Monthly Report- March
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To: BHS Trustees, President, Vice Presidents, Regional & County Chairmen, Chairmen of Advisory Committees, Vice Chairmen, Committee Secretary, all BHS staff. March 2021 Monthly Report- March Table of Contents Chief Executive’s Report ....................................................................................... 2 1. Access and Rights of Way –Heather Clatworthy ............................................ 2 2. Approvals – Oonagh Meyer ........................................................................... 8 3. British Riding Clubs/Participation – Rachael Hollely-Thompson ..................... 9 4. Communications / Press – Seona Shuttleworth ............................................ 9 5. Education – Megen Alsop ............................................................................ 10 6 Merchandising - Karen Irving ....................................................................... 11 7 Membership - Emma Day ............................................................................ 12 8 Safety - Alan Hiscox..................................................................................... 12 9 Volunteers - Sally Gardner ……………………………………………………13 10 Welfare -Sophie Cookson & Emmeline Hannelly ........................................ 14 11 Equality and Child Protection-Ellie Vajcovec ………………………………………15 REGIONAL MANAGERS……………………………………………………………….16 12 East of England - Janet Holmes ................................................................... 16 13 East Midlands - Sally Andrews ..................................................................... 17 14 Ireland - Susan Spratt .................................................................................. 17 15 London and South East - ............................................................................. 18 16 North of England - Claire Maddison ............................................................. 18 17 Yorkshire - Amy Clements … …………………….…………………………....19 18 North West - Lyndsay Dring ......................................................................... 19 19 Scotland - Helene Mauchlen & Julie Hanna ................................................. 20 20 South - Hannah Marsh ................................................................................. 23 21 South West - Julie Garbutt ........................................................................... 23 22 Wales & The Channel Islands - Kathryn Stewart .......................................... 24 23 West Midlands - Andrea Jackman ................................................................ 25 Please circulate this Monthly Report to your Committee Members Chief Executive’s Report Welcome to the March monthly report – it has been a very busy month for the entire team here at the BHS as we support our stakeholders to prepare for the easing of lockdown restrictions. With March behind us and the Spring and Summer months ahead, I know that we’re all looking forward to getting outside and seeing some of the friends and family that we’ve been separated from through the winter. At the beginning of the month we met with the Chairman’s Consultation Committee and had a very constructive meeting, including the firming up of plans for Ride Out UK. We have a stretching target for the campaign this year, so if you’re able to, please do get out and enjoy and organised Ride Out UK ride near you this summer. On 4 March many of us across the BHS attended the National Equine Forum (NEF21) which was held virtually for the first time. It was an excellent event with speakers from across all aspects of equestrianism, both recreational and sport based, and Committee Members BAME Equine & Rural Activities Focus Group, to name but a few. We also heard from our very own Trustee, Professor Tim Morris, and our Director of Safety, Alan Hiscox. The most recent Dead Slow Statistics were released at the event, and since then the horse incidents reporting app ‘HORSE I’ has been launched. Our colleagues from the BHS do a marvellous job of representing us at the National Equine Forum, spreading the word of our excellent work across our charitable aims. You can access the programme and a re-run of NEF21 here: https://www.nationalequineforum.com/resources-2021/. As a final point on NEF21, it was very good to hear the Secretary of State for Rural Affairs, Lord Gardiner, acknowledge the positive work of the BHS at NEF21: "The BHS set up the Hardship Fund to help meet the cost associated with maintaining the health and wellbeing of horses and ponies. I thank the BHS for their collaboration with the Government to identify the implications that the changing Covid 19 restrictions have had on various equestrian activities”. An incredibly proud moment for us all, I’m sure you’ll agree! There’s been plenty more happening throughout the month, with lots of internal and external meetings taking place as more activity is able to resume. At the end of the month, Tim Lord and I attended the BEF Council Meeting which provides a great opportunity for us to meet and discuss matters with our peer organisations and fellow BEF Member Bodies. We continue to work closely with the British Horse Council, Defra and the DCMS to lobby government for the benefit of all our stakeholders, and in particular, riding schools. Please read on for more detail on what the Team have been up to across all departments. 1. Access and Rights of Way – Heather Clatworthy HQ Updates: DOBBINDATA We have recently launched DobbinData, a new mapping tool where you can share or find information on equestrian use of selected features on public rights of way, roads and certain other routes. This information is crucial to us when we are lobbying for change or submitting proposals for new plans, so that we can ensure equestrian inclusion and user-friendly features. This is for the UK. Find out more here: https://www.bhsaccess.org.uk/dobbin/DobbinData.php 2 Consultation responses Department Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) Northern Ireland - The provision of access for outdoor recreation in Northern Ireland - Key Stakeholder Consultation Welsh Government Consultation Document Agriculture (Wales) White Paper New starter – welcome Molly We welcome Molly Bannister as Full-Time administrator to the HQ team. Having studied animal welfare in college, she has found great joy in volunteering as a way to work alongside her favourite creatures: whether it be with horses at a riding school or turtles in Australia. Her pride and joy is her rabbit, a Netherland Dwarf named Squib. In her spare time she plays piano, paints, does DIY and tinkers with her car. She is also eager to start taking riding lessons, a life-long dream of hers. Molly is delighted to now be working somewhere she can use her passion, doing her part to make a positive difference for horses and their riders. She has only been with the BHS for a few weeks but reports that she has already “fallen in love with the role and the work we do, and she can’t wait to see what else it has in store”. Volunteering Volunteer recruitment in the Access Department since the start of 2021 has been very busy! After a successful first phase of our recruitment campaign we’ve had a brilliant number of applications for Access and Bridleway Officers. We currently have 288 Access and Bridleway Officers and nearly 100 2026 Historical Researchers. BHS 2026 Project (England) currently at 1199 applications Resumption of notification of owners / occupiers Monday March 29th sees the end of the prohibition of non-essential travel as part of the staged relaxation of the Covid restrictions – the advice though is to still stay local. Since January, the BHS has had in place a moratorium on the service of notices on landowners of DMMO applications made in the name of the BHS, where notices were required to be erected on site. As a result of the end of this limitation on travel, there is no reason why the service of notices, including posting on site, cannot resume and volunteers may now carry out this element of the process again as of 29th March if this can be done locally. Volunteers are reminded of the continuing need to observe social distancing and to comply with any other public health advice. Scot Pit Lane – Schedule 14 Appeal Decision If, when the Council reviews an application, it decides to reject it the applicant has the option to make what is known as a Schedule 14 Appeal to the Secretary of State. Success at this stage means that the Council will be directed to make the DMMO but there is the still the possibility of objections to the order from landowners and others. There has just been a very interesting Schedule 14 appeal decision in North Yorkshire relating to an application made by our County Access and Bridleways Officer, Caroline Bradley. You can read the decision letter here and see the route plotted on Dobbin as NYK-0249. Well done Caroline and good luck with the next stage! Dobbin news – the Dobbin 2026 site at www.bhsaccess.org.uk/2026 continues to grow and develop. There are currently over 13,500 routes plotted on it across England and Wales, and many people use it to create some or all of their application documents. For those that do use it, just a reminder that any comments entered on the research records could be viewed by anybody – other researchers or landowners or local authorities. Comments should be objective and appropriate at all times. If you have any queries about this or concerns about any particular content then do let us know at [email protected]. Training update for 2026 Volunteers