[manian]

yep you are responsible
we have a bridleway through ours. we have fenced the animals so that people can't touch the animals
check for any specifics to your ROW and get it in writing from the coucil
also get info about any problems from te seller. if any problem found out later then have some come back if in writing

[mab]

Well I talked to the ROW officer and it's foot traffic only on the path only, and dogs should be on short leads, and she confirmed the route as that on the OS map.

Not worked out any details yet but fencing the path off would fence the animals away from the stream.

[lachlanandmarcus]

lots of farmers are being made to fence off their animals from watercourses anyway (water can still feed troughs but not directly accessed (altho more cattle than smaller things) due to the pollution and bank habitat erosion they cause. Esp on nitrate vulnerable zones which are covering an increasing area of the country.

Not saying thats relevant here but its worth bearing in mind that if you did decide to fence you would get tick in that box from big brother.

[bazzais]

I actually feel quite good now about the Pembrokeshire National Parks - they have upgraded most my gates that are on footpaths and kept all the stiles intact.  We only have one gate now that we are trying to get them to change to the fasteners on as they installed a 'pin' latch which the ponies bend with one scratch of the arse.

The dog opening stile thingy is actually easier to make than it sounds - I would post a picture but when I searched for 'dog stile' on google images it came up with some rather, lets say, different results.

Baz

[mab]

 

Well there's already a new looking stile for humans so I just need to add a doggy door on one side. I should be able to manage.

But the ROW officer did say I was responsible for the stiles & fences and they were responsible for the path - but then this is Carmarthenshire so I suppose they have different rules. 

[SallyintNorth]

I think the legality is that the landowner is responsible for the paths including gates, stiles, etc, but some National Parks take a wider view and are happy to help maintain / improve paths for the good of the visitors and the farmers.  Northumberland National Park certainly do.