It was a bright, clear day in late September and, on an isolated vantage point on Raddick Hill, the Tavistock Ramblers were packing away their picnic lunch. There were lovely views towards Cramber Tor and, away to the south, a little stream gurgled down the valley towards Burrator Reservoir in the heart of the Dartmoor National Park.

With an experienced and well-prepared leader in charge, the group had followed the old railway track from Princetown through the fascinating landscape high above the River Walkham, chatting easily and taking photographs as they went. But now, as they prepared for a pleasant afternoon trekking back over the moor, something was wrong. Mary Stevens, normally a calm and capable walker, was in so much pain that she couldn’t stand or walk any further. She felt faint and shaky, and became very pale.

“Mary’s husband and other members of the group helped me to make her comfortable with coats and emergency foil blankets,” recalls the walk leader, Roger Fowler. “She was fully conscious, with no chest pain or breathing problems, and she had a strong and steady pulse. But she obviously needed evacuating from the moor for a proper medical assessment, so I got on my mobile and called 999.”

Roger carefully described the casualty’s condition to ambulance control. He gave a precise National Grid reference and stressed that the group was in a remote location, over a mile from the nearest road at Norsworthy Bridge. But, says Roger: “The operator was obviously inexperienced and seemed unable to locate us, either with a grid reference or from my description of local landmarks. In addition, she didn’t seem to grasp that we were more than 350m/1,150ft up on open moorland that could only be reached with a 4×4 or an air ambulance.”

Eventually, after seeking help from her supervisor, the operator pinpointed the group’s position and an ambulance was dispatched. “She estimated that it would arrive in an hour, and was counting down the arrival time as we talked,” says Roger. “But she still didn’t seem to realise that the vehicle simply wouldn’t be able to reach us.”

Meanwhile, the leader had other things on his mind. The remainder of the group was getting cold and restless and, with an ambulance on its way, someone had to go back to the road to meet it.

Luckily, there were several other competent leaders among the group: two returned to the road to rendezvous with the ambulance, while another guided the less-experienced walkers safely back to Princetown. There was more luck down at Norsworthy Bridge. “The ambulance crew soon realised that they couldn’t get their vehicle any further,” says Roger, “but fortunately a kind and capable man with a well-equipped 4×4 stepped in to drive them up the rough track to meet us. He later evacuated Mary, together with her husband and the ambulance crew, about an hour and a half after the incident began.”

Grid reference frustration

The story has a happy ending as Mary’s condition wasn’t life-threatening and she made a full recovery. Sadly, though, it wasn’t an isolated case: the Ramblers has some 40 similar incidents on file, recording the frustrations and delays caused by ambulance control rooms unable to recognise grid references or the special nature of emergencies in remote locations. And it’s not just frustrating for the casualties and walk leaders involved.

The Bluebell Walkers, an independent club affiliated to the Ramblers, was involved in a similar incident on Hepburn Moor, near Alnwick in Northumberland. Their leader was surprised when the ambulance call handler told him that they did not use National Grid references, but after a 45-minute wait the ambulance finally arrived to deal with a member who’d broken their ankle. Later, the paramedics said that they preferred to use a grid reference wherever possible, and could have reached the casualty half an hour earlier if only the control room had passed that information on to them.

“Our walk leaders first began highlighting ambulance services that couldn’t locate National Grid references about two years ago,” says Karen Inkster, who spearheads the Ramblers’ ‘999: It’s an emergency!’ campaign. “We know of just one incident in Scotland and another in Wales, but the overwhelming majority of reported problems are in England.” Karen, who represents the Ramblers on the emergency services’ Search and Rescue Committee, is also in touch with the Long Distance Walkers Association, the British Caving Association and other organisations working to support the Ramblers’ campaign.

Karen admits that unpicking Britain’s complex network of emergency services – and knowing exactly who to contact in a crisis – isn’t always straightforward. “England is covered by 12 independently managed NHS Ambulance Trusts,” she says. “A further Trust serves the whole of Wales, while the Scottish Ambulance Service covers mainland Scotland and its offshore islands.”

Ambulance services work closely with national search and rescue organisations when responding to calls from incidents in remote or hazardous locations. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency provides 24-hour cover around the UK’s coasts and cliffs, while the police are responsible for inland search and rescue throughout Great Britain. In turn, they rely on more than 80 volunteer Mountain Rescue teams – each one an independent charity – for help in rugged upland areas. In a typical year, these teams attend more than 1,000 incidents involving over 1,300 walkers, while the coastguard responded to 13 walking-related fatal accidents in 2010.

“Walkers in distress can dial 999 and ask for any emergency service,” says Steve West, Director of the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives. “All of them can and should be able to coordinate an appropriate response.” But the Ramblers’ advice is to always ask for the police if you are well away from a road or in a remote area. A regular ambulance will find it difficult to get to you lost on the moors or stuck on a cliff path, but the police can coordinate a rescue operation.

“Mountain-rescue teams aren’t insured without a police log number,” explains Andy Simpson from Mountain Rescue England & Wales, “but our volunteers have good relations with the statutory emergency services, including the coastguard, and teams are generally on their way within 15 minutes.”

Rapid ‘twin-track’ response

What happens when you make that emergency call is fascinating. “It’s a twin-track process,” explains Steve, regarding the complexities of handling 6.5 million calls each year. “The call handler should answer the phone in about two seconds and, if you’re calling from a landline, the registered address will already be displayed on their screen. Calls from mobile phones will trigger an approximate location, but the degree of confidence does depend on the location of the surrounding phone masts.”

The call handler will ask a series of structured questions to confirm the location and assess the clinical need. Then, they’ll be able to offer advice in looking after the casualty until the ambulance arrives.

While all that’s going on, an ambulance dispatcher will be picking the details off a linked computer and getting a response on its way – typically within 30 to 40 seconds of the call coming in. “It’s a complex decision matching the asset to clinical need,” says Steve. “Our options range from a community first responder with first-aid and a defibrillator to an air ambulance.”

The ambulance service aims to help 75% of life-threatening emergencies within eight minutes. The fastest response might be a paramedic in a car or on a motorbike. But, if the casualty needs transport to hospital, an ambulance should reach 95% of cases within 19 minutes.

Nevertheless, at a meeting with the Ramblers’ Karen Inkster in September, Steve West admitted that – in a small minority of cases – things don’t always work quite so smoothly. “Between them, the various Ambulance Trusts use four different computer-aided dispatch systems,” he says. “They all feature advanced mapping systems, but they don’t currently accept National Grid references in an easily accessible way.”

Following the meeting, Steve has agreed to raise the issue nationally with the NHS Ambulance Director of Operations Group, and to liaise with the national software suppliers’ forum to ensure that all the different systems can use National Grid references. Call handlers will also receive additional training after the software is upgraded. “It’s a fantastic result,” says Karen, “and we expect to have a follow-up meeting in about a year’s time.”

Meanwhile, the Tavistock Ramblers were recently involved in a second incident, when one of the group dislocated her knee near the start of a walk. “This time, South Western Ambulance Service was superb,” says their chairman, Paul Brookes. “They arrived promptly and the paramedics called in the fire service to carry the casualty back to the road. Afterwards, I wrote to congratulate them.”

Some individuals’ names in this article have been changed to protect their identities. Illustrations by Nina Hunter @ Illustration Ltd.

What to do in a medical emergency

Stay calm…

Dial 999 on your mobile… and ask for an ambulance. But if you are well away from a road or in an inaccessible location, then always ask for the police, who will contact the nearest Mountain Rescue service or coastguard.

Tell the emergency services what’s wrong… answer their questions clearly.

Give an accurate location… including the National Grid reference and any prominent landmarks.

If you’re uncertain of your position… Mountain Rescue may ask you to send them a picture message of what you can see.

Be patient… as calls are prioritised and will be handled as quickly as possible.

If there’s no signal on your mobile… send two people for help, if possible. Alternatively, use six quick whistle blasts or torch flashes, repeated after a one-minute interval, to give the emergency distress signal.

If you are deaf, hard-of-hearing or speech-impaired, you can register your phone at www.emergencysms.org.uk. This will allow you to send an SMS text message to the UK 999 service, where it will be passed to the police, ambulance, fire rescue or coastguard.

The dust is still settling on the tree-shaded lane when I arrive. Pausing for their elevenses, seven men sit in Day-Glo yellow bibs and goggles pouring hot tea from flasks and surveying the partly demolished steps they’ve been working on for an hour. With heavy-duty tools, helmets and a wheelbarrow at their feet, all that’s missing is a ‘Men at Work’ sign to complete the scene. Minutes later, they’re back on their feet: a chainsaw whirs into life, and a sledgehammer begins thwacking away at the concrete remnants.

“Don’t tickle it – hit it!” cries Mel Hardy, cajolingly. A former mining engineer, the 67-year-old muscles in and begins swinging the sledgehammer relentlessly, showing all the expert action and brute force of a Victorian pit worker, while everyone else stands well back.

“I’ll be looking out for reports of an earthquake in Australia on the news tonight,” someone quips, drily. It’s safe to say that, when I arranged to join Chesterfield & North East Derbyshire Ramblers’ footpath working group, I was expecting secateurs, not sledgehammers. And while there are plenty of times when clearing vegetation and footpath surveying are the order of the day (attracting many more female volunteers, they assure me), this week’s task is a demolition and construction job that’s not for the faint-hearted – or puny-strength editors of magazines. The ugly concrete steps, near Old Tupton, south of Chesterfield, connect a footpath with the Chesterfield Round Walk down a steep bank and on to a green lane. But after half a century of use, they’ve subsided dangerously and the group is replacing them with timber-and-earth steps, which will blend more naturally into the surroundings.

Relinquishing the hammer, Mel resorts to more dramatic measures to prise away the remaining few steps from the bank, using a huge steel bar as a lever to send them crashing to the ground. A hearty cheer goes up from the others, who quickly clear away the rubble in a neat procession-line and begin chopping back the undergrowth in preparation for the timber. Watching them, it’s hard to believe that this friendly, well-drilled team hasn’t been working on building sites all their lives, rather than being the retired professionals volunteering their spare time that they largely are.

“I’m a frustrated carpenter, really, so I enjoy doing this kind of work,” says Geoff Bell (right), a former radiologist and lecturer, who’s been with the group for more than seven years. “We’ve learnt a lot from each other and from the local rangers on the job, sharing the skills we have.”

One of those rangers is Derbyshire Countryside Service’s Jonathan Tilling, who’s overseeing today’s project, as well as supplying the tools and materials. He seems quite relaxed to let Mel and the team forge ahead with only the occasional intervention. “I know it will be done to a good standard with this lot,” he tells me, as he looks on, quietly pleased.

Vital partnership with councils
And he should be pleased, as these Ramblers are saving his employer, Derbyshire County Council, thousands of pounds a year in manpower alone and ensuring that walking in the region – a huge tourism draw for the local economy – remains viable and enjoyable.

“We value the voluntary work of the Ramblers very highly,” a Derbyshire County Council spokesman told walk. “It helps to provide excellent access to the countryside in Chesterfield and surrounding areas… cutting back vegetation, waymarking, improving signage and drainage, and maintaining stiles and gates. Ramblers act as our eyes and ears in the countryside, alerting us to where work is required, and promote and use our paths regularly – the best way to keep them functioning for everyone.”

