On sunny Sunday afternoon this week we took an enjoyable walk down Bridge Street and decided to have a look at the Pool End public footpath, as we hadn't been down it since 2008. Sadly, you may think, we checked that out in our records!
As Brigg walks go, this Pool End stretch must come firmly in the 'least used' category.
You turn left off Bridge Street near Brigg Motor Springs, immediately before reaching the road bridge carrying the A18 over the New River Ancholme.
There are Environment Agency moorings here for pleasure craft, but they are fenced off from the public footpath, doubtless for understandble security reasons.
We didn't venture too far down the public footpath before vegetation began to take over. Probably we could have made it through but we decided not to follow the footpath for the full mile indicated on the 'acorn' marker sign in the picture above.
Presumably this would have taken us to, or even beyond, the railway bridge.
This is not meant as a criticism but at a time of year like this when people are most likely to enjoy walks along public footpaths, foliage grows at a rapid rate and encroaches. This can only deter people from giving it a go.
North Lincolnshire Council, as keeper of highways and byways, must weigh up the benefits of healthy walks, which is promotes, against the staff costs of cutting back the green stuff.
We reckon they get the balance about right but suggest that any member of public who encounters some badly overgrown public rights of way between now and the end of the growing season, draws this to the attention of local councillors.
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| This section, from Bridge Street, is fine to walk. The foliage gets a bit thicker the further you go towards the railway bridge, behind our vantage point when taking this picture. |
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| Brigg Leisure Centre Leased Moorings, says the Environment Agency sign alongside the Pool End public footpath. It should be Ancholme Leisure Centre, as we all know. And the far bank of the New River is in Scawby Brook, not Brigg. Pedant 1, Agency 0! |
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| The "Pool End 1mile" public footpath is on the left, just the other side of the fencing. Sunday was a lovely late spring afternoon on which to enjoy a Brigg walk. Much further to the right towards the New River Ancholm bridge and we would have been ultra vires, as they say in Latin... going beyond our powers by crossing the boundary into Scawby! |
least used as it goes nowhere.the footpath should go around island carr but access ceased WAY BACK you could do a circular walk from the bottom of mill lane but this route is not permissible from landowner.maybe the footpath warden could offer more light into a circular route.
ReplyDeleteWalks like this is something that could be publicized in leaflet's
ReplyDeleteAlready are...routes available from TIC..also Tony Parker, our voluntary footpath warden had had suggested walks published in Brigg Matters.
ReplyDeleteCould get you a batch of BM to leave randomly on trains/stations, if required.
To amplify Pete's 'permissable' paths...there are traditional public footpath tracks about the area...their rights entrenched with time.
ReplyDeleteHowever, a public footpath running parallel to water course,ie the Ancholme,runs the risk of bank erosion...if the bank goes, so can the path..
However, with a landowner's permission, the path route can be re-routed around the obstacle...this does not establish a public right of way footpath...but from goodwill, the landowner will, at his/her discretion, access..thus the term - Permissible footpath...
A very good example of this is NLC's negotiations with various landowners in the process of creating the Brigg to South Ferriby Cycle-Way..Well done..
...a mixture of public rights of way and permissible paths...