2026 Guillotine for historic ways is to be abolished
We are delighted that the government is to scrap the 2026 deadline for recording historic paths in England. This deadline has, for more than 20 years, threatened our unique path-network. The deadline meant that on 1 January 2026, public rights over thousands of paths, which are public highways but not yet recorded as such, or…
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Parks for ever
Simon Hunt, one of our trustees and the former chair of the Friends of Finsbury Park, reflects on the increasing importance of open spaces in the context of the pandemic and climate crisis. On 23 March 2020 the public was told to stay at home. Shops, pubs, gyms, theatres, cafes and restaurants were closed, and…
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Our new watchdog in Herefordshire
David Howerski is our new local correspondent for the old South Herefordshire district of Herefordshire. David lives in Eaton Bishop, about four miles west of Hereford. He has had many careers, as both a parachute instructor and professional sky-diver. For ten years he was a Drop Zone Operator on the Gower Peninsula, and in later…
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2021 Report for the Stakeholder Working Group on Unrecorded Public Rights of Way
The aim of the Deregulation Act 2015 is to speed up the processing and determination of path claims. It is the result of many years’ work, and the consensus reached, by the rights of way stakeholder working group, consisting of balanced representation from landowners, local authorities and users. Our general secretary Kate Ashbrook is a…
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The government’s betrayal on access—but it’s not too late
The society and other user groups have long campaigned for payments for access to be a part of the new, post-Brexit, environmental land management scheme (ELMS). We were dismayed when this was not included in the announcement on funding for the first level, the sustainable farming incentive (SFI). But the environment secretary, George Eustice, is…
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Government ignores public access in new farm payments
Our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, comments on the government’s lamentable failure to introduce public access into the new agricultural funding-regime. We are dismayed that the government’s new, post-Brexit, environmental land management scheme (ELMS), published on 2 December, fails to offer payments for public access and paths on farmland. This is despite repeated commitments from ministers,…
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Important missing link in Millennium Walk created at Maidenhead
The Millennium Walk, a joint project of Maidenhead Civic Society and East Berks Ramblers, is a valuable trail as it links Hurley with Maidenhead Riverside, connecting with the Thames Path National Trail at both ends and opens up several pleasant circular walks. From Pinkneys Green it follows the Boundary Walk, a signed walk that follow…
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People power
So often success depends on the power of people coming together, writes our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook. Whether they are saving Bristol’s downs from car-parking, protecting London’s commons from commercial exploitation, or winning access to Worthing’s hinterland, the campaigning clout of local people is fundamental. And it always has been—witness the mass trespasses on Bolton’s…
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Piddle Valley bridleway
In the Piddle Valley, north of Dorchester in Dorset, a 2.5-mile bridleway has been a historic link between the three villages of Piddletrenthide, White Lackington, and Piddlehinton. Today it is in a parlous state. The Piddle Path Action Team writes of its efforts to restore it. The bridleway today is in places impassable for much…
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Much ado about nothing
Our Coventry local correspondent John Hall, with assistance from one of our case officers, Hugh Craddock, exposes the sloppy approach to rights-of-way matters by the National Transport Casework Team (NTCT), and persuades it to put things right. In March, the NTCT proposed to make two orders under section 247 of the Town and Country Planning…
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