Chesterfield’s is one of more than 25 similar Ramblers footpath working groups in operation all over England and Wales. The Ramblers provides insurance for around 350 volunteers, who, it conservatively estimates, do more than 20,000 hours of practical path work each year. And the impact is massive. Take Ynys Mon Ramblers’ footpath working group, for example. Known as the Silver Slashers, in the five years since they were formed they have cleared and created more than 40km of footpaths in Anglesey, installing 129 stiles and gates, 34 bridges and 290 steps provided by the council. It’s a partnership with local authorities that’s vital to the survival of England’s and Wales’ footpath network, with council rights-of-way teams enduring savage cutbacks or – in the case of Bolton Council – being axed entirely.

“I am totally convinced that the way ahead in these times of extremely restricted budgets is co-operation and partnership,” says Graham Ronan, chairman of Cornwall Ramblers, which recently helped to reopen an important local footpath near Newquay, saving the public purse an estimated £28,000. “The volunteers showed Cornwall Council that we can monitor, report and assist with footpath maintenance, at no cost to the council, and that we are also ready to get our hands dirty to improve the county’s footpath network for the benefit of local residents and visitors alike. We also funded most of the material costs for this project, thanks to a bequest from a local Ramblers member.”

In Chesterfield, a core of 20 Ramblers volunteers helps to monitor every footpath in the region, parish by parish. Today’s project is on Mike Sims’ parish patch, Wingerworth. He’s a well-known local figure, having lived and worked here for decades, and swore to do something about the state of the area’s paths when he retired. The reconstruction of the Martin’s Lane steps will mark the culmination of more than six years of Mike lobbying the council for improvements along this route, which had been degraded by trail-bike users, and has so far resulted in resurfacing work and the installation of a new squeeze gate and footbridge.

The unsung hero
It’s the understated Basil Merry, however, who – as the local Ramblers’ footpath secretary – masterminds the whole operation in Chesterfield. He’s brought together disparate groups of countryside volunteers from across the parishes, including members of a local Footpaths and Bridleways Society, and convinced Derbyshire County Council to give them a two-day training course in tools and health and safety with its countryside rangers. In doing so, he’s created a larger and far more effective team, increasing the flow of projects they work on and upping their days from just once a month two years ago to weekly sessions now.

“I hope to get to a point where we’re just maintaining footpaths rather than doing any major works on them,” says Basil. Key to that vision is maintaining the 34-mile Chesterfield Round Walk and several other local promoted routes, which form the spine of the town’s annual walking festival each May. “Many of us will be leading walks,” he says. “It follows through on our work, keeping the paths used and highlighting any problems.”

It’s this impressive joined-up approach – from infrastructure to walking promotion – that Basil was invited to share at the first national Ramblers Practical Path Work Workshop in August. Fifty footpath volunteers attended from more than 20 Ramblers’ areas and groups. “The day was inspirational, and just showed that ordinary people like you and me can do extraordinary things,” says Ed Wilson, the Ramblers’ volunteer support and development officer, who organised the event and is planning another soon. “There’s something very special about Ramblers members who go out and help to ensure our public footpaths are open through practical steps. I suspect it’s their positive can-do attitude that makes volunteering as a footpath worker rewarding and fun for everyone.”

It’s this positive experience that’s been helping 40-year-old Simon Riddington to cope with unemployment since he moved back to Chesterfield last Christmas after 15 years working in London. “I love getting outside and the physical exercise,” he says. “It keeps me fit while I’m not working and there’s great banter among the group here – they look after me as the youngest. Seeing a big project like this coming together keeps you coming back week after week.” In fact, Simon tells me he’s enjoyed the work so much, he’s enquiring about getting a job with the council as a ranger.

Like Simon, everyone I speak to in the Chesterfield group mentions the camaraderie and banter of working together as key to their enjoyment; but it’s also the long-term results that they find so rewarding. “There’s a lot of satisfaction and a bit of a thrill doing a walk and going through a gate thinking, I made this! ” says Geoff. “But it’s really our love of walking that makes us want to do this.”

It’s that same driving force and sense of community pride that’s behind Mel’s tireless grafting. “I’ve lived in Chesterfield all my life, and will die here, and I’m passionate about keeping all footpaths open,” he says. “We all love walking – many of us regularly lead walks – and we want to encourage more people to walk locally.”

Generations of stewardship
By four o’clock, tools are downed and work draws to a close. The steps aren’t quite complete, but it’s an impressive accomplishment in a six-hour day. I’ve contributed very little – just a few barrow-loads of rubble and a poorly struck nail – but the group makes a generous show of their appreciation. Already, several passing locals walking their dogs have complimented our efforts and I leave Martin’s Lane with a palpable glow. Earlier that day, Basil took me to see another set of steps the group had completed recently nearby. Marooned among paddocks and farmland, I found myself in a beautiful and secluded wooded valley called Grange Lumb. A bridge over the brook was donated by a Ramblers member who died in the 1960s, but Basil didn’t recognise the name on the dedicatory plaque.

“It’s great for watching birds in the morning,” he said of this hidden beauty spot, which he clearly adores. Down one wall of the valley, he showed me the steps his group installed using fallen tree branches and stone salvaged from the river bed below, and the drainage culverts and gravel along the floor to prevent flooding. What so impressed me was how inconspicuous it was, preserving access without sanitising or manicuring the natural landscape. All that vital work by Basil and his team, like the generations of stewardship by Ramblers volunteers before them, just blends into the background unnoticed.

Get Involved!
Fancy having fun and learning new skills as a volunteer with the Ramblers? Get in touch by emailing volsupport@ramblers.org.uk – or visit www.ramblers.org.uk/volunteer for more details.

