Bob Milton

Day 1 - On the first day of Christmas:

The continuing pressure from Higher Level Stewardship funding for lowland heath grazing rolls on unabated leaving a string of physically and mentally damaged horses as well as a few damaged riders.

The cause is the unswerving belief by Natural England that the only way to manage lowland heath is by introducing extensive grazing. No accepted science for this belief has been provided for English heaths. In the south most of the projects are on equestrian commons where horse riding is by right or duty [s193 law of Property Act or Commons Act 1899].

Natural England specifies self closing gates and the Highway Authorities require one way where access is onto or off a highway being a vehicular carriageway. Not only are the self closing gates the cause of the damage due to the speed of closure which in some cases is as quick as two seconds but in combination with the one way closing the danger rises exponentially as can be seen in the photo.

There is no need to spend such vast amount of money on cattle grids and permanent fencing when parliament has enabled land managers of these equestrian commons the way to focus graze through s38 Commons Act 2006 exempt grazing of 10% or 10 ha per year. This is on the whole being ignored except on a couple of sites. This type of scheme is also open to abuse because there is no duty on anyone to monitor the schemes. Cattle grids bring their own problems.

The issue of gates on all types of open access land and public rights of way not only affects ordinary equestrians but also those with mobility impairments, manual dexterity and physical coordination whether riding a horse or a mobility scooter. The 2009 Defra guidance on ‘The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and structures [gaps gates and stiles] on rights of way a good practice guide’ is more often than not in the detail ignored by planners and land managers in the rush to access funding from Natural England under Higher Level Stewardship. This is because there is no duty on Natural England to check that their good words are implemented. It is always up to individuals to seek redress from the courts and as we all know this is prohibitively expensive and so people just go somewhere else. This guidance needs to be reviewed in the light of the Equality Act 2010.