{"id":322,"date":"2016-11-09T14:04:58","date_gmt":"2016-11-09T14:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.norfolkra.org.uk\/?p=322"},"modified":"2016-11-09T14:26:20","modified_gmt":"2016-11-09T14:26:20","slug":"ramblers-and-open-spaces-society-call-for-norfolk-county-council-to-do-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.norfolkra.org.uk\/index.php\/2016\/11\/09\/ramblers-and-open-spaces-society-call-for-norfolk-county-council-to-do-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramblers and Open Spaces Society Call for Norfolk County Council to Do More"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Norfolk Area Ramblers and the Open Spaces Society have today published a news release calling on Norfolk County Council to do more about the state of our county’s paths.<\/p>\n

The release reads:<\/p>\n

Little satisfaction with our public rights of way network<\/strong><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Ramblers and Open Spaces Society have today called for Norfolk County\u00a0Council to take action to improve on its poor reputation in maintaining and promoting\u00a0its rights of way network.<\/p>\n

Only a few weeks ago, the Council celebrated the opening of the latest stretch of the\u00a0England Coast Path, from Hopton on Sea to Sea Palling. At the opening, the\u00a0Chairman of the County Council, David Collis, joined Lord Gardiner (Parliamentary\u00a0Under Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)\u00a0and Andrews Sells (Chairman of Natural England) to tell the gathered audience\u00a0about the great benefits that walking – and the availability of footpaths – brought to\u00a0the whole community: individual benefits in physical and mental health, and\u00a0economic benefits to the county.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Ramblers – who agree entirely with this – wondered then why the same\u00a0considerations did not apply to the rest of the county\u2019s 2400 mile public rights of way\u00a0network. We wrote to the Chairman to ask about this, pointing out that the Council\u00a0as Highway Authority has a duty to assert and protect public rights of way in Norfolk.\u00a0Since then, the results from the 2016 Highways and Transport Network Survey have\u00a0been published<\/a> .<\/p>\n

The Council is rightly pleased that, for the third year in a row, it has\u00a0been in the top 3 of 28 similar counties for Highways and Transport matters overall.\u00a0But it overlooked the fact that, also for the third year in a row, it is in the bottom half\u00a0dozen for \u2018Satisfaction with public rights of way\u2019 – this year being 25th out of 28.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Ramblers and Open Spaces Society have therefore put a question to the\u00a0meeting of the Council\u2019s Environment, Development and Transport (EDT) Committee\u00a0on 11 November, to ask: If Norfolk is serious in aspirations to promote itself as a\u00a0preferred tourist destination, public satisfaction scores should be brought towards the\u00a0top of the list. Will the Committee refer this as a significant concern to the LAF* and\u00a0ask them to bring forward proposals, or does the Committee have other proposals to\u00a0address this?<\/p>\n

Norfolk has an amazing network of public rights of way, but fails to promote and\u00a0maintain them, and thereby fails to secure the health and financial benefits that are\u00a0there in return for modest investment and effort. We hope the EDT will take an initial\u00a0step to change this. Ken\u00a0Hawkins will be attending the meeting of the EDT at 1000\u00a0on Friday 11 November to hear the response.<\/p>\n

For further information, please contact Ken\u00a0Hawkins on 01362 691455 or 07505\u00a0426750.<\/p>\n

*The LAF is the Local Access Forum, which represents a variety of countryside\u00a0interests with regards to improving public access across our beautiful county, and\u00a0provides independent strategic advice to the County Council and others where there\u00a0are issues around public access – see https:\/\/www.norfolk.gov.uk\/nlaf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Norfolk Area Ramblers and the Open Spaces Society have today published a news release calling on Norfolk County Council to do more about the state of our county’s paths. The release reads: Little satisfaction with our public rights of way network The\u00a0Ramblers and Open Spaces Society have today called for Norfolk County\u00a0Council to take action … Continue reading Ramblers and Open Spaces Society Call for Norfolk County Council to Do More<\/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":[80,46,82,34],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.norfolkra.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322"}],"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=322"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.norfolkra.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323,"href":"http:\/\/blog.norfolkra.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions\/323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.norfolkra.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.norfolkra.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.norfolkra.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}