I was contacted over the weekend by someone reporting that access to a bridleway at Crimdon had been blocked by barriers. I contacted the county council’s public rights of way officer first thing this morning to ask for this report to be followed up. Later the same morning the officer got back to me to confirm that the barriers had been removed and that there was now unrestricted access to the bridleway.
Last week I published an article about reported problems with access to the beach at Crimdon (please see post dated Monday 2 November 2020 for background details).
I raised concerns with officers from the heritage coast and the coast and countryside sections and asked for options to be considered in improving access at two separate points. Their initial response pointed to a couple of land ownership and maintenance responsibility matters:
The issues lie with the boundary between different DCC departments in terms of responsibility, particularly on the Northern access point off the car park nearer the caravan park. We will however assess what needs doing, and progress this asap either with our own contractors or our Clean and Green colleagues.
I have now received confirmation that a scheme to improve access has been costed. I’m told that works are scheduled to be carried out at the earliest opportunity and I’ll update on progress as soon as I have additional information from the countryside ranger team.