Report - Section 4.11

4.11   What is happening elsewhere in the UK?

The BHS regularly identifies and spotlights highway authorities and others who have achieved particular success in opening, improving or maintaining bridleways. Until recently, there have been very few examples of areas that have invested in establishing routes and networks to specifically encourage horse tourism. The BHS has driven the creation of some important new routes, including the Tweed Trails and Sabrina Way.

The BHS has driven the creation of some important new routes, including the Tweed Trails and Authorities that have recently taken a special interest in riding routes with tourism in mind include:

• Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council - primarily involved with the Pennine Bridleway and the South Pennine Packhorse Trail Trust;
• Norfolk County Council - Fens Access Project - Riding and Walking in the Norfolk Fens;
• Anglesey County Council - Bridleway Strategy, reclassifying historical routes, permissive bridleways with Mentor Mon Objective 1 funding;
• Others of interest include Dorset County Council, Bedfordshire County Council and the North York Moors National Park.

Even where investment is now taking place in introducing new routes, there is often a strong nearby presence of resident horse-riders that can help to ensure that there will be a demand for a route. This applies for instance to the Mary Townley Loop, the first section of the Pennine Bridleway. Although there is a strong ambition to attract visiting horse-riders to the area, there is also a local market that underpins demand. In their report on the Pennine Bridleway and Cycleway, L&R Consulting estimated the projected use that would be generated.

Table 4.6: Forecast annual user days by horse-riders on the Pennine Bridleway and Cycleway by 2007

	User days
Local Users	569,000
Day Visit Users	320,000
and that these would be divided between:
Short distance users	919,900
Long distance users	7,500

Pennine Bridleway and Cycleway increased participation and economic impact study final report

Mary Townley loop was doing a simple survey at the time of this research when only very preliminary data was available. Initial indications are that local stabling and B&Bs have done better in their first year than they expected - they had received 20 groups rather than their predicted 5.