Bridleways Watch
BROADHALGH UPDATE - (21/04/2008)
The gate at BROADHALGH has been replace with a horse friendly gate by Rochdale council. You can now get through easily with out having to put your legs up the horses neck!
Furbarn Road, School Lane Ashworth Road (22/02/2008)
In summer 2007 parts of the surfaces of the above roads were resurfaced with fresh tarmac. A number of horses have slipped on the surfaces (the tarmac tells the story with white skid marks clearly visible for all to see). After contacting the Council Gill Morrell and Bev O'Connor met up on 2nd December 2007 with Paul McCaffrey from Rochdale Council (Highways Maintenance), see photo. Several potential options to improve things were discussed but the first thing that will be done is to measure the slippiness of the road to check if it conforms with the road user requirements. Paul McCaffrey agreed that this test would be conducted early in the new year.
Unfortunately due to test equipment not being functional the test has yet to occur although Gill Morrell is in regular contact with Paul McCaffrey to pursue the matter. If the tests do prove the road surface is unacceptable then the contractors who have laid the surface will have to rectify it. If however the tests show the surface is to the required standard we will have to start lobbying Councillors and the Council to provided a surface which is horse friendly. Clearly at the moment it is not (skid marks prove it). Watch this space for more updates. in the meantime if your horse does slip on any of the stretches please do drop Paul a line at Paul.McCaffrey@TheImpactPartnership.com so he can be aware that incidents are still happening. Remember the more evidence we can provide the stronger our case.
Furbarn Lane School Lane and Ashworth Road progress. - (06/05/2008)
Rochdale Council have now carried out the skid tests on the Road Surfaces pointed out to them on the 1st December and the Council has provided us with the test results which we are currently looking into. The Council have told us that Lancashire Council (who conducted the tests) state that the resurfacing works are acceptable and meet the test value standard requirements. They have also said that Future Work planned includes a ' Quite Lane ' scheme which has been approved for Furbarn Road and School Lane. This will incorporate build - outs gateway features & new horse signage and will be on site this summer.
Also Clay Lane - from Furbarn Road to Claymere Avenue is to be included in the list of possible sites to be surface dressed in 2008/09 and if approved by Township they would consider extending the works to include the gradient areas highlighted by ourselves on Ashworth Road & School Lane. The Norden Councillors have been contacted to seek support for this particularly given the incident which recently occurred up in Darwen concerning SMA (more info here). If any members would like to independently lobby the Councillors we are sure it will lend more weight to the issue."
Black Dads Farm (14/02/2008)
The bridlepath that goes in front of Black Dads Farm, which is currently being developed (the farm that is not the bridlepath), has recently been covered with road planings. We need to keep an eye out as the landowner has tarmacced a bridlepath in the past. If any riders see any signs of the path being resurfaced can they contact either us or the council as soon as possible.
Edenfield Road to Roods Lane via Lea Holme Farm (12/02/2008)
The council have now posted the notice to upgrade the footpath around the back of Lea Holme Farm to a bridleway. The upgrade was approved at a Township meeting last June after we submitted user evidence to prove that the route had been ridden for 20 consecutive years.
The path effectively links two bridleways, one which goes along Roods Lane and then down past Millcroft Tea Gardens upto Lea Holme Farm and the other which goes from Edenfield Road down to the back of Lea Holm Farm. The upgrade is only about 20-30 metres of footpath which has been allowed to get very overgrown.
We fully expect the landowner to object to the upgrade which probably means that it will go to public enquiry but it is a step closer to getting riders off Edenfield Road and into the countryside where we should be.
So if you hear anyone complaining about the upgrade, make sure they have the right information because there has been alot of misleading information passed to people about what exactly is happening.
The pictures on the left show the path leading to Lea Holme from Millcroft end, the path behind the farm which is the bit to be upgraded and the path up from Lea Holme to Edenfield Road.
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