GIRL (10) LAUNCHES SAFETY CAMPAIGN FOR HORSE RIDERS

Hannah Mudd (10) is so concerned about the situation that she has read a letter to West Stoke Parish Council asking members to support her campaign.

Hannah has been riding her pony, Quizzy, on the lanes in West Stoke area, accompanying her mother Gill on her horse Woody, for the last 18 months.

She told the council: " During that time, traffic has increased so much, both in numbers and speed that it is really rare not to have some sort of incident when we are riding. The road from Funtington straight through West Stoke is really busy at all times, but at teatime it is so busy that we cannot ride out after school at all now.

"There are lots of bends and the road is narrow, the traffic often won't wait for us to pull over and the cars squeeze past going too fast which frightens me and my pony. When ponies are frightened they panic and spin round out into the road. Some drivers do slow down, but lots get angry when we ask them to slow, and shout and swear at us and then speed past even faster.

"It would be lovely if we didn't have to ride on the roads but to get to the few bridleways in the area we have to. We always wear lots of reflective safety clothing and ride responsibly and we always try to let traffic pass so that it doesn't build up behind us, and thank people who have slowed. We can't do anything more, only official people can help to make the road safer to use. Everyone says that the parish council won't do anything until someone has a tragic accident and is killed. This is just silly, and why should someone like me have to die before something can be done?"

For full story see West Sussex Gazette September 5