Old British Rail adverts entreated us to let the train take the strain. But plans for the 225km/140-mile high-speed rail line between London and the West Midlands, known as HS2, increasingly look like placing the burden of rail travel squarely on the broad shoulders of rural England’s tranquil countryside – the very areas that walkers so love to explore. Few people object in principle to high-speed rail, and many readers will have admired high-speed networks in France and Germany, only to feel, on return to the British transport system, like Dawn Man stepping back into his time machine. But the proposed high-speed line through cherished countryside, with implications for footpaths and walkers, as well as local people, does not lend itself to easy answers. The Government’s case is that HS2 would provide a £44bn boost to the UK economy and cut the journey time to Birmingham to 49 minutes. The route will run through the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, along with rural stretches of Northamptonshire, Warwickshire and Staffordshire. It will dramatically traverse a purpose-built viaduct through the Colne Valley SSSI just outside London. And it will also cut across ancient monuments, such as Grim’s Ditch in the Chilterns, a prehistoric boundary bank, and encroach upon up to 69 wildlife sites.

Mixed grassroots opinions
So far, the Ramblers has identified 150 footpaths that could be affected. In Buckinghamshire, 56 paths require alteration by diversion, bridges or tunnels. In Oxfordshire, seven footpaths will be crossed, including the Westbury Circular Ride. Mike Overall, vice-chairman of the Chiltern Society, claims 14 of the 20 affected footpaths in the AONB will be permanently lost. “We’re concerned for the special value of the ancient countryside in which this line would carve out huge scars,” he says. “The Chilterns escaped the changes to field structures you get elsewhere, and you still have the ancient hedgerows.” A key criticism of the high-speed route is that it shows little evidence of joined-up thinking as to how it might feed into regional and local routes, and that it overlooks the increasing trend for passengers to use trains as mobile offices rather than ‘dead time’ between workplaces. The fear is that HS2 may even drain resources from improvements to rail in the hinterland. “Public transport needs to be massively improved,” says Rachel Alcock, a Ramblers campaigns officer. “We would prefer much better and more local rail links, so that people were able to reach their walking destinations more quickly.”

The Ramblers’ grassroots membership echoes this point. “We’d normally back green, environmentally friendly rail transport,” says John Case, the countryside secretary of Oxfordshire Ramblers. “We’d also back local links into it, but we don’t see anything of that nature in these plans.” These inherent tensions over HS2 have not passed the Ramblers by. “There’s a range of opinions among our members,” admits Rachel, “and as an organisation led by our members, we need to reflect this in our stance.” That process of reflection began with a passionate debate about HS2 at the Ramblers’ annual general council meeting in Oxford last April. A motion put forward by Warwickshire Ramblers – and seconded by a volunteer from the Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes and West Middlesex Ramblers (BMKWM) – called for a Ramblers campaign against HS2. However, after much debate, this stance was softened and the council passed a motion to ‘campaign vigorously to reduce the effects on the rights of way and footpaths and on the beauty of the countryside’. It also sent a clear message to the charity’s executive to join a wider coalition of environmental organisations by signing up to the Campaign to Protect Rural England’s (CPRE) Right Lines Charter, which calls for a more co-ordinated national rail policy.

Overall, it means the Ramblers has adopted a more nuanced opposition to HS2. John Esslemont, chair of BMKWM, argued successfully for the wording of the motion to support the charter – rather than rejecting high- speed rail outright – and says it makes clear that the Ramblers is not abandoning its traditional support for improved public transport. “The timing was good in that the CPRE’s charter for high-speed rail came out a couple of weeks earlier,” he says. “I would have liked to have gone with the Warwickshire motion. But from conversations with other affected Ramblers areas and my experience of General Councils, I didn’t think this was likely to get through. There were different views across areas, but I think we’ve got a reasonable position that should satisfy those who are anti-HS2 but will still be sufficiently pro-rail.”

The Right Lines Charter sets out four core principles ‘for doing high-speed rail well’: consulting the public; ensuring genuine long-term sustainable development; fitting this into a national transport strategy; and minimising adverse impacts. The Ramblers joins 10 other organisations’ signatures, including the Wildlife Trusts, Friends of the Earth and the RSPB. The last is perhaps mindful of the fraught battle it fought – and won in the House of Lords – to stop HS1, Britain’s first high-speed rail route used by Eurostar and Javelin services, from draining wetlands at its Rainham Marshes reserve in Essex. “The Government has not made the case yet for the route it is proposing,” says Ralph Smyth, transport campaigner for CPRE. “It is not just a question of improving mitigation; officials need to do more to show that alternative lower-speed routes would not be a better choice. There should be a great overall emphasis on shifting trips from road and air to rail, too.” Oxfordshire Ramblers’ John Case also questions why the Government has offered no details on how much time a slightly slower route would take. “The nature of a 250mph train demands that it has fewer bends, which is why this takes the route it does. We just don’t know what route a slightly slower train could take.”

