Its been a long road but after some really productive meetings with Harlow Council and Natural England we have signed a licence that will allow riders access to the woods.

The licence only gives access to liveries of the yard and there is an agreed route they must follow, but we are more than happy with this. Our aim was always to secure a safe off road route to the byway and bridleway and with the support of Harlow Council we are pleased that we have been able to do this.

At the moment, this is on a six month trial to make sure riders stick to the designated route and to assess the impact on the SSSI site. We hope that by demonstrating we can be considerate to the site, the council will agreed to extend the licence after the trial period.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us along the way, we really appreciate your help in getting us to this place.

Special thanks to Michael at Your Harlow for picking up our story when we first started campaigning and helping us to gain interest; to Cllr Durcan for helping us to understand the mechanics of council meetings and how to raise questions; to BBC Essex, ITV Anglia and Horse and Hound magazine for promoting our plight; to Simon Freeman for agreeing to the meeting that allowed a two way dialogue to take place and to Cllr Nicky Purse for being open to reviewing the council stance on the issue.... and thank you to each and every one of you who signed the petition - Without your support we would undoubtedly not be where we are today!

Roll on the summer and lots of safe off road hacking!