RIDERS IN A STORM
not included within the provisions of the Land Reform Act. Realistically, unless land has crops growing on it or is being used for keeping live- stock, a horse rider is usually free to ride on it. The list of places where horse riders are explic-
itly allowed to roam include: most paths and tracks; open countryside such as hills, moun- tains, moorland and grassland; land in which crops have not been sown, including stubble; margins of fields where crops are growing or have been sown; grass fields provided they are not hay or silage fields at a late stage of growth; woodland and forestry; riverbanks, loch shores, beaches and the coast. There are, of course, limits to riders’ rights.
You can’t hunt across land without permission and you can’t bring mechanised vehicles or set up jumps without asking first. Riders also have a duty to act responsibly and not to interfere with farmers’ work. But as long as they behave responsibly, no farmer is allowed to restrict access by padlocking gates – and if riders behave irresponsibly, the farmer has the right to ask the rider to leave. Farmers’ obligations are equally clear. There
is a legal obligation to allow a right of access, and if fences have to be padlocked then ‘a suitable alternative means of access for non- motorised use [including horse riders] should be provided’. There is an obligation to provide the most horse-friendly form of gates and stiles, and there is even funding available from the Scottish Rural Development Programme to do so. If farmers need to plough right to the hedgerow, so denying horseback right of way over core paths and rights of way, those paths need to be reinstated within 14 days. Nor are landowners allowed to put down sharp stones over which horses cannot walk. Yet the anecdotal stories of aggressive
farmers padlocking fences, ploughing path- ways, and even intimidating horse riders by driving at them or forcibly ejecting them from their land are legion, and backed up by a 2011 survey from the British Horse Society (Scot- land). Such actions have forced riders onto our dangerous and congested roads, which the BHSS says resulted in ‘hundreds’ of accidents involving horses last year. Everyone knows who the farmers and estates
are – plus, surprisingly, forestry, especially private forestry – yet they are allowed to either be ignorant of this law or to break it with impu- nity despite being in receipt of huge amounts of subsidies from the public purse. There are areas where there is a different culture: most Borders farmers and landowners are horse-friendly and have a more laissez-faire approach, for instance, while our columnist Guy Grieve is free to ride his horse across the whole of Mull. But in a
growing number of areas, farmers are flouting the law without fear of the consequences. So, what’s to be done about it? Horse riders
‘Landowners have a legal obligation to allow a right of access to horse riders’
could wear head cams and can actively confront recalcitrant farmers, yet often the farmers are their neighbours and more often than not the riders – 90 per cent of whom are female – would rather avoid a confrontation, especially if there is any chance it may become violent. It’s also true that horse riders themselves
could often act more responsibly. After a recent complaint, for instance, that the John Muir Trust was contemplating locking horse riders out of its land in East Lothian, inspectors turned up to find that riders had been galloping over the Trust’s salt marshes despite clearly displayed signs telling them not to do so because it could irretrievably damage this fragile ecosystem. Riders should also pick their battles more
sensibly. The recent court case against the owner of Tuley estate near Fortrose for refusing access to woodland found that the landowner allowed access to the rest of his estate but barred wood- land riding because the ground was so soft. The court, unsurprisingly, found in his favour. There is a network of full-time access offic-
ers whose jobs are to ensure full access for walkers and riders, which is a statutory duty for each council – a duty some councils, such as Clackmannanshire, have been conspicuously successful in discharging. Whether it’s the fault of the access officers or the law, however, the system is simply not working: so far not one fine has been levied on a farmer or estate manager for refusing to comply with the law regarding access for horses. Indeed, despite enquiries I couldn’t find anyone who could confirm to me that a written notice had been sent out to a farmer or landowner, although a big new case is apparently brewing in Angus. The main problem seems to be that, despite
their statutory duties, cash-strapped local councils have no appetite to launch expensive prosecutions of recalcitrant landowners, which is their only form of redress at the moment. So, how about this. Why doesn’t the new
YOURVIEW DO YOU HAVE
STRONG FEELINGS ABOUT THIS? EMAIL EDITOR@
SCOTTISHFIELD.CO.UK
legislation include amendments that will give our access officers real teeth? It’s easy to do. How about an obligation for access offic- ers to investigate all written complaints and to provide complainants with a written response within 14 working days? And how about giving access officers the right to serve ‘cease and desist’ notices and/or impose legally enforceable fines if a landowner simply ignores their communica- tion? If those fines were to be collected straight from grant payments, as is the case with land- owners fined for poisoning raptors, it would be interesting to see how quickly rates of compli- ance with this particular law increased.
WWW.SCOTTISHFIELD.CO.UK 31
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212 |
Page 213 |
Page 214 |
Page 215 |
Page 216 |
Page 217 |
Page 218 |
Page 219 |
Page 220 |
Page 221 |
Page 222 |
Page 223 |
Page 224 |
Page 225 |
Page 226 |
Page 227 |
Page 228 |
Page 229 |
Page 230 |
Page 231 |
Page 232 |
Page 233 |
Page 234 |
Page 235 |
Page 236 |
Page 237 |
Page 238 |
Page 239 |
Page 240 |
Page 241 |
Page 242 |
Page 243 |
Page 244 |
Page 245 |
Page 246 |
Page 247 |
Page 248 |
Page 249 |
Page 250