Newport village

For about 14 years now, our wonderful East Riding of Yorkshire Council has been struggling with various requests to remove obstructions to the Bridleway north of Seavy Carr Lane (beyond Canal Side East and north of the motorway).

The owners of the land have run rings round the council and frustrated their every move, which is a pity because it is one of the best brideways in the area.

The problem we have in trying to get this bridleway opened is that although the ERYC have a legal duty to remove any obstructions, the council sets its own priorities and seem quite happy that 14 years is not too long to wait for them to pull their finger out and take whatever action is required to remove the illegal obstruction in question.

In response to an e-mail from me the ERYC Monitoring Officer, the person who is responsible for ensuring that any act or omission of the Council does not lead to a contravention of any act or rule of law, states: "It is a matter of discretion for a Council as to the priority it gives in dealing with alleged obstructions and the way in which it then deals with any obstructions . Whilst therefore you may disagree with the priority given to an alleged obstruction or the way in which the Council choose to deal with any obstruction this would not necessarily be an issue for me as Monitoring Officer.

So, we have an act of parliament that imposes a responsibility on a council and a council which can say - we will deal with this in our own way in our own timescale even if it takes years or even decades to make any real progress. Wonderful!!!