so serious, the society, which has more than 110,000 members, with a further 34,000 members affiliated through a riding club, has spent 25 years calling for the deadline to be repealed.
However, the National Farmers Union says the current plan “simply perpetuates an outdated focus on routes that haven’t been used for centuries”.
It says the focus should instead be on a network “fit for the future that encourages responsible use, respects working farmland, and promotes safety in accordance with the Countryside Code”.
Nevertheless, after the Government announced on Boxing Day 2024 that it would repeal the deadline, the society has been awaiting further statements from Whitehall.
Mark Weston, the society’s Director of Access, said: “We are still waiting, a year on, for them to implement the legislation that will bring about the appeal.
“British Horse Society is very aware that this is the year we could have lost thousands of routes that have yet to be recorded on the Definitive Map. While the Government announced its intention to repeal the deadline this time last year, there still has been no real action. At British Horse Society, we are concerned and are calling for necessary changes to be made now.
“As we enter the new year, we are reflecting on what could’ve been a significant moment for our off-road access network. For over 25 years, we’ve been fighting an impending deadline to formally record historic routes on the Definitive Map, which was originally set for New Year’s Day just gone.
“While the former UK government postponed this deadline and our current government consequently announced its intention to repeal it, a year has already gone by and we’re yet to see any real action to reflect this decision. Without an official repeal, we still can’t rule out the terrifying possibility of losing over 40,000 miles of unrecorded paths.”
Recorded road incident figures for Yorkshire included one horse fatality in 2021, three the following year, five horse and three people injuries in 2023 and three horse fatalities, six horse injuries and eight people injuries in 2024.
Mark said: “For equestrians, any further losses will be devastating. Horses are already being killed on our roads at a rapid rate, with nearly 700 fatalities recorded since 2010. We want to stop these awful incidents from happening and take away the need to ride on the busy roads.
“For the safety of our horses, we simply can no longer be overlooked as a community. That is why we’re urgently calling on the government to take decisive action and officially repeal the cut-off date, as they stated.”
The society also wants to see the introduction of a green paper on access and critically, for horse riders to be included in Active Travel plans, but says so far, it has been ignored.
Mark said: “We don’t feel that these are big demands. Instead, they’re necessary changes that need to be made now, before it’s too late.”