HS2: both sides of the story
A nagging sense that the wider picture has not been thought through was reinforced when the Ramblers, having identified the figure of 150 footpaths to be affected, learnt that HS2 Ltd (the company behind the project) had a tally of just 27. Roadshows staged by HS2 Ltd toured the countryside recently and have been more encouraging. “Ramblers have fed back to us that the people they spoke to were quite knowledgeable about rights of way and footpaths,” says Rachel Alcock. “But perhaps this consultation is too ad hoc rather than HS2 seeking out the best people to talk to.” For its part, HS2 Ltd argues that the potential environmental damage has been overstated. The width of the line would be 22 metres, around a third that of a motorway, says David Meechan, a spokesman for HS2 Ltd, and public consultations have already led to changes to around 50% of the original route. The company argues that if the line gets the go-ahead (a decision is expected in December) then the implications for footpaths would be scrutinised in greater detail. “We would work with local people and councils to identify the best way of maintaining rights of way,” David says. “We would seek to do this with as little disruption as possible, by constructing bridges over cuttings or underpasses through embankments and seek to maintain all existing rights of way. In some areas we’ve already designed green tunnels to maintain access across the line.” HS2 is also at risk of becoming a polarised, north-south debate. A campaign backing the line has support from industry and many northern councils, and recently launched an advertising campaign that depicted a well-heeled man in a pinstripe suit outside his large country pile, with the words: ‘Their lawns or our jobs’.

That campaign has one eye on the distant horizon, where the second phase of the HS2 project – linking Birmingham to Manchester and Leeds – awaits. The potential route is already being planned out by consultants, and opponents of the entire scheme have misgivings at how quickly this is being conducted. “The consultation for phase one is really done and dusted before it started – it’s take it or leave it,” says CPRE’s Ralph Smyth. “We don’t want the same thing to happen again.” So will the HS2 scheme in its current form go ahead? The Chiltern Society, like others, is uncertain. “It’s very hard to call,” says Mike Overall. “There’s so much opposition stacking up. Whatever angle the opposition comes from, the common denominator is that this has not been thought through properly.” The reality, though, Rachel Alcock admits, is that HS2 looks almost certain to proceed in some form. “The Ramblers is realistic about the prospect of HS2 going ahead,” she says. “But we need to ensure that it forms part of a national transport strategy and we get the best deal for footpaths.” The Ramblers’ view is that any permanent diversions must follow desire-lines away from the railway: they should not simply be routes within the limits of deviation which run as unnatural, ‘dog-leg’ diversions. “If a footpath closes then it is very difficult to re-open it,” says Rachel. “We accept we may not be able to save all footpaths, but we need to make sure they are not left at the point they meet the railway line and go no further. They need to join up with other paths, and diversions must be appropriate.”

For full details of the Ramblers’ campaign and a map of all footpaths that will be affected by HS2’s proposed route, visit www.ramblers.org.uk/campaigns+policy/HS2

Illustration by Kate Miller @ Central Illustration Agency.

Support our campaign…
• Email details of paths you think will be affected by HS2 to rachel.alcock@ramblers.org.uk
• Upload your photos of affected areas to our Flickr site, www.flickr.com/groups/hs2_paths
• Have your say: What do you think of the proposed plan and the opposition against it? Let us know in the comments field below!

If you want to know what a future all-England coast path might look like, and how it might be perceived, then head to Devon and Cornwall. The South West Coast Path National Trail is estimated to generate more than £300 million annually for the regional economy; it’s a selling point for more than three-quarters of accommodation providers on or near the coast; and around 40% of all visitors say it’s a factor in their holiday plans. Plus it’s a terrific walk, as well.

Two years ago, the principle of a public right of access on foot around the entire English coast was finally established when the Marine and Coastal Access Act passed into law. It set out the aim of a continuous coastal path with ‘spreading room’ alongside to allow for exploration and the odd picnic. The first stretch of the route, at Weymouth Bay in Dorset, is due to open in time for the Olympic and Paralympic sailing events in July 2012. Work on the next five sections, in Cumbria, Durham, Norfolk, Kent and Somerset, began this spring, with a new right of access supposed to be completed within four years.

As expected, it’s proving to be a major undertaking, but one in which Ramblers volunteers around the country are already playing a pivotal role. So what exactly are they doing and how did they approach it?

Plotting the ‘optimum’ route
One of the fundamental tasks has been to map existing public access to the coast. In Kent, Ian Wild of Canterbury Ramblers has surveyed the county’s entire 345km/214-mile coastline on foot (see his report at www.kentramblers.org.uk). He describes, stage by stage, the current extent of coastal access, and pinpoints not just localised problems but also opportunities for improvement – such as on the east bank of the Stour, near Ramsgate. As well as digital photos, Ian also made full use of modern technology, including Kent County Council’s online Definitive Map, GPS, Memory Map and Google Earth to plot precise positions.

Another section in the first wave of coastal access is in Cumbria, between Whitehaven and Allonby. Like his Kent counterpart, Ian Brodie of Lake District Ramblers (right) has walked every foot of this shore and recalls a clear methodology for coming up with a suggested route for the coast path: “Make sure you go for the optimum line – the most desirable rambling route. Don’t be sidelined at this stage by issues such as conservation, since the spreading room that follows may well accommodate that later. Just concentrate on identifying the very best walking route that can be achieved.”
Ian also built relationships with key partners, such as Natural England, gaining their trust and showing them the opportunities and benefits of enhanced coastal access. “I’ve also met all the local authority planning officers that cover the coast,” says Ian, “encouraging them to include the all-England Coast Path in their strategic documents, such as the Local Development Framework. Most of them have actually been very sympathetic.”

Ramblers central office is organising training sessions for coastal access volunteers, with one key volunteer looking after each of Natural England’s stretches of coast, and up to 20 surveying volunteers helping to find the optimum route and locations of possible spreading room in order to produce a detailed and accurate report. The training includes a mapping exercise that looks at how to plot the best access route in the face of both natural and man-made obstacles – from sand dunes and mud flats to holiday parks and military establishments.

Sometimes, though, the major access problems are clear for all to see. A survey by Dorset Ramblers has highlighted three cases around Lyme Regis and Charmouth where landslips and cliff falls have blocked the South West Coast Path, resulting in long and unsatisfactory diversions away from the shore involving roads. However, Brian Panton of Dorset Ramblers says that one of the reasons for this is, rather ironically, the very likelihood of new coastal access.

