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The time to save certain bridleways is ticking down. Lucy Elder looks at ongoing local and national efforts and how you can make a difference

- Lucy Elder

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RECENT bridleway restorations include a £21,000 project to restore an “unsafe” route in Horton, Dorset, which was overgrown with unusable boggy sections. It is a crucial link for walkers, cyclists and riders to many other routes and the money was spent on creating a new drainage system with locally sourced stone as well as cutting back trees and scrub. Meanwhile in Surrey, a £14,000 drainage and resurfacing project has improved riders’ access on Whitmoor common.

LANDOWNERS were advised not to block rights of way during lockdown by the BHS, Countryside Alliance and local authorities (news, 30 April). Riders, walkers and cyclists were equally urged to be respectful of landowners and of others using the routes.

A £19 million-plus scheme to provide 30km of off-road riding was given the goahead by Cornwall Council in January.

Highways England put £17.07 million towards the Saints Trails initiative, with Cornwall Council adding a further £2 million to the pot for the routes, which will be open to riders, cyclists and walkers.

It is hoped these will be ready by spring 2021.

THE legendary “voice of equestrian sport” Mike Tucker was posthumously honoured by the BHS in 2019 for donating a bridleway to the society.

The length of track was added to the Tetbury Trail in Gloucestershire.

This donation led to the Duchy of Cornwall being approached and then a third landowner donating the connecting stretch from the track to the road, completing the link.