Lift canal ban, say riders

Riders in the Bettws area say the only safe way they can reach some bridle paths is by using the canalside but a bylaw stops horses and motorcyclists from using it.

Patricia Evans, who keeps three horses at Waterford Stables in Bettws, said: "To take our horses on to the bridle paths here we have to use the side of the canal but there are signs there which say no horses allowed."

Forty-three-year-old Patricia said that the only other way to get to bridle paths for them and other people who keep horses in stables in Bettws was to use the main road. She said: "To use the main road is a dangerous alternative, I often take children out riding and they cannot be taken out on the main road."

Patricia, who rides most days, said that her horse does not react well to cars and she is afraid to take him on the main road.

She said: "If we take the horses by the canal people will stop and tell us that horses are not allowed, but we have no alternative."

Patricia said that people needed to know where they could go and safely take their horses.

She added: "If we cannot use the canal then where can we go?" Councillor Noel Trigg, owner of Waterford Stables, said: "Newport Council decided to put signs up a couple of years ago and I was against it then, people like to see the horses down there."

He said that as long as people were careful with their horses and did not gallop down the paths then there should not be a problem.

"I cannot understand the mentality of the council putting up such signs." A spokeswoman for Newport council said: "The majority of the canal tow path is, and always has been, designated as a footpath.

"New signs which remind the public that the tow path is not suitable or safe for horseriding were erected when work was carried out to upgrade the tow path as part of a national cycle network for the millennium."

PICTURED: Patricia Evans with her horse Klara, son Tony and stable user Nicol Gibson.