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The proposed first new National River Walk, the government’s Boxing Day announcement, is a ‘damp squib’, we argue.
The government claims that it will provide ‘21 kilometres of new paths’ along the Mersey Valley Way, between Stockport and Sale in Trafford. ‘It does nothing of the kind,’ says Kate Ashbrook, our general secretary. ‘The route is already a public footpath at least, and most of it is on the existing Trans-Pennine Trail.’
‘While we appreciate that calling the route a National River Walk, and naming it the Mersey Valley Way, may attract funding and support, with greater opportunities for people, especially low-income households, to discover and enjoy nature, it is far from new. However, its improvement is to be welcomed. At the very least, the whole route should provide new, permanent opportunities for disabled people and horse-riders to enjoy by right.
The River Mersey and the Trans Pennine Trail at Simon’s Bridge, Didsbury; this will be part of the projected Mersey Valley Way. © Copyright Graham Hogg and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
‘But this is just a small step from a government which should be doing much more for public access, for everyone’s health and well-being. The government must publish its promised Access to Nature green paper, to start the process for new laws to provide the freedoms that are needed to enable all, not just the communities in Manchester, Stockport, and Trafford, to enjoy the outdoors close to where they live. Yet government has offered no timetable for this important piece of work, merely saying that the green paper will be “published during this Parliament”, meaning that the necessary legislation may well not reach the statute book before the next election.
‘And we expect action on the announcement made last Boxing Day, the pledge to abolish the 2031 cut-off for recording public paths, now only five years away. The cut-off threatens to close thousands of kilometres of unrecorded public right of way. The Welsh government has repealed the threat, and it’s time that the Westminster government got on with it.
‘We shall be pressing hard in 2026 for the government to act for public access, as every other postwar Labour government has done,’ Kate declares.