20,000 footpaths are at risk

Another E-Petition has appeared on the Government site.

Rights of way that are not recorded by 2026 could be lost forever, the full story is on grough.

The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 introduced a deadline for the recording of historic rights of way on definitive maps (the legal record of public rights of way). After 1 January 2026 most pre-1949 paths which have not been recorded on these maps will be lost forever. An estimated 20,000 paths could be lost because of this measure, including many in towns and cities. The government funded project to assist with the researching and recording of these routes has been terminated without recording a single path but when the Countryside and Rights of Way Bill was going through Parliament the then Minister, Michael Meacher said “ … we do not intend to [bring definitively to a close the exercise of determining the rights of way network] without ensuring that there are adequate resources to make it possible for all existing paths that can reasonably be found to be found.” The public therefore had a legitimate expectation that something would be done to record the so-called lost ways. Now that the promised resources have been withdrawn repeal of the cut-off date is essential.

E-Petition here

May 24th

May 24th is the day that the E-Petition ends. At present the total stands at 1,842, now although this is a great number of signatures, it would be nice to have the E-P finish on or over 2,000.

If you are a British citizen or resident and are reading this but haven't signed up, please take a look and help to push it over the 2,000 mark.




Back when the E-Petition started bloggers and outdoor people who supported the E-P were encouraged to write to their MP's. I sent a letter in the middle of February; to which I still haven't had a reply.

Over on BG!'s site; he recommended using TheyWorkFor You.com & WriteToThem.com to 1. find my MP (I knew who this is anyway) and 2. to write to them (again).

On the 5th May I sent another letter to my MP through WriteToThem.com.

Having a bit of spare time and looking through the numbers on WriteToThem.com; it seems as though my MP doesn't response to letter through this site to well.

Her figures for last year read as follows:-

Placed 557 out of 637
Received 149 letters
Replied to 37 out of 102
Replied within 2 or 3 weeek to a low number of messages sent via WriteToThem.com during 2007, according to constituents.

So I`m not holding my breath on a reply any time soon.

Ripple in the pond

So was this the ripple in the pond?

Summertime Blues

Was this the moment that someone though; Hey! it's about time that we in England & Wales have something similar. If it was, it certainly seems to gotten people interested.

Well when I say interested I mean the 1355 people who have signed the E-Petition to legalise Wild Camping in England & Wales.

Now although 1355 doesn't sound a lot of people; it has passed the figure that the Scottish Parliament had when it was deciding about the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. The difference with the Scottish number is that theirs was a public consultation on the matter, where as our E-petition is only a petition to get the chance of legal wild camping looked at.

1355 signatures is a good number of people considering that nearly all of the information about the E-P has come from bloggers and word of mouth; all of the big players (Ramblers Association, BMC)in the outdoors arena have managed to ignore the E-P, even small groups like the Backpacker Club have chosen to act as if it doesn't exist.

Also a lot of the outdoors forum groups have been quite dismissive of it and some have been quite nasty in replied comments.

But through all this the E-P has been collecting votes; back in March I thought that the votes had peaked and that they would only be increasing slowly, on the 15th March the votes stood at 770 votes; so 580+ votes in a month is not a bad return.

A big thank you to everybody who have already signed; and if you haven't here's the address again

Legalise Wild Camping in England & Wales

Ever Upwards

The E-petition grows ever larger; the current total is 914 signatures.

BG posted an interesting post this morning Please Sir; can I have some more?

So here is your challenge; if each reader can go and find one more person to sign the petition we will easier hit the 1'000 mark and be well on the way to 2'000.

Hard work, working

It seems as the hard work that was put in on the Friday and Saturday, at the OS Outdoors Show is working.

The E-Petition has reached 856 signatures, which is a nice increase from before the weekend.

Hopefully it will pass the 1'000 mark before the 24 May deadline.

Although I have heard that some people from a particular group are not happy about the Petition.

I am Allosaurus, hear me roar!!