Representation by British Horse Society (on behalf of Kent) (British Horse Society (on behalf of Kent))
- Date submitted
- 3 February 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
The British Horse Society London & South East is the UK’s largest equestrian charity with over 118,000 members representing the country’s 3 million horse riders. BHS staff and volunteers from Kent and Essex have worked with National Highways and its representatives since its very first Walking Cycling and Horse-Riding Assessment Review (WCHAR) in respect of this project. I wish to represent the BHS and equestrians on behalf of the project south of the Thames. Since the initial consultations and over the ensuing years, we have, on the whole, been very happy with the proposals for equestrian inclusion within this region (south of the Thames), entailing paths available by right rather than permissive paths providing much needed connectivity north and south of the A2 and west to east on both sides, including over the LTC road to the north. Immediately prior to submitting the DCO, we were informed by National Highways’ representatives that there would be no “by right” paths provided for equestrians south of the A2 between Church Road (Henhurst) and Halfpence Lane, north of Cobham. A permissive path was proposed instead. No clarification as to the terms and conditions of this permissive path were provided then or since. We were informed that it was “not possible” for the landowners/occupiers to dedicate the path as a public bridleway. From memory (I have received nothing in writing) the reasons cited for the inability to dedicate the bridleways as public were: a) Forestry England stated it was not possible to dedicate a bridleway across Crown land and b) Woodland Trust stated that land ownership meant it was too complicated to obtain a dedication BHS wrote confirming that we believe there IS legal capacity to create a public bridleway and we have explained how we believe it would be possible to achieve this. Despite asking for a response to this, none has been received. We would still welcome the opportunity to work with NH, the landowners and KCC to resolve this. The provision of this public path will provide connectivity for many equestrians south of the A2 to take advantage of the new provision north of the road and, indeed, enable those north to visit places such as Jeskyns and Ashenbank to the south of the road. A permissive path provides no future security for equestrians (or any users) and so it is imperative that all legitimate steps are taken to ensure this path remains as originally proposed, a public bridleway. Further, since the publication of the documentation on the Planning Inspectorate website, we note that the bridleway has been annotated as a “permissive Pedestrian Cycle route - new” within the 7.9 Transport Assessment, Appendix A “Plate 1.1 New provision for WCH - south of the River Thames”. To exclude equestrians altogether here would be entirely unreasonable and at odds with everything previously discussed and agreed. In the event that it is decided by the Inspector that a permissive bridleway is the only option available, then the path as mentioned above must be provided under a very carefully worded agreement between landowner (to include current and future landowners) and Kent County Council Public Rights of Way team as highways authority, irrevocable under ANY circumstances and for a term of at least 50 and preferably 99 years, in other words a public path in all but name whilst enabling some degree of flexibility of the alignment between the fixed start and end points.