Talk:Rights of way in England and Wales

Re: my edit about it being OK to have bridleways that a bike can't use, I'll quote an email source:

(Section 30 Countryside Act 1968) made it clear that cyclists were granted the right subject to them having to give way to pedestrian & equestrian users and cycle use having no implications for maintenance. Specifically the act says that it 'shall not create any obligation to facilitate the use of the bridleway by cyclists'. So as & when a bridleway is suitable for cycle usage you have the right to use it. - Adrian Fett, Rights of Way Officer (Ouse Valley) in Bedfordshire County Council

Ojw 15:58, 11 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Horses act

Weird. The horses (protective headgear) act was referenced in our definition of a bridleway, but act itself looks like it's just repeating/clarifying the definition from the Road Traffic Act 1988, so that it can define what a "road" is, so that it can prevent children riding on them without hats:

(2) For the purposes of the definition of "road" in subsection (1) above—

...

(b) "bridleway" means a way over which the public have the following, but no other, rights of way: a right of way on foot and a right of way on horseback or leading a horse, with or without a right to drive animals of any description along the way. [1]

Offtopic: (To me, that makes no sense. If bridleway is defined like that, then surely the definition doesn't apply to any of the actual bridleways in the UK (because they additionally give the public the right to cycle on them) so wouldn't that make all bridleway-related provisions in the horses act irrelevant?)

Anyway, it might be worth looking-up the other laws which are used to define bridleways, so that we can check our own definitions here. Unfortunately, lots of this stuff is too old for OPSI to have electronic copies of, which makes research that much more tedious. Ojw 18:24, 17 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Do UK-style footpaths exist in other countries?

Are there any in Aus, NZ, Can, US, for example? Places where emmigrants from the UK have lived for centuries might have them. Jamaica, even.

Drastic measures

Looking at the photo of cyclists on a bridleway: I know there's a legal obligation to keep footpaths, etc, clear, but even so it seems rather over the top to split the tree from top to bottom to drive the bridleway through ;-)

--Tivedshambo (talk) 21:19, 18 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What about Northern Ireland?

The article is called "Rights of way in the United Kingdom", but it only deals with England, Wales and Scotland. Do rights of way exist in Northern Ireland, and if so what is their legal status? --Blisco 22:14, 22 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Completely different legal jurisdiction, so they have different laws. Despite some trawling of various motorcycle green lane forum I've never come across anyone saying weather if it or isn't legal/they exist in Northern Ireland. I'm similarly in the dark about the ROI, Guernsey (inc Alderney and Sark) and Jersey. I know they do exist in a slightly different form on the IOM. Pickle 15:24, 23 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"The site also mentions that walkers may:"

Which site would this be? The one referenced by footnote 1, or a completely different site? It needs to be mentioned, specifically, in the body of the text. 86.132.139.228 (talk) 23:09, 27 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]