Milton Keynes Footpaths Campaign
Total length of Rights of Way:
537 km
% ‘easy to use’ (2004/05):
61%
Position in Unitary Council league table: 39 out of 46
As at June 2004 Milton Keynes Council estimated the local population to be 216,810. Of these 181,690 people were said to be living in urban areas making Milton Keynes one of the fastest growing boroughs in the country. With over 70,000 new homes scheduled to be built in the next 25 years Milton Keynes will see its population increase to over 320,000. A conservative estimate would see over 200,000 people wanting to use Milton Keynes’ footpaths regularly in the coming years.
We all know the enormous benefits of walking and the importance of an open and useable path network, but all too often the path budget is seen as a soft target by councillors wanting to make cuts. Milton Keynes’ footpaths have long suffered from this sort of neglect. Despite there being plenty of work for 2 people the Rights of Way department has been struggling by with just 1 member of staff for a long time now. An RA path survey recently carried out in 2 parishes showed that a walker can expect to encounter a problem every couple of kilometres. While in August 2005 the council confirmed that they received 500 complaints about paths in the last 10 weeks.
Local RA members have made their views known to the council and building from last year’s success in persuading the new Liberal Democrat regime to increase footpath funding by £50,000. They have formed a task force to press for a significant increase in the budget for rights of way. They’ve put together a comprehensive ‘Cash-for-Paths’ document that highlights all the benefits of walking and sent a copy to each of the 51 Milton Keynes councillors as well as the 2 local MPs.
If you would like to help with this campaign - anything from
occasionally writing to your councillor to helping organise
campaigning, receiving updates on the campaign or submitting
your experiences of walking in Milton Keynes - contact Des
Garrahan (desg@ramblers.org.uk
or 020 7339 8526).
Alternatively if you wish to support the RA's work nationally
please visit: