Access Issue in Compton Scorpion - we need your help!
By Anna Weston - Access Officer

Warwickshire County Council are being pressured to open a route through Compton Scorpion to motorised traffic. This may have an adverse effect on the existing high number of non-motorised users such as walkers, riders and cyclists.

The Council have agreed to consider a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) which would prohibit vehicular traffic but retain bridleway use of the route. Support is needed from users and other concerned individuals during this process to show that this is the right course of action.

If the route were to be opened to vehicles the Council will need to erect a bridge over a stream; the estimated cost for this is £40,000 which is over 20% of their entire annual budget for looking after the County’s rights of way network.

If you would like to object to this route being open to traffic, please write or email Martin Fry or Lisa Arben at Shire Hall, Warwick, CV34 4SA or martinfry@warwickshire.gov.uk or lisaarban@warwickshire.gov.uk with your objections and reasons. The point of contact at Compton Scorpion Estate is Caroline Warren on cse@boltblue.com and she can provide more information.
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Access Update, March 2010
By Phil Nichols - Access Officer

However, if you do not know the grid reference of an issue then don’t let that deter you reporting it; the BHS Warwickshire Access team can fill in this information for you. Other facts that emerged: The council has no responsibility to provide long handles or anything to facilitate opening a gate from horseback;
The council is limited on all fronts; financial, resources and time, so patience when dealing with problems is appreciated;
Whilst a budget has not been assigned to establishing a circular route within Warwickshire it is an aspiration in their long term planning document so watch this space!
On our part to enable tracking of reports the BHS Warwickshire Access team has invested in mapping software covering all of Warwickshire. It is intended to record all reports on this software as well as on a database of all complaints to track progress.

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BHS Warwickshire Annual Report 2008/9 - Access

This was the first year of operation for our newly formed Access Team. Of the 11 reports they received from riders, 3 are resolved and 8 are ongoing. The issues are of the following nature:
• Physical obstructions to access ways 5 cases
• Dispute over access status 2 cases (this type of issue can go on for years)
• Abuse & threats 1 cases
• General enquires 3 cases
We were delighted to be invited to contribute to the planning of a through/around Warwickshire linked bridleways route for which, Warwickshire County Council has approved funding. Work continues on the project.
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You can ride at some of Warwickshire's Country Parks.

Permits can be obtained for riding at
Kingsbury Water Park - Kenilworth - Berkswell Greenway. There is also a permissive bridleway at the Stratford Greenway.
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The main task of the Access Officer is ensuring that bridleway Rights of Way are passable to riders with the minimum of danger and that they are accessible from the general road system. Obstructions can be natural, thick mud and potholes, low branches and/or fallen trees, etc, or man made in the form of locked gates or loose barbed wire and the like.
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Become a BHS Mapping Volunteer - by Sarah Shackleton

You may have read in previous editions of British Horse, Tracks magazine, or on the BHS website, articles about the progress of our mapping system EMAGIN. The system is up and running, but we need your help to make it the best it can be for every horse and rider.
The BHS Mapping Strategy?
We are aiming to collate and digitize all known equestrian routes and access areas in the UK. Anything that is legally used, whether they are official routes, or ones that are not yet claimed as bridleways. We need you to become a BHS mapping volunteer. Me? Yes, you. The real riders and carriage drivers! A Mapping Volunteer is anyone who can help us get riding and driving routes mapped onto our EMAGIN system.
That sounds like a big commitment, I work full time….
It can be as big or small a task as you need it to be. You don’t need to spend all your free time slaving away over maps. You can help by taking a few minutes to draw the route onto a paper map (which we’ll send to you) and put it back in the post to us. Anything that you can do to contribute to EMAGIN and the BHS mapping strategy is a gift to the riders and carriage drivers of the UK—one mapped route or one hundred, we need them all. Once routes are mapped and sent in to us, we are able seek local authority approval prior to adding the route to the EMAGIN system data. By doing this we hope to put together a true record of all the places you can ride or drive in the UK.
It is a very ambitious task, which is why we need your help.
Where do I sign up? Contact the EMAGIN coordinator by email on emagin@bhs.org.uk. Tell them your name, the area you live in, the area you could work as a mapping volunteer in, and if you’ve got any mapping software (you don’t need it, but if you’ve got some software, they need to make sure it’s compatible before you start any work). We will contact you with more information on what we need you to do.
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Affiliated Bridleways Groups Warwickshire

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