{"id":175,"date":"2016-02-29T20:32:37","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T20:32:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.norfolkra.org.uk\/?p=175"},"modified":"2016-02-29T20:32:37","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T20:32:37","slug":"the-big-pathwatch-survey-results-are-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.norfolkra.org.uk\/index.php\/2016\/02\/29\/the-big-pathwatch-survey-results-are-in\/","title":{"rendered":"The Big Pathwatch Survey Results Are In!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bigpatwhwatch\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Over a six-month period starting in July last year, walkers up and down the country\u00a0have reported on what they found when using our extensive network of public rights\u00a0of way. These results have come in from walkers who took part in the Big Pathwatch which was run by the national Ramblers organisation.<\/p>\n

Here in Norfolk, some 1,800 kilometres of paths were walked, and reports made\u00a0covering 3,600 square kilometres of town and countryside. We are really grateful to everyone who has assisted with the Pathwatch project as it gives an overview of the situation that we have now.<\/p>\n

Walkers were asked to report what they found – good, bad and indifferent. 827\u00a0positive reports were made, of attractive views (251 reports, almost two thirds of\u00a0which were of open country), sightings of flora and fauna (90 reports, a quarter of\u00a0them birds and another quarter trees), as well as interesting buildings, lakes and\u00a0other natural features (a further 76 reports).\u00a0245 reports were also made of welcoming signs, helping walkers find their way.<\/p>\n

\"norfolkresults\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, there was some bad news as well which can be seen on the above chart. 2316 reports were made of\u00a0unwelcome features and difficulties and this represents nearly three quarters of the\u00a0reports made, compared to a national average of only 54% of reports being of poor\u00a0features.<\/p>\n

The largest causes of concern were missing signs, either where the right of way left\u00a0a road (289 reports), or along the route (400 reports). In almost 1 in 10 of these\u00a0reports, the walker said that this made the route unusable rather than just\u00a0inconvenient.<\/p>\n

The next biggest issues were ploughing across the path (137 reports), crops across\u00a0the path (117 reports) and overhanging or surface vegetation (241 reports). Again,\u00a0in approximately a third of these cases, the walker said that this made the route\u00a0unusable rather than just inconvenient.<\/p>\n

We have been reporting this information to Norfolk County Council as the survey has\u00a0gone on, and we know that officers have looked into the difficulties reported. We are\u00a0unable to say just what action may have been taken, but we are particularly\u00a0concerned at the lack of enforcement action being taken when reports are made\u00a0about paths being ploughed or cropped over, and not reinstated within the legally\u00a0required timescales. Whilst appreciating the difficulties that the Council faces in\u00a0taking enforcement action, we – and they – are well aware that they have a legal duty\u00a0to pursue such action, which includes the ability to recover their costs in doing so.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Ramblers nationally plans to continue to monitor the state of our public rights of\u00a0way, as we will do here in Norfolk, and will be pressing the County to make\u00a0significant improvements this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over a six-month period starting in July last year, walkers up and down the country\u00a0have reported on what they found when using our extensive network of public rights\u00a0of way. These results have come in from walkers who took part in the Big Pathwatch which was run by the national Ramblers organisation. Here in Norfolk, some … Continue reading The Big Pathwatch Survey Results Are In!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[2,46],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.norfolkra.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.norfolkra.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.norfolkra.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.norfolkra.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.norfolkra.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.norfolkra.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":177,"href":"http:\/\/blog.norfolkra.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions\/177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.norfolkra.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.norfolkra.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.norfolkra.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}