Who's been stealing our bridleways? - Dylan's Ride Blog

Did a post work ride around the north and west of York yesterday. My goal was to stay offroad as much as possible, and use legal rights of way. There's a nice riverside bridleway from Nether Poppleton along the river, but annoyingly there's no bridge over the Nidd to get across to Nun Monkton, to connect to the new permissive BWs on the other side of the river.

Carrying on, I found that what used to be a bridleway from Rufford to Hutton Wandesley, has now been downgraded to a footpath. This hacks me off greatly, for several reasons. It's a useful route which helps link up some of the local trails (which are already in shortsupply), York city council has spent money, yes, our money, on taking away access that we tax payers previously enjoyed. The money spent on the paperwork and new signage, and there's lot of nasty little signs telling horse and bikes to f**k off, could actually be spent on maintaining or improving existing access, rather than taking it away. And all for what? The path was certainly capable of withstanding horse/bike traffic, and had the right sort of gates, nor did it go through a garden or farmyard, which might understandably be a reason for a diversion. Presumably a local landowner leaned on the parish council to get the route downgraded. I did actually attempt to complain to the city council about this when the signs warning of the change of access went up, and I did contact the local IMBA rep about it, but whatever efforts that were made, it wasn't enough and now I find myself breaking the law, by riding something I could have legally ridden last year. Grrrr.