Issue - meetings

• FOI requests
• Defra/NE ROWIP Questionnaire 2013
• PROW developments i.e. improved linkages, TTRO’s, obstructions, extreme weather mitigation.

Graham Pockett reported that there had been two Freedom of Information (FOI) requests for PROW statistics in the past year, one of them was the one from The Ramblers Association. The source of the other FOI request was not known, but it included other highway authority information, not just rights of way. BFC had a monitoring mechanism for enquiries relating to PROW which was useful for responding to FOI requests. Exchange of information and benchmarking was being undertaken with Wokingham Borough Council. Some of the headline comparisons with other local authorities were reported to the meeting. The cost of rights of way per kilometre were comparable across similar unitary authorities, but the cost of PROW per resident annually was lower in Bracknell Forest than other nearby unitary authorities.

Improvements had been undertaken on Longhill Park steps (permitted path), Bracknell Footpath 5 (Section 106 funded), and joint work with Hampshire County Council on Rights of Way at Shepherd Meadows on the Hampshire side.

Temporary Traffic Regulation Orders (TTROs) had been issued for Sandhurst Byway 16 (water mains replacement by South East Water), Devil’s Highway (emergency tree works and reinstatement of the restricted byway), and Longshot Lane (trial bore holes and tree works). A TTRO would be needed at Nine Mile Ride for South East Water to conduct further work in relation to the pipeline through Swinley.

The matter regarding bollards on Sandhurst Byway 16, which was also a private road, was discussed. These bollards restricted vehicles from travelling between Wellington Road to Yorktown Road (or in reverse). These would have likely been in place for a long time and were used to stop the private road from being used as a ‘through route’; it would therefore prove very difficult to justify asking for them to be removed.

Adverse weather conditions had caused an increased number of faults to be reported on PROW including fallen trees, potholes and flooding. Options were being explored about how to mitigate flooding on the footpath which ran down the side of Edgbarrow school (Crowthorne Footpath 4) and conducting a basic repair of  potholes on Hawthorne Lane.

Hugh Fitzwilliams asked that further clarification be made with Environmental Services in relation to BFCs responsibility to clear fly-tipped rubbish on private roads where PROWs were running over the top of them.

(Action: Graham Pockett)

Eight ponies had been left illegally to graze in a field in Peacock Lane opposite Jennett’s Park at the end of January 2014. A wire fence had been erected across a PROW (Binfield Footpath 16) without permission to stop the ponies from escaping onto the A329M and causing a danger to themselves and motorists. The land was the responsibility of the consortium building the Jennett’s Park development. They had instructed bailiffs to secure removal of the ponies. BFC who had responsibility in relation to ensuring the PROW obstruction was removed, had erected advisory notices to warn dog walkers and ramblers of the situation.

Footpath 15 had been made  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20