Midland ramblers are being stopped in their tracks by lack of investment by local authorities, according to a new report.
Cash-strapped councils are not maintaining tracks and are failing to designate well used routes as public rights of way.
A ‘Paths in Crisis’ report by the Ramblers association highlights issues including impenetrable overgrowth, barbed wire, flooded paths and missing signposts, stiles and bridges.
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Birmingham and Staffordshire councils were named and shamed as among the worst in the country – but both told the Post they were working very hard to improve the network for walkers.
The pair are ‘councils of concern’ because of the scale of their funding cuts and number of paths affected.
Birmingham has the largest percentage of paths waiting to be recognised as public rights of way, said the association. The group also said Staffordshire has seen one of the largest funding cuts for paths, with £100,000 hacked from the budget.
Benedict Southworth, Ramblers chief executive, said: “Blocked and overgrown paths put people off from getting outside at a time when we need to be making it easier, not harder, for everyone to get more active.
“We know walking is one of the nation’s favourite past-times, with visitors to England’s great outdoors spending £21 billion last year.
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“Keeping paths clear is a small cost compared to the huge benefits they can bring to tourism, the economy and the nation’s health and happiness and it is vital that councils properly invest in them.
“We’re calling on councils to work with us to help get these paths back on track. We have volunteers across the country that regularly go out to clear paths, fix stiles and build bridges but without council staff to work with our volunteers, and liaise with landowners, it is becoming harder for our volunteers to help.”
Poor footpaths also have a negative impact upon tourism, the economy and the nation’s physical and mental health, says the association.
Other concerns include:
Worcestershire County Council has cut rights of way staff by 16 per cent, cut the rights of way budget by over £60,000, and has one of the highest number of path problems awaiting resolution.
Coventry City Council has no information on the number of miles of public rights of way it has and has more than 100 paths waiting to be recognised as public rights of way.
Warwickshire County Council has one of the lowest budgets per mile of rights of way at £176/mile has a high number of paths waiting to be recognised.
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The charity has teams of volunteers who clear overgrown paths, put up signposts and fix broken stiles and bridges. But, with such drastic cuts to funding there is less money for path clearance and with fewer staff to co-ordinate volunteers and liaise with landowners, it will become harder for volunteering to take place.
A Birmingham City Council spokesman said the authority produce a rights of way improvement plan in 2007 which set a policy for completing the definitive path map by 2026 and funding was made available to undertake the work.
She added: “We have received, as part of the Ramblers’ campaigns, a total of 143 paths included within applications to register these on the map. Since commencing this work we have added 284 paths to the map some of which are the paths subject to the applications to register. In total there are approximately 1,600 paths that need to go through this process and we have programmed in a target of adding 100 paths per year subject to resources remaining available.
“We are currently prioritising strategic paths that support a wider agenda of sustainable journeys, walking, cycling, health, access to local amenities schools and we are actively identifying opportunities where other areas of work such as upgrading footpaths to cycle routes can also include the registering of the paths on the map paid for by those funds.”
Coun Gill Heath, Cabinet Support Member for Environment and Rural Affairs with Staffordshire County Council said: “We are fully committed to maintaining a high quality network of paths and have processed over 1,500 path enquiries in the last 12 months.
“We also work closely with the volunteers to ensure that routes are kept open and available throughout the year. The paths waiting to be recognised as public rights of way are legal matters and not because of any budgetary cuts.”