Council to seek order to link bridleways

The section is part of a project that will link the public rights of way network of south west Kirklees into the Pennine Bridleway National Trail, a long distance route for walkers, horse riders and cyclists between Middleton Top, Derbyshire and Kirby Stephen in Cumbria.

When members of Kirklees Council’s Huddersfield area planning committee meet on Thursday they will be asked to approve a compulsory creation order for a part of the Dark Peak Link to allow the work to go ahead.

A report prepared for committee members says: “The proposed Dark Peak Link enters Kirklees at the Barnsley Boundary near Hade Edge and leaves at the Oldham boundary, near Standedge, passing through Marsden and Holmbridge.”

Work on the first stage of the Kirklees bridleway has already got under way on the first 11km section, linking the Oldham boundary with Wessenden Head Road, south of Meltham.

All necessary land agreements are in place with the exception of a five-metre section of the route at land to the south of Bank Top, off Mount Road, Marsden, where the land is unregistered so the local authority is proposing to make a compulsory creation order to turn the land into a bridleway and protect public access over the land.

If an order is agreed by members of the committee it will be advertised and people will have a chance to object.

Work on the final phase of the Dark Peak Link towards the boundary with Barnsley has not yet begun.

The Pennine Bridleway National Trail, follows old packhorse routes, drovers roads and newly-created bridleways across part of the country, is being created through a partnership of Natural England and local authorities along the bridleway route.