Launch to celebrate 'first of 100' paths to be saved
A bevy of Brummie walkers will gather on Saturday (19 December), to ‘unwrap’ the first of 100 paths to be saved by Birmingham Ramblers, following a 20-year campaign to enshrine the paths on a ‘Definitive Map’(1). The move will permanently secure many of the city’s historic paths, alleys and roads for public use, and affect everyone who enjoys walking round Birmingham.
Journalists are invited to join campaigners, councillors and Ramblers at School Lane, Old Yardley, 10.30AM, for an ‘unwrapping’ ceremony and speeches by renowned rights-of-way campaigner, Kate Ashbrook. School Lane is the first of Birmingham’s Ramblers-claimed historic paths to be put on the Map; one hundred more will be added in the coming years.
The event marks the 60th Anniversary of the creation of the Definitive Map; introduced by the 1949 National Parks and Access to Countryside Act. Every path recorded onto the Map is legally enshrined as a right of way, and cannot be closed to the public. This is the fruition of a 20-year campaign by Birmingham Ramblers to persuade the City Council to draw up its definitive map.
Robert Hunt, Birmingham Ramblers campaigner, comments: “You cannot overstate the importance of the definitive map for Birmingham; it ensures that everyone who sets foot in the city has a legally defined, traffic-free right of way under their feet!
“We are delighted to be able to celebrate the entry of the first Ramblers-claimed path onto the Definitive Map, during the Map’s 60th Anniversary. It’s the perfect Christmas gift!”
Adds Ramblers trustee Kate Ashbrook: “This may be 60 years after the Act, but we've got there in the end, thanks to persistent lobbying by the Ramblers. This is a great day for all Brum walkers!”
Notes to editors:
(1) The move follows a 20-year campaign by the Ramblers. This started in 1988, when Birmingham City Council was directed to make an order to add a path to the definitive map under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Following a long delay by the City Council, who claimed the act was "inappropriate", the City of Birmingham Ramblers Group began regularly to lobby the council. Over the next 20 years, RA members, such as Footpath Secretaries Steven Wallsgrove and Fred Willits, independently researched historic paths. In 2003 Chairman Bob Hunt initiated a postcard lobbying campaign, and in 2004 the City established its Access Forum, which took up the cause of the production of a definitive map.
