Addingham and Silsden's horse riding enthusiasts have secured victory in a row over obstructed bridleways.

Bradford Council has been rapped by the Local Government Ombudsman after horse riders claimed they were forced on to roads because bridleways were obstructed.

The riders say they faced death or injury because they were unable to use paths which the council should have put right.

The authority is said to have set aside the work on the routes because it was busy with a major survey on the district's rights of way. Ultimately the survey took two-and-a-half years to complete - instead of the six months originally intended.

Now the council has been ordered to pay Silsden, Draughton and Addingham Bridleways Association and the South Pennine Packhorse Trust £500 each because of the injustice they have suffered. Both groups represent hundreds of people.

Ombudsman Patricia Thomas has recommended the council take action on the work and says it has failed to carry out some of its statutory duties.

She said: "The injustice to the complainants flowing from the council's maladministration is that they are having to wait for unreasonable lengths of time to have their applications considered and concerns addressed. They have been put to considerable trouble because of the council's inaction."

Lisa Norris, chairman of the Silsden, Draughton and Addingham Bridleways Association, said the survey had been a fiasco and riders had been given the 'runaround'.

She said that while the survey was being done, organisations and members of the public were spending their own time and resources on researching and reporting obstructions on the district's bridleways.

She said that in addition, the entire rights of way network was falling into further disrepair. She claimed almost half of Bradford's bridleways were impassable to riders and cyclists and every day there were 30 road accidents involving horses and 37 involving cyclists in Britain.

"Members of the public could walk round obstructions but horse riders were left with no choice," she said.

But she said the council's countryside service - unlike the rights of way unit - had been trying hard and doing the best it could.

A spokesman for Bradford Council said: "We have received the Ombudsman's report. It will be considered by the appropriate committee in due course and the Ombudsman informed of any action the council decides to take."

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