Paths Project November 2016

Some of you will have seen the front page article in last Monday's Times (14 November) headed 'Walkers blocked from thousands of paths'.

Pathwatch Survey

The source for the article was the Ramblers Big Pathwatch Survey of Footpaths in England and Wales which reported, among other things

• Almost 1/10th of the 140,000 mile path network is difficult or impossible to use.
• Another third of the network needs improvement.
• The poor state of footpaths is partly blamed on big cuts in local Council funding.
• The state of routes was poorer in the southwest, West Midlands and Wales than for England and Wales as a whole.
• In many areas walkers would struggle to find paths, with 20,000 signs reported as missing.

Shropshire paths

For many local walkers struggling to follow routes it will come as no surprise to hear that Shropshire apparently has 743 missing footpaths signs.

Some paths that have gone 'missing' at the Shropshire county boundary are old footpaths connecting Audlem with Adderley. These are clearly shown on the 1948 Ordnance survey map and attempts are being made by past users, assisted by Audlem Parish Council, to get them back on the definitive map before changes in legislation occur on 1 January 2026.

Pre-1949 paths

This is when the official map of public rights of way is scheduled to be closed to claims for public footpaths and bridleways which existed before 1949 but have not been recorded on it. These pre-1949 public paths will then be formally extinguished and the rule 'once a highway, always a highway' is, in effect, revoked.

Although this seems to be a long way away, Audlem Parish Council, representatives from ARS and interested members of the community have already started looking into whether any other paths have gone 'missing' in our Parish, especially where the paths cross over the border in to Shropshire.

Further information

Details of their first meeting and a lot of source material relating to historic paths can be found on the Parish Council section of AudlemOnline under Miscellaneous Documents or by clicking here.

More information will follow in due course.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.