ESSEX BRIDLEWAYS ASSOCIATION 2009 AGM

Click here for Minutes of 2009 AGM

Click here for Chairmans Report

Click here for Year End Accounts

11/12/09

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FELSTED RIDERS - BEWARE BRIDLEWAY CLOSED

We have just heard that BR124 on the Felsted side of the River Chelmer and BR106 on the Great Waltham side, by the old brewery at Hartford End.  (Its in the south of Felsted parish, not on Flitch Way ).  Grid Ref TL 685,173 has collapsed. Theres just a big hole where the bridleway used to be!  It’s that beautiful old mill race bridge at Felsted Mill and we assume its going to be closed for some time. 

21 . 01 . 2010

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The Dept Of Transport admits that their road surveys are flawed in that they do not count horses, the most vulnerable of road users

This is a copy of the letter I have sent to my MP, he has requested a reply from the Ministry of    Transport as to why this is   Watch this space for the answer

 Whilst riding my horse on B/Way 28 as it crossed the Ingatestone road midway between Ingatestone and Highwood, I encountered a Ministry of Transport road survey, doing my duty as a EBA area reprsentative I enquired as to what they were doing.   They were counting the amount and type of vehicles passing in either direction (50 in morning 38 so far in afternoon) to my surprise this included cyclists, I then enquired what about horses, answer no we have had no instruction to count horses.   Would you please enquire from the ministry the reason why horses are not treated as road users

                                                                        John Heginbotham    12 . 10 . 09

After several letter back and forth this is the result

This is the reply recieved from The Deptartment of Transport in Jan 2010 to Simon Burns MP for Chelmsford in the House of Commons

Dear Simon

Thank you for your letter of 12 December enclosing correspondence from your constituent, Mr John Heginbotham, of Elkins Cottage, Cock Lane, Highwood, Chelmsford.

In my previous letters I explained how the national road traffic estimates are produced, outlined the strategies in place for the ongoing safe use of roads by horse riders, and provided the latest statistics on horse rider casualties for Great Britain and Essex.

In his latest correspondence Mr Heginbotham returns to the issue of traffic surveys and asks for horses to be treated the same as pedal cycles in the DfT national road traffic estimates. The national road traffic survey is designed to count vehicles on the road, and relies on the use of both automatic and manual traffic counting. Whilst the automatic traffic counters, which are embedded in the surface of the road, can also count pedal cycles they can not be configured to count horses. Pedal cycles are vehicles, and meet both requirements for automatic counting as they have a sufficient metal based body to be detected by an inductive loop, and wheels which make contact with sensors.

Mr Heginbotham raises a concern that by not counting horse riders the information given to local authorities may not provide an accurate representation of what is happening on local roads. The national road traffic survey is designed to provide traffic figures nationally, and regionally. As the survey has to take place on some local roads we also provide survey estimates for local authorities, but the sample numbers involved can be small and our publications make clear this caveat.

However, as local authorities are responsible for the local road network, many choose to complement the estimates we produce with more detailed local surveys. Hope this is helpful.

                                                                                       Sadiq Khan

    Please riders spend a few minutes writing to your County Councilor or MP,              Does Essex use the surveys in their Planning ????

                                                                                                                                        23 . 01 . 2010

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NEWS RELEASE

HIGHWAY VERGES—VITAL

PART OF RIGHTS-OF-WAY NETWORK

‘Highway verges are a vital part of our public rights-of-way network,’ says the Open Spaces Society,(1) a top pressure-group for common land and public paths. 

The society was responding to the Department for Transport’s paper ‘A Safer Way: Making Britain’s Roads the Safest in the World’ in which the department asked how it could reduce pedestrian casualties on roads.

‘The verge is a part of the highway and should be available for use by walkers and riders,’ explains Kate Ashbrook, the Open Spaces Society’s general secretary.  ‘If all verges were open and usable, it would greatly increase the land available for public use—whether for utilitarian purposes or recreation.

‘But too often the verges are overgrown and neglected—or even filched by adjoining property owners.

‘Yet highway authorities—the county and unitary councils—have a legal duty to keep highway verges in good order. 

‘If the authorities carried out this duty the verges would be available to users who would then not be forced to use the road itself, with traffic roaring past at speed.

The society has called on the Department for Transport to recommend to highway authorities that they clear and maintain all the verges on their rural roads.

The society has campaigned on this issue for more than 70 years.  In July 1936 it published an article by its legal adviser, W R Hornby Steer MA LLB, entitled Roadside Wastes.  Mr Hornby Steer stressed the importance of strips of roadside waste for the public and the need to safeguard them from illegal attempts to enclose them.(2)

Says Kate: ‘Every word of Mr Hornby Steer’s article rings true today.  Indeed, 73 years later, traffic has increased massively, making roadside verges much more important.

‘Roadside wastes or highway verges are a tremendous, but neglected, resource for the public.’

01 08 2009

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