Protecting and Safeguarding Footpaths

Ramblers Cymru have been instrumental in creating many long distance routes such as the Pembrokeshire Coast Path and Offa's Dyke Path. Thousands of miles of paths have been recorded and mapped, ensuring their future protection. In many cases, paths are illegally blocked, obstructed and overgrown; In Wales, the condition of our footpath network still lags far behind our contemporaries in England but we are working closely with our local authorities to make them a pleasure to walk on again. In Wales and we are at the forefront of developing new and inovative ways of tackling the problem of a network that is still only 50% open and useable. Fostering closer and more productive links with local authorities and developing new and effective partnerships with other agencies and users will be a cornerstone of this work over the next few years. Examples of the work we are currently doing include that of our flaghip ‘Communities on Foot’ pilot project currently underway in Neath Port Talbot which incorporates the groundbreaking ‘Walking Heritage Guardians’ initiative.

To see how well your local authority is performing, take a look at the latest ‘Ease of Use’ National performance indicators for Wales.

Performance indicators are based on a random 5% (min) sampling of the network within each of the local authorities shown.