RIBBLE WAY    SECTION AT MITTON 

In years after World War II the various ferry services on the River Ribble stopped operating, which included the service near Hacking Hall. The boat used for this particular service is now in Clitheroe Museum. 

The route of the Ribble Way was established in the early 1980s with the official opening on 1^st June 1985, which went from a point on the west side of Longton to the source near Ribblehead. It was acknowledged that the route had a few deficiencies including the section around Mitton, where two kilometres are on the B6243 and B6246, these being busy country roads much of which is without a pavement. 

In 1990 it was confirmed that improvements to the Ribble Way were required at a few locations including the section around Mitton, with this being endorsed by the County Council’s Planning Committee on 9^th Jan 1991. At this stage it was envisaged that a suspension type bridge would be built at one of the following locations –

a)      On the River Ribble between the confluences of the River Hodder and River Calder. The advantage of this scheme was that public footpaths already exist on both banks.

b)      On the River Hodder near Winckley Hall (just above the confluence with River Ribble), with the advantage that the distance to spanned by the bridge was smaller, but with the disadvantage that no public footpath presently exists on the east bank of the River Hodder.

Then in Sep 1999 a revised plan for solving this issue was agreed by Ribble Valley Council, which involved providing a bridge near Hacking Hall, using the design of a tripod, which was to span both the River Ribble and River Calder. It is understood that Lancashire County Council also agreed to this plan. 

By Oct 2002 work was taking place on a compulsory purchase order in order to acquire the ground on which this bridge will sit. This work was not completed until early 2005. 

In spring 2005 Lancashire County Council were beginning to get cold feet about the cost of providing a bridge using a tripod type design, and indicated that they would like to cancel the whole project. They did however state they would investigate the option of providing a ferry service on summer weekends and bank holidays. The provision of such a ferry service would do nothing for walkers on a damp grey autumn day, when walking on country roads is likely to be at its most dangerous. 

It is our belief that the original project of a single span bridge crossing one river should now be the way forward. The likely solution is likely to be the provision of a suspension bridge of the type that was built at Dinckley. 

Frequently the route of a walk will involve a section on a country road when linking two paths on the route of a planned walk. Often these roads have less than ideal visibility as a result of bends and walls or hedgerows at the side of the road. It is one of the campaign aims of the Association to seek improvements to the footpath network so that the amount of road walking is reduced. 

The introduction for the Provisional Local Transport Plan for Lancashire makes a few good points including that people need to exercise more. It is anticipated that the final version of this plan will be available in Spring 06, by which time we hope to see a set of policies that will encourage people to walk more often. 

One aspect of this will be to provide a means of avoiding roads that are potentially dangerous and/or unpleasant. The traffic on rural roads is growing faster than on the equivalent urban roads.

On Saturday 26 June 2004 groups of walkers from throughout Lancashire set out to meet at the junction of the Rivers Calder and Ribble, just below the village of Whalley, knowing full well that they will not be able to meet, only to wave at each other across the rivers.

Why can they, and the many other walkers, who walk these paths in this most beautiful part of Lancashire not cross the rivers and continue their walks? Because since the ferry ceased operating at Hacking Hall, there is no way across the rivers.

The nationally know long distance trail, The Ribble Way, has to leave the banks of the river at this point and continue along the road. The presence of a footbridge across the river would allow walkers to avoid this section of road, maker a safer and more enjoyable route.

To have a footbridge built here has been a wish of the Ramblers Association for many years. Discussions were held in 1990 and in 1997 LCC agreed the design of the bridge, the necessary planning approvals were sought and obtained, and sources of finance identified.

Lancashire County Council are failing in their duty to implement this agreed policy and we feel enough is enough. It is time to build the bridge and allow walkers to continue their journey without the need of a canoe, a rubber dingy or a long road walk.

Photos of 1997 proposed bridge design (Click on photos for larger scale)

PHOTO'S OF THE DAY (Click on photos for larger scale)

1. Members of the Association and other supporters will have a choice of a small number of walks that will start from various locations, including two that will start from Hurst Green at 10:00 (choice of easy and moderate walks).

2. The Ramblers Association is a voluntary organisation founded in 1935. It promotes walking and works to protect public rights of way, to campaign for access to open country and to defend the beauty of the countryside. It has 142,000 individual members.

3. The Ribble Way starts on the Ribble Estuary at the Dolphin Inn, Longton and goes via Preston, Ribchester, Clitheroe, Gisburn and Settle, to end on Blea Moor above Ribblehead. The route mainly keeps near the River Ribble, but in a few places it does deviate some distance from the River.

4. Before World War II small ferries operaled at a few locations, but these ceased operating soon after the end of the war. At Dinckley a footbridge was provided by Lancashire County Council at the site of the former ferry. Of the other former ferry points the site of Hacking Ferry is the point where a footbridge is most desired.

5. The former Hacking Ferry was able to carry walkers between the North Bank of the River Ribble, the South Bank of the River Ribble and the bank between the River Ribble and the River Calder i.e. could transport walkers between any of the three river banks. The lack of a means of crossing the river at this point means that walkers have to do a major detour which’ includes a long stretch on a busy country road.

6. In 2000, the year before foot and mouth struck Lancashire County Council proposed a new solution to solve this long standing problem, which was to provide a triangular bridge between the three river banks.

7. The RA can see reasons why progress was not possible during the outbreak of foot and mouth, but would have expected progress in the years since, but it still remains on the drawing board waiting to be built.

8. 26th June is known as Footpath Day and the RA will be organising several events throughout the country. :‘~vents are taking place in other counties to highlight local issues e.g. problems of farmers not reinstating footpaths after ploughing.

9. Other issues that are a concern to the RA in Lancashire includes the problem of attempting to cross busy roads, especially dual carriageways. The worst example of this is the Accrington Easterly Bypass, which is crossed by several footpaths, but no footbridges are present.