Action scheduled
Overgrown and unauthorised use by horses.
Sent to North Northamptonshire Council less than a minute later. ref: 7965199.
This is a yellow arrow marked public footpath, with access gained via a footbridge Harringworth end to Turtle Bridge. It used to be Law that it should be cut by 1st July of a year. It has always been maintained this way for the 8 years I have lived here and used it. Now I have experienced horse riders using it and asking me to put my dog on a lead in several instances so that they could pass. They come from the local stables, and access it by coming down from the road just after the last property on the left, heading towards Shotley. They do not come over the footbridge. It is not a Bridleway, and I believe more overt signage, or repeater footpath notifications need to be put in to remind them that they are not lawfully allowed to ride on a public footpath. There is nothing at all at Turtle Bridge end to indicate that having come down Green Lane, they shouldn't turn left onto a public footpath. The photos are of a single point with fresh horse faeces. A quick stroll down will show numerous horse foot imprints in the ground, other areas of horse dung, and areas of deep depressions from the horse traffic potentially causing further trip hazards for legitimate walkers, on what is already a very overgrown walk. If the landowner, who is very generous in access to other areas of his estate has given horses a right to come across his land once the 30 metre of hay has been cut, and beyond once it has been harvested, I don't have a problem with that. But without adequate signage repeated along what is a public footpath and not a bridleway, I don't fancy my chances of educating them to stay off it. This issue has become much worse since the start of the summer school holidays, but did exist prior to this, usually at weekends, but now daily.
Updates
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Thank you for reporting a fault. Officers will now investigate the concerns and this may take up to 5 working days. If you believe that your concerns are urgent then please phone us.
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Investigation: Completed (Defect Found), Defect Repair: Not Started - We have inspected this footpath and found access to be suitable at this time. Problems with anti social behaviour or incorrect usage of a footpath would need to be reported to the local policing team on 101. However we can confirm that works have been instructed to install a waymarker post with footpath signage, this is to be completed within 12 months. This post is to be located where the byway and footpath join to show the change in classification. This will ensure the footpath is correctly labelled at either end of the footpath so users are aware.
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Investigation: Completed (Defect Found), Defect Repair: Scheduled
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