“Since discussions about coastal access began some years ago, resulting in the Marine and Coastal Access Act, there has been a reluctance by the highway authority and Natural England to take any action that might involve compensation to landowners, because of the possibility that a new route could be created under coastal access legislation without such payments,” says Brian. And yet, despite this perceived attitude, Dorset Ramblers found out almost too late that the authorities were quietly going about surveying the coastline themselves and drawing up draft access proposals. “A lesson we have learnt from all this is to be ahead of the game,” says Brian. “That is: get out there, survey the coast and prepare your report, then submit it via Ramblers central office – before Natural England and the highway authority start walking the route. That way you’ll have a better chance of influencing the eventual outcome.”

A clearer picture of the coast
Like Dorset Ramblers, Kent Ramblers’ meticulous survey work has meant that they now have a clearer picture of their coast and often find that they know more about their seaboard than others. Ian Wild also has some useful practical tips to pass on for would-be coastal access surveyors: “Examine the stretch in both directions, preferably at different times of the year. Some lengths can be overgrown and inaccessible in the summer but walkable in the winter. Some may be inaccessible from one direction but accessible from the other. And, as it is linear walking, use public transport where possible – I saved the Ramblers a fortune by using a bus pass and senior rail card!”

With all this positive work and so much early promise, the prospects for permanently improved access to the English coast should be rosy. But there appear to be some dark clouds massing off the shore. Back in March of last year, Natural England unveiled its government-approved Coastal Access Scheme, which set out its methodology for creating the all-England Coast Path. The new Act required Natural England to explain how and who it would consult and the criteria it would use to ensure that a ‘fair balance’ was struck between allowing the public genuine new access and respecting the interests of landowners, as well as issues such as protecting the natural environment.

“The publication of this scheme is an important step in making clear, secure and consistent coastal access a reality for England,” said Poul Christensen, chair of Natural England. Fifteen months and a new government later, it’s all gone ominously quiet. The Natural Environment White Paper, published in June, failed to make any specific commitment to furthering coastal access by implementing the all-England Coast Path. As Ramblers CEO Tom Franklin pointed out at the time in this blog post, a key paragraph seemed to be missing.

It’s a silence that the Ramblers is pressing the Government to break. “At the same time as getting on with the detailed planning in these six stretches, we need ministers at some point to give Natural England the nod to allow it to announce more,” says Justin Cooke, the Ramblers’ senior policy officer. “Six sections do not an all-coast path make!”

Whether as a result of hesitancy or procrastination, shifting priorities or a change of heart, the question marks over access to the English coast are in stark contrast to the situation in Wales. Next May, the new Wales Coast Path is due to be launched and will provide a continuous 1,367km/850-mile walking route around the country’s entire seaboard. The difference between the approach and attitudes of the two governments towards coastal access is all too clear. Of course, at more than three times as long, its English counterpart was always going to be a challenging project, especially when around 34% or 1,481km/921 miles of it currently contains no satisfactory, legally secure path.

But politicians at Westminster are under pressure not just over a slipping timetable, but to close a loop-hole that excluded the Isle of Wight (above) from the coast-path plans, too. Through their local MP, the Isle of Wight Ramblers is lobbying Defra minister Richard Benyon to have the island included in the coastal access provisions of the Marine and Coastal Access Act. “The Isle of Wight’s economy relies on tourism,” says their chairman, David Howarth. “And with a stunning coastline, we’re justly popular with visiting walkers. But more than half of our existing so-called coastal path doesn’t even follow the shore, so we’re asking the Secretary of State to use their powers under the 2009 Act and include the Isle of Wight as well.”

In practical terms, designating the Isle of Wight coast is relatively straightforward, and symbolically it would affirm the Government’s continued commitment to wider coastal access throughout England. However, the concern is that the Government will scale back Natural England’s programme beyond the first six sections, leaving a piecemeal approach dependent upon the goodwill of local authorities, which already lack the resources. If this happened, the chances of realising a continuous, high-quality and lasting walking route would in all likelihood be lost.

The danger for the Government in all this is that, by not honouring its coastal-access commitments, it will simply repeat the mistakes of the forestry debacle. Underestimating the access and recreational value of woodland was one thing, but surely the public’s affinity for its coastline is even greater?

Top image of the Pembrokeshire Coast Path by Dara Jasumani, lower Isle of Wight image by Christine Matthews, both via geograph.org.uk

One thing we know that we didn’t know six months ago: the English really, really care about their forests. Railways and other public sectors have been privatised by successive governments, but the proposed sell-off of state-owned woodlands sparked a whirlwind of throbbing, white-knuckled anger on an unprecedented scale. An abrupt U-turn, announced back in February, has enabled everyone to pause for breath. But no-one is popping open the champagne just yet: the future of nationalised woodlands still remains uncertain and, as the whole saga revealed, the issue remains far from clear cut.

Immediate public backlash
The government’s proposals, first mooted late last year, suggested selling up to 15% of the estate (40,000 hectares) over the next four years as part of Defra’s spending review commitments. It was hoped this would raise £100million. The rest would be split up into different categories: forests classified as heritage and community woodland would be given to charities to run; some commercial forests would be leased to logging firms; and ‘mixed’ woods would be offered to community groups to buy at market value. If they could not find the money, then they would be sold on the open market.

Opposition began immediately, most publicly through the online group 38 Degrees, which swiftly secured 500,000 petitioners demanding the sell-off be scrapped. Once the small print emerged, outlining how leases, funding and access would be managed, mainstream organisations, such as the Ramblers, also opposed the plan. While Defra and the Forestry Commission (FC) insisted that no land would be sold off unless guarantees over public access were secured, very few people believed this would be the case in practice. “There were three nasty clauses in the [Public Bodies (Reform)] bill that gave the minister the ultimate power to dispose of any land that he wanted, without consultation,” said Ian Standing, secretary of Hands of Our Forests (HOOF), an opposition group in the Forest of Dean.

