A GROUP that helps people enjoy the Powys countryside has called on Powys County Council to commit to improving rights of way access, after it was discovered that only a third of them in the county are open and easy to use.
Powys Ramblers believes Powys County Council should apologise for failing to maintain access to “our wonderful countryside” and want the local authority to use its legal powers to prosecute landowners who fail to fix issues.
It comes after a blog written by well-known campaigner and general secretary of the Open Spaces Society, Kate Ashbrook, described the footpaths and byways around Llandrindod Wells as “appalling”.
“At the recent annual meeting of Ramblers Cymru in Llandrindod I took the opportunity to demonstrate how the council has failed in its statutory duty to look after rights of way in Powys,” said Mr Taylor.
“This was easy, I took 30 or so delegates just up the road to Llanyre to see five dangerous stiles which I have previously reported to the council.
“These problems have not been dealt with, along with more than 10,000 other issues that the council says are unresolved.
“Powys Ramblers are continuing to press the council to use its legal powers to get landowners to fix these stiles.”
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Mr Taylor, who is also chairman of the Local Access Forum, attended a recent meeting of the council’s planning committee, to present its annual report.
“I suggested the council should apologise for failing to maintain access to our wonderful countryside for future generations,” added Mr Taylor.
“The council accepts that only around a third of rights of way in Powys are open and easy to use and I asked them to commit to improve this to a half over the next 5 years. I await their response.”
In response, a spokesperson for Powys County Council said its “greatest challenge” is the sheer size of the rights of way network in the county.
Powys has over 9,250 kilometres of public rights of way – accounting for more than a quarter of the network in Wales.
“This improvement plan, which was last reviewed in 2018 following a full public consultation exercise, is supported by an annual work plan.
“Maintenance work on public paths within the county is ongoing. However, constraints on resources means that any work to improve the rights of way network must be prioritised in accordance with the Rights of Way Improvement Plan.
“We work with countryside volunteers to maintain our path network. We are reshaping the way in which we work with our volunteer groups and communities to enable them to support us more effectively.
“The new approach has been developed and will be implemented over the next 12 months.”
The spokesperson added: “The council does have an enforcement policy.
“Our approach in the first instance is to work with landowners co-operatively to ensure that paths on their land are open and usable by the public.
“The majority of issues on the county’s public paths are resolved successfully in this way. Where this is not possible, enforcement action is taken.
“Enforcement against obstructions on a public right of way follows a legal process that can have serious consequences, as it can lead to a prosecution.
“When we initiate enforcement, we must make sure that sufficient officer resource is dedicated to following the process to completion.”
To read Ms Ashbrook’s blog, visit https://shorturl.at/tOXzR.
