Improved Access To Tresavean Trail.
New safety measures have been provided to the embankment access from Rough Street to the Tresavean Trail. For walkers this includes the installation of a handrail to the steep slope. For horse riders, fencing at the bottom of the incline serves to ensure access onto the highway is as far from the bridge archway as possible to reduce the danger of collision with oncoming motor vehicles. The pathway continues to be potentially dangerous though and all users of this permissive path do so at their own risk.
At the request of the council the Highways Department of Cornwall Council will be painting the underside of the bridge archway to aid visibility for oncoming traffic and will provide warning signs of the danger of horses and walkers coming onto the highway unseen.
Both walkers and horse riders have used the steep embankment by the side of Rough Street bridge to gain access to the Tresavean Trail for many years. The bridge and the embankment, indeed the Trail itself, are owned by the parish council and in recent times comments have been received concerning the safety of the incline for use as a path. Aware of a potential public safety risk the council has been trying to reduce or remove the risk over the last few years and hopefully a successful resolution is now in hand.
The Trail was dedicated as a bridleway in 1991 by the parish council on the agreement of Cornwall Council to take on responsibility for keeping the surface in good condition. The embankment at Rough Street was not included in the dedication though so its status is that of a permissive path only.
Two requests were made for funds from the Mineral Tramways Project to improve the path, but both failed. The council was then advised that its public liability insurance against third party claims would not be met if there were safety issues of which council was aware but which had not been addressed. An independent health and safety expert was called in who reported on a number of concerns which resulted in improvement works being carried out but also in horse riders being effectively barred from using the path.
When completion of the work was reported to the insurers they were also told of the disappointment of many riders at this restriction. The insurers then had further discussions with the underwriters and thankfully they are now content to let horse riders use the path provided signage points out that they do so at their own risk. The safety works will be adjusted as soon as the contractors can return to the site to give effect to this change, the given date being 5 January 2011.
November 2010.