Critics smelt a very large rat. “The government held out an olive branch, talking about how heritage forests would be secure, but ‘heritage forest’ is such a wishy-washy definition. We don’t have any forests up here that meet that description,” said Mike Morton, a spokesman for Save Lakeland’s Forests. “Commercially valuable forests in the Lake District are tied up with leisure facilities – everything from the RAC rally to kids’ orienteering. If it was privately owned you would have no idea about what access was allowed.”

Morton points to the local case of Rigg Wood, by Coniston Water, which was sold last year and the gates padlocked. “The car park was the first thing to be closed. You are allowed to walk there, but there is no encouragement and you have to be fit to clamber over the gates and know your rights. That excludes most people.

“There is no guarantee that paths would be maintained if they fell into private hands. It doesn’t take long for the natural world to take over, cover paths and block streams –especially between spring and summer. Whether private owners would want to invest in maintenance, I don’t know. But I know that the Forestry Commission do.”

No safeguards for access
The Ramblers, along with other outdoors organisations, faced criticism for not immediately opposing the proposed sell off. “From the outset we came at this from the angle of access rather than ownership,” said Justin Cooke, the Ramblers’ senior policy officer. “The government said they were committed to access, but they did not show us the detail. We were left in the position of either taking the government’s word, or following the likes of 38 Degrees before we knew the facts. Everyone said we should be jumping up and down, but we had to know what the consultation said first.

“When it was published, it was full of holes, and up to 50% of the estate could be effectively sold off without any protection. But the government insisted they wanted to protect access and asked us what they should do. So we said they had to withdraw the clauses relating to ministerial powers for selling off land in the Public Bodies Bill.”

More positively, the campaign has revealed a side of the FC that many were unaware of. Although it continues to produce large commercially valuable forests and woodlands, it has spent the past 30 years winding back the clock, clear-felling many of the plantations it had itself originally seeded, and planting native broadleaf trees such as birch and oak, enhancing biodiversity and encouraging and promoting access. “It has highlighted some of the work that perhaps people didn’t know that we did,” said a spokeswoman.

“There’s a continuity about what the Forestry Commission does,” said Cooke. “You know when you visit one of their sites you will be encouraged to enjoy the access and the woodland. There’ll usually be two or three signed routes, accessible gates, and a welcoming, protected feel. That feeling is what we were most worried about losing. Most of these woodlands are used by local people living on the doorstep.”
That sense of loss was palpable in areas such as the Lake District, where campaigners rallied, particularly around Grizedale forest. “The Lake District is full of communities, villages and towns surrounded by little Forestry Commission woodlands – 39 of them – which are widely, intensely used by local people,” said Morton.

In turn, this sentiment goes some way to explaining the most striking phenomenon of the whole saga: the fury that the proposals invoked. “So many people are against it, right across the social spectrum – from the lady on her horse to the mother from a council estate pushing her buggy through the woods on a Sunday afternoon,” said Morton. The Forest of Dean proved another lightning rod for opposition, with HOOF up and running almost within hours of the announcement. “The biggest fear locally was that if the forest fell into private hands it would be cut down and built on,” said Standing. “The government said the forest is protected but my experience is that planning laws are never really helpful. This forest has been so ‘got at’ over the centuries that it’s at a crucial point – any more development could tip it over the edge. The Forest of Dean is lived in by so many people, who have done so for generations. People here enjoy ancient privileges to graze sheep, freedom to roam, access. It’s almost a little country and they don’t like being told what will happen to it.”

Intriguingly, Standing also suspects the nationwide opposition hints at a primordial link to our ties to the earth. “I think there may well be some folk memory at play. The British do feel very deeply about their woods, they have some residual love of freedom of access, and that made them very uppity over this. It’s not so long ago that our ancestors were kicked off the land by the enclosures.” This sentiment is echoed by Caroline Lucas, the Green MP, who campaigned against the sell off.  “Forest are still hugely valued, even by people who cannot access them very often. There’s a sense that they have been handed down to us,” she said.

Numbers don’t add up
The initial argument put forward by the government was that the sell-off would make money. But in 2009/2010, the FC made a loss of £20.6m, despite a profit of £12.3m from timber harvesting. The major losses were £13.8m from forest regeneration and £17.2m from recreation, conservation and heritage – prompting fears that the profitable timber arm would squeeze out recreation.
Campaigners believe woodland sales attract private buyers because no inheritance tax is payable on forest holdings – something which saw Terry Wogan, Phil Collins and other celebrities fund Caledonian pine plantations in Scotland in recent years.

It’s pretty clear that the challenge for any charity taking on a forest would be maintaining an income. Woodlands typically sell for £1,300-£8,000 per acre, according to John Clegg, at John Clegg & Co chartered foresters. Like other organisations, the Wildlife Trusts made no secret of their interest in buying or leasing woodlands, but not on the scale envisaged by the government. “There were some parts of the consultation that we thought did have real value,” said Julian Roughton, chief executive of Suffolk Wildlife Trust. “The reality is that we and organisations like us could only ever buy a very small number of these woods. The costs were enormous; it wasn’t feasible.”

Meanwhile, proposed cuts to the FC may, campaigners warn, leave the prospect of a sell-off very much alive. A government-appointed panel will report back next spring on the future of policy for forests and woodland in England. In the meantime, the Forestry Commission faces 25% cuts and the prospect of 250 job losses in England – 29% of the workforce – and 100 more in Scotland.  And the existing plans to sell off 40,000 hectares of woodland a year, around 15% of the Commission’s land in England, have only been temporarily suspended.  “I wonder whether the government isn’t setting the Forestry Commission up to fail, so that it can have another crack at this,” said Standing.

