South Somerset Bridleways Association
Promoting safer routes for riders
The new permissive route is now ready to ride.
Huge thanks to volunteers from Compton Dundon and Reimagining The Levels who planted native trees and hegdrows along the route.
Take care crossing the busy B3151, we advise wearing high-viz.
Permissive-Bridleway-Plan
Volunteer! Tree planting to mark a new bridleway in Compton Dundon
Would you like to join the Compton Dundon Volunteers on Tuesday 23rd March from 10.00 to plant trees (small whips) in the Parish Council Allotment land between Peak Lane and Somerton Road?
The new hedgeline will delineate the boundary of a new permissive bridleway (see route below).
The new green lane would run from the B3151 opposite L7/12 (Restricted Byway Touch Lane) through an existing vehicular access around the fields to Peak Lane by the southern end of Public Footpath L7/11. Pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders will be able to cross the B3151 where there are clear sight lines and no longer need to travel along the road to/from the Peak Lane junction.
Please email info@southsomersetbridlewaysassociation.co.uk by Sunday 21st March if you would like to join us to help the fantastic Compton Dundon Volunteers with this very worthwhile project. We will send you the Covid compliant joining instructions and details of where to meet. Thank you.
Permissive-Bridleway-PlanThere is a new project with funding available to make improvements to the routes in this area. We would welcome your suggestions. So far the following have been mentioned:
Please do let us know if you support any of these suggestions or have new ideas you would like to share.
Thank you to the owners of Frogmary Green Farm who have kindly arranged to have the restricted byway between Fouts Cross and Frogmary Green Farm near Lopen cleared (see the before and after photos below).
The result is a clear, wide safe path for horse riders and hoof prints suggest that at least one horse rider has used it.
Good news! The order has been confirmed for River Drove in Somerton to be recorded as a bridleway. This is over 1.6 kilometres of definitive bridleway added to the map. Please see the notification below for details.
Somerton-River-Drove-confirmed-orderSSBA has recently submitted a response to Defra on its Environmental Land Management (ELM) Policy Discussion document. The new ELM scheme is due to replace the current schemes that provide financial incentives for farmers and landowners to look after and improve the natural environment.
Under the new ELM scheme, taxpayers’ money will be used to pay for ‘public goods’ such as better habitats and water quality. SSBA have emphasised these should include public access, particularly plenty of new networks of bridleways and byways. You can read our response in full below.
SSBA-response-to-ELM-consultation-July-20205054A huge thank you to Somerset Council and our friend at Mendip Bridleways and Byways Association for organising the surface improvements of Westover lane (light green line on the map below) and Lydford Lane (dark green line). They are now looking great and accessible again for riders, cyclists and walkers. Bollards are due to be installed on the bridleway section of Lydford lane in Babcary to prevent new damage by 4×4 vehicles. Until the work can be done, part of the path will be blocked to protect the condition of the route. A suitable gap will be left to allow access for legal Rights of Way users.
The SSBA applied for DMMOs for these routes:
The four DMMOs applied for by the SSBA for the above routes will be considered by Somerset County Council’s Regulation Committee at a meeting in Taunton on Thursday 6th February 2020 at 10am.
NEW VENUE: JMR, The Deane House, Taunton TA1 1HE
Details of upcoming meetings of the Regulation Committee can be viewed on Somerset County Council’s website: www.somerset.gov.uk/regulationcommittee.
Anyone can attend the meeting but if you wish to speak you must inform Peter Stiles, the Committee Administrator by 5.00pm three clear working days before the meeting: democraticservices@somerset.gov.uk or 01823 357628 (i.e. 5.00pm on the Friday before the meeting). More information can be found here or get in touch with us if you would like to pass on a comment.
Somerset County Council (SCC) is proposing to create a route as a public bridleway over land which was excluded from the recent SCC farm sale and would be pleased to receive your comments.
The lawful width of the route will be restricted to a maximum of 3m throughout except where it passes through existing field gates and a 1.5m wide gate will be installed adjacent to the existing field gate at location A (see plan below). The final position of the gate is to be confirmed following this consultation.
The proposed bridleway route is shown on the plan below.
Please do send your comments or questions on this proposal to Mr Loren Eldred, SCC Rights of Way Officer by the 20th December 2019: LEldred@somerset.gov.uk
Please have a look at the Langport Cycleway Report here. If you ride the route we’d love to hear from you; it helps us to show there is no conflict between horse riders and other users and may help us to open up other routes for riding. Thank you for your help!
