Carriage Driving Permits

Our Rights of Way Officer, Tricia Singleton, has been working to build relationships with Forestry England and the New Forest National Park Authority to advocate for carriage driving in the New Forest. This work has come in handy with some recent changes to the permit applications process for Forestry England that was throwing some 'teething problems' and making the carriage driving permit application more complicated than it needed to be.

Tricia has received conformation from the Activities and Permissions team that there is only a two-step process, plus payment, to complete for annual carriage driving permits for the New Forest which is outlined below. Click on the titles to show the detail of each stage.

1 - Email Forestry England to start the process

Send an email to the southern.permissions@forestryengland.uk requesting an annual horse drawn carriage driving permit.

The team will then respond with a link to the initial application enquiry form.

2 - Initial application enquiry form

Complete this form with your personal details. You do not have to submit proof of public liability insurance separately but you should have suitable public liability insurance.

Not all of the questions have options suitable for carriage driving or it is not clear what the response should be. Guidance for those questions is detailed below: -

Q1 - Q4: personal details

Q5: No - this is for an individual permit

Q6: select "other" and then enter either 'previous permit holder' if you are renewing or 'Hampshire BDS' if this is a new permit.

Q7: enter 'individual, annual horse drawn carriage driving permit' or similar

Q8: select "New Forest Beat Wide"

Q9: select "No"

Q10: select "other" then enter the same text from your answer to Q7

Q11: select "No"

Q12: answer as per Q7 or in your own words

Q13: select "Other" and then select the start and end dates for a full calendar year

Q14: enter the average or maximum number of people for any one 'outing' not a total for the year

Q15: enter either 'various car parks throughout the New Forest' or 'from home' as applicable

Q16 & Q17: select "No"

Then select the declaration tick boxes as appropriate and submit the form.

Payment

Once your permit has been confirmed you will be advised how to make payment.

If you experience any problems with the application process, please email Tricia on hants.bds.row@gmail.com with the date of your application and any reference numbers you have.