I had a long meeting just this week with the (now long retired) woman who spent 11 years researching and negotiating PBW for countryside commission, so I have a real insight into which compromises were madewhitestone wrote: ↑Fri Aug 25, 2023 8:16 pm We live not far from the PBW and the section between Gisburn and Long Preston is little used even by the horse riders - lack of parking. livery and other facilities is one reason I've been told. For bikers it's probably that the section is lowland and gets overgrown very easily unlike the Pennine area to the south and the Dales to the north - it's more pleasant just to stick to the roads for that bit. TBH I don't see much evidence of equestrian use on the section to the south either, again there's not much in the way of facilities. A bit of a Catch-22 situation methinks.
The Second City Divide route has "plugged the gap" between the Eden Valley and Kielder so unless they are desperate to do something new then much has been done.
one of the interesting points is that one about lack of facilities - they were told to keep it separate from Pennine Way and I think it’s clear that was an error in places, and something we’ve learned in the work I’ve been doing with NE on the coast to coast NT riders route options - we set out in our recommendations to keep it as close as possible (less-so in Lake District due to the severity of the high fells) and use the same towns along the route in order to ensure there are adequate accommodation facilities along the route, we’ve also identified three potential 150 mile circular KAW style routes (one in each of the three National Parks) that we think would offer a more practical offering, linked together by the national trail routes.
PBW proposed Northern extension route has some real unresolved issues - nearly 25 years after being authorised, it’s still not been started, and little progress has been made (Lambley viaduct for example). We know which bits would (should) have been proposed but were blocked by, now long-gone, objectors and agencies who now perhaps have more of an enlightened view of public access. Health and safety on the other hand hasn’t gone away and the likelihood of horse access alongside the sections of heritage railway look even more unlikely now - there are some possibilities that could solve this though, and there’s even a possible route that would see over 75% of the extension on disused railway lines (Eg. A Potential reopening of border counties line all the way from Hexham to Kielder and on to Hawick, which would be stunning) - so, a long road ahead, again all dependent on what approach the next government takes.