Southend Council have come under fire as horse riders call for a dedicated crossing and say their pleas are being ignored.
The horse riders want a dedicated crossing at a junction of the A127 in Leigh, and have said Southend Council is ignoring their safety.
The riders want a Pegasus horse crossing at the Progress Road junction, as part of the £4.6million work being done to cut delays for motorists and improve access for residents in The Fairway.
There will be new pedestrian and cycle crossings, but a horse crossing has been ruled inappropriate by the council, despite The British Horse Society backing the campaign.
Marlene Curtis, assistant access and bridleways officer within the Essex branch of the charity, said:
“The problem is that The British Horse Society was not consulted in the first place, and the council took a decision not to include any facilities for horse riders at all. They have made improvements for everyone else but not horses, which is unfair. They are ignoring safety for horse riders.”
But Southend Council said a detailed feasibility study had been carried out at the junction, which concluded a Pegasus crossing would not be appropriate because of the high levels of traffic flow, the space requirements for a holding area, the delays such a crossing would cause to traffic, and the special authorisation a Pegasus crossing must get from the Department of Transport.
What is a Pegasus Crossing?
A Pegasus crossing is similar to a Toucan crossing but also has ‘high level’ push buttons for mounted horse riders. Currently there are no crossings of this type in Southend.
Despite the Pegasus horse crossing being unusual, there are several located in Essex, including on the new A120 bypass which boasts two Pegasus crossings, and the A129, a main road in Essex which has a pegasus crossing near Shotgate.
Do you think the council are right to turn down plans for dedicated crossing for local riders? Let us know your thoughts below:
Me and my mum regularly cross the progress road junction with our horses and even though both our horses are fairly good it is still pretty nerve racking crossing the road. Several times we've had some near misses with cars and lorrys. It is obviously not a place we enjoy riding but our hacking is so limited we need to cross to reach more bridleways. We and a lot of other riders we know would never be so silly as to risk the crossing in rush hour and its usually early on a sunday morning for most people. So surly this wouldnt cause any traffic problems?????Lisa
I totally agree with lisa,,most people are busy working to keep thier horses so sat and sun are days that most people would ride and your not dealing with rush hour traffic on them days.. there is very limited riding on the fairway side of the 127 i know and thats why i had to move my horses even futher from where i lived to enjoy the bridleways without getting killed trying to cross the 127 each time i want to get to hockley woods for a decent ride.
In belfairs wood there is a track for horses…laugh its seem to be for everyone else and i never been able to ride in there without a bloody dog jumping up my horses back legs and then ending up in a arguement about who should be there and whos got the right away!! them or the rider..horses can be dangerous when frighten but people dont seem to understand that and continue to walk thier dogs off the lead all over the given trotting track and the council do nothing to make it clear to the public that its for horses..we soon get chased if will so much took a hoof of the trotting track and went in the other parts of the woods to get some space as everyone is walking in ours..
The council are wrong to not consider it, i bet if you look back before the 127 was built your find that a bridleway exsited they just rubbed it off the map and built the 127 and to bad if you want to cross safe with your horses.
why dont the consider making a under pass if they dont want to upset the traffic flow..be more sensible and my horses would be happy to use so i could visit my other horse friends on the fairway side.Tracy Cooper Leigh-on-sea