North York Moors National Park
 

Authority Services

Landowners' responsibilities

 

General

  • Know where Public Rights of Way cross your land and their status – there are important legal differences between bridleways, footpaths, byways open to all traffic and unclassified roads that affect what you may do. If you are unsure, contact the Rights of Way Officers at Helmsley who will define routes for you.
  • If rights of way are clearly defined and easy to use, the public are less likely to trespass or miss their way. Contact the Ranger for your area about improving ease of use.
  • Any sign on a right of way that discourages the public from using the path is illegal. Health and Safety regulations require you to sign the presence of electric fencing and bulls but such signs must not discourage use by the public. Discouraging words such as Danger or Keep Out are discouraging and therefore illegal. A sign saying Bull in Field or similar when there is no bull is a misleading sign and is illegal. Remove the signs when the bull is not present or cover them securely.
  • Any animal that could injure a person or horse using a Right of Way should not be kept where there is a Right of Way. This includes dogs and horses as well as livestock. If you are aware that an animal has intimidated or injured a person in the past you will be liable for any harm caused to a person using a Right of Way.
  • Intimidating animals, such as aggressively barking dogs, on or adjacent to a Right of Way, should be prevented from discouraging the public by making it obvious that users cannot be reached by the animals. If possible, avoid grazing horses in fields crossed by Public Bridleways as loose horses may act aggressively to idden ones.
  • Landowners and farmers may shoot on their land but not in such a way as to endanger the public using a Right of Way. If a drive crosses a Right of Way, you may politely ask users if they would wait while the drive passes but if their response is negative, you must stop the drive and allow the users to proceed safely.

Ploughing and Cropping

  • Ensure that paths across fields are reinstated within two weeks of first cultivation. If it is possible to avoid cultivating a cross field path, please do so. Reinstate to a width of 1m for footpaths and 2m for bridleways.
  • Reinstating means defining the path and making the surface convenient, ie. firm and fairly even. This is most easily done by tractor wheelings so that the surface of the path becomes firm or by rolling. Alternatively, if the surface is firm, you could mark the route of the path with canes or pegs.
  • Keep cross field paths free of growing crops to a width of 1m for footpaths and 2m on bridleways. Potatoes quickly grow sideways to obstruct a path so provision should be made for growth of the plants and greater than the path width left unplanted. The rows must be flattened for the width and length of the path. Oil seed rape and maize will fall into the width of the path so more than the width of the path should be unplanted or cleared. Growth from the surface of a path is considered an obstruction if more than 20cm (8") high. If you cannot avoid seeding the width of the path, the crop must be cut as it starts to grow. Any decision to spray the path rather than cut it is up to your assessment of risk. The Authority is not able to advise it.
  • Do not plough a footpath or bridleway that is a headland of a field, or runs alongside a hedgerow. You must leave a usable headland of 1.5m for footpaths and 3m for bridleways. If natural vegetation from the surface of the headland is a problem, contact the Ranger for your area who will arrange for it to be cut.
  • Byways and unclassified roads must not be ploughed under any circumstances, even if they are across the field.

Gates and Stiles

  • Boundaries are to secure your livestock, so it is your responsibility to provide and maintain convenient gates or stiles where rights of way pass through fences, hedges and walls.
  • Assistance of at least 25% of the cost of maintaining gates or stiles is available from the Authority, usually in materials or labour. In practice, many structures are maintained by the Authority free of charge but such work is always done on your behalf – the gate or stile remains your responsibility, even if the Authority has installed it. If you have a gate or stile in need of work, contact the Ranger for your area.
  • New gates or stiles on rights of way must be authorised by the Authority, so obtain consent before erecting new stiles or gates. They need to be of an approved pattern so please contact the Rights of Way section.
  • The easier gates are to open and close, the more likely they are to be secured. Self closing gates and self securing latches are available. Don't double up latches with chains or baler band. If fastenings are fiddly they are more likely to be left undone. If gates are not necessary for stock security, tie them open or remove them. Gates should swing and not need dragging or lifting to open or latch them.
  • Gates on bridleways should be able to be opened by a mounted rider. This means that the latch should be at the top of the gate. If the gate needs to be secured at mid height, latches are available to do this that are operated from the top of the gate. For details contact the ranger for your area.
  • Do not put springs or weights on bridleway gates to make them close unless the tension is light enough for the rider to hold or swing the gate to allow the horse through without the gate closing on them.

Fences

  • If you want to fence alongside or near rights of way, please check with the Ranger for your area or the Rights of Way Officer. Encroachment on the width of rights of way or making use of a path inconvenient or dangerous occurs frequently with new fencing and is illegal. You could then be in the expensive position of having to move new fencing. Please check with the Authority before starting work.

Electric Fences

  • Electric fences are commonly needed for temporary division of fields or to reinforce existing boundaries. However temporary the fence is to be, you must consult the Rights of Way Officers for authorisation. You must then make safe and easy passage for users of the right of way, preferably by some sort of gate.
  • Ensure the wire is well insulated to each side of the gate.
  • Where the electric fence is reinforcing a boundary, ensure it is well insulated where it crosses a stile or gate. It must not prevent a gate opening in the usual manner so you will have to take it under the gate.
  • It is difficult to negotiate electrified fences with horses that are aware of the current so, on bridleways, insulate the wire at each side of the gate, if the fence is at right angles to the gate, insulate it for two metres so that a horse negotiating the gate will not come into contact with it, and ensure the gate can be opened easily with one hand, preferably without the rider dismounting. Spring 'gates' should be tensioned very lightly.
  • Barbed wire or electric fencing alongside rights of way is not illegal unless it is a danger or inconvenience to users of the way. Give plenty of room for parties to pass one another, particularly on bridleways where horses may meet cycles or walkers. Allow 2m minimum width for footpaths and 4m for bridleways.

Surfaces

  • Any change to the surface of a right of way needs permission from the National Park Authority. A proposed surface must be suitable for the public users of the right of way. Make sure you have agreement from the Rights of Way Officer and contact us before starting work – inappropriate surfaces can be expensive for you to rectify.
  • Provide adequate bridges with a non-slip surface where new ditches are made or existing ones widened.

Overhanging Vegetation

  • Cut back overhanging branches from trees and hedges alongside rights of way to leave a free 'corridor' at least 1.5m wide and 2m high on footpaths and 2.5m wide and 4m high on bridleways. If you allow a hedge alongside a headland path to overgrow the path, you are obstructing the path and users are entitled to move into the crop to pass.

 Keep Rights of Way Clear

  • Do not obstruct rights of way, even temporarily. When storing materials or machinery near a right of way, leave at least 1m width for footpaths and 2m for bridleways, more if the machinery could present a danger to a user who trips, or a startled horse. Remember that horses need much more room to manoeuvre than walkers and adequate space for safety when meeting other users.
  • Do not allow any dairy bull over ten months of age free range of any field through which a footpath, bridleway or byway passes. Dairy breeds are: Ayrshire, Jersey, Dairy Shorthorn, Kerry, British Friesian, British Holstein and Guernsey. Bulls of other breeds must be accompanied by cows or heifers.
  • Place supplementary feeding areas and water troughs away from rights of way to avoid poaching the surface. Do not put them on the right of way. If possible, use routes other than the right of way to transport feed if this will avoid poaching the surface of the path.

"Duty of Care"

Landowners must safeguard people from sources of danger such as slurry lagoons, mines or quarries and are advised to take out or check their public liability insurance to make sure they have adequate cover.