permissions for events from highways/footpaths officer?

[old&slow]

A local authority footpath officer is aggrieved that his department has not been contacted via highways for permission for an orienteering event I am organising in our local woods. We have permission from the landowner.

The footpath officer believes his department should be consulted as there are public rights of way crossing these words and the event may have an impact on public using the words and a possible impact on the footpaths themselves. I have arranged for messages to be posted before the event warning other users that the event will be taking place.

I have mentioned this to other more experienced organisers who suggest I should ignore his comments.

Has anybody else ever asked for permission from highways for an event? Is this just more bureaucracy?

[Klebe]

Sounds like just another jumped up beaurocratic, idle good for nothing local government officer who has beggar all better to do with his days than come up with stupid so called health and safety excuses to stop people doing anything. If his employer kept him busy with proper work he wouldn't have time to be so stupid!

[EddieH]

UNBELIEVABLE

Ignore him

[mike g]

The main duties of a footpaths officer are (1) to ensure that rights of way remain accessible and unobstructed, and (2) to take action if they are being used by a non-permitted class of user, e.g. motorbikes. An orienteering event doesn't impact on either of those, so the event doesn't need his permission.

[NeilC]

A start or finish can effectively block a footpath, or more particularly a bridleway. This should be avoided if possible. Last year's BOC assembly area blocked a public footpath, so for that one day we diverted the footpath around the edge of the field.

[Copepod]

Just one idea that might help - do it yourself or encourage a member of your OC to apply join the Local Access Forum. There's usually one forum per county or one per National Park (sometimes divided into 2 or more regions). I was a member of Cambridgeshire Local Access Forum for a year until autumn 2006, when work commitments away from home made it impossible to get to meetings (only one evening every 2 months). However, an older WAOC member is still a member, where he represents the interests of orienteers, runners, walkers etc. Land owners can also be members, and many are very enthusiastic about public access to their land (and waterways).

[SJC]

Has anybody else ever asked for permission from highways for an event? Is this just more bureaucracy?

It is just more bureaucracy, but upsetting people like this can lead to problems further down the line as they will almost certainly have contacts with other groups from whom we do need to get permission.

Asking for permission for something that we can do as of right is not necessary, but in future a letter informing him when an event is to take place might be a sensible move.

[SJC]

Has anybody else ever asked for permission from highways for an event? Is this just more bureaucracy?

It is just more bureaucracy, but upsetting people like this can lead to problems further down the line as they will almost certainly have contacts with other groups from whom we do need to get permission.

Asking for permission for something that we can do as of right is not necessary, but in future a letter informing him when an event is to take place might be a sensible move.

[redkite]

This will become more of an issue for large City/street/urban races.

[Scott]

Yeah, the reason that the Oxford race wasn't announced sooner was because it took us forever first to get any response at all from the City Council highways department, and then to persuade them that we wouldn't need to close any roads. I'm still not entirely convinced they don't think I'm the guy who organises the Oxford 10k...