Everything appears to hang on the composition of the expert panel, which was announced in March. The 12 members include Ramblers Chief Executive Tom Franklin, along with the heads of the RSPB, National Trust, Wildlife trusts and Woodland Trust, as well as the Confederation of Forest Industries, the Country Land and Business Association, and Clinton Devon Estates, a farming and forestry operation. There are no places for cyclists, horsed riders, or local community action groups on the panel, which is headed by James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool.

Standing worries that it will be dominated by “tub-thumping privateers”, and points out the panel is not being given the option of retaining the status quo. Lord Clark of Windermere, a former chairman of the Forestry Commission, who was involved in the Save Lakeland’s forests campaign, added: “The panel is stuffed full of people who represent organisations that could benefit from the Government disposing of public forests. That means they have a potential conflict of interest.”

Like everyone else, the Ramblers are unable to pick much out of the runes at this stage. “The Forestry Commission has always bought and sold land – it has been good at protecting some, not so good with others. The only certainty is that, given the public spending review, Defra still has to sell some woodland some time in the next four years,” said Justin. “How they do it and when they do it, nobody really knows.”

Middle image by Jim Champion from geograph.org.uk

How times change. Back in 2000 the Government launched its Walking the way to Health Initiative (WHI), setting up programmes of short local health walks by training, accrediting and supporting local co-ordinators and volunteer walk leaders. At the time, I was working on the Ramblers’ website and was keen to support WHI by including a link. Thinking that visitors to the WHI site might also find the Ramblers’ site useful, I emailed requesting a reciprocal link. I got something of a cold shoulder. WHI, it seemed, wanted to distance itself from the Ramblers in case potential health walkers got the idea that they’d be expected to go on lengthy and challenging hikes with boots and backpacks, rather than a stroll around the park in trainers and jeans.

Thankfully, this view soon shifted as Ramblers members volunteered to be health walk leaders, while WHI made common cause with us in arguing for more support for walking promotion. While the health and environmental benefits of walking might seem obvious to readers of walk, they were a hard sell in the early 2000s, when even sympathetic government ministers were terrified of being dubbed the ‘Ministry of Silly Walks’.

Fast forward a decade and the difference is obvious. While resources are still an issue, recent Coalition initiatives in England – such as the public health ’responsibility deal’ and the local transport white paper – include walking firmly within a wider policy agenda. Meanwhile, WHI, under its new name Walking for Health, has been given its marching orders from Natural England (who currently manage the scheme) and told to find a new home in the ’Big Society’, either in the voluntary sector or in a new social enterprise, with funding for an initial three years. And the Ramblers, which already provides some local health walks, has put itself forward as a potential host.

Increasing our reach
It shows just how much we’ve changed, taking a more active role in promoting walking and making its benefits accessible to all. Our own Lottery-funded Get Walking Keep Walking project, working with inactive people in some of the most deprived areas of England, has demonstrated that we can make a difference, and inspired people within the organisation to think in new ways, too.

Get Walking has been extremely successful in reaching the sorts of people other walking and physical activity projects have often missed. By working closely with existing groups and communities to meet their needs – taking walking to people rather than taking people on walks – we’ve been able to reach those who suffer disproportionately from low activity levels and resulting poor health. More than 40% of participants have been from black and ethnic minority communities, and nearly all from areas of deep economic deprivation. This is particularly remarkable for an organisation not best known for the diversity of its own membership.

Yet the challenge of connecting with ‘ordinary people’ wouldn’t have been recognised by the Ramblers’ founders back in 1935. Many of these pioneering advocates of walking were from the working class communities of Britain’s big industrial cities. Physical activity wasn’t an issue as people were much more active in everyday life. For those living cheek by jowl with heavy industry, the most pressing need was for a healthy environment in which to be active, hence the campaigns for rights of access to the green hills that rose temptingly beyond the factory chimneys.

In the intervening decades, most of the access rights have been won and even the urban environment has been much improved. But somehow the pleasures of walking and the appreciation of green spaces are no longer regarded as a birthright for everyone but a specialist pastime for a minority – and a relatively well-heeled and well-educated minority at that.

Surely it should be the Ramblers’ charitable mission to reconnect as many people as possible, from all walks of life, with walking as a means to explore the local environment? Get Walking staff, taking people on walks in their own backyard, constantly hear phrases such as “I never knew this was here”. This sense of discovery won’t only motivate people to walk more and therefore save the NHS money, it’ll also broaden their horizons, give them a sense of place and make them more likely to form social networks. Unsurprisingly, 70% of Get Walking participants say they’re happier as a result of the project, while 80% say they’re less likely to get depressed. Personally, I’m as proud of helping bring more joy into people’s lives as reducing their risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Sofa-to-summit approach
The Ramblers could offer a range of walking opportunities for everyone at their own level. Imagine how this might work. Projects such as Get Walking would use careful outreach work to hold the hands of those who suffer most from health inequalities. Health walks might be the next stage for those who wanted easy and sociable local walking opportunities. Keener participants could move to Ramblers Groups offering shorter walks and the keenest could upgrade to longer Ramblers walks when ready. (This could, of course, work in reverse for people who feel less able to walk long distances as they get older or their needs change.) With walking information and downloadable routes available through the Ramblers and Get Walking websites for people who prefer not to walk in organised groups, we could offer a true sofa-to-summit experience.

Of course, all this couldn’t be achieved by our already overstretched Areas and Groups. In places where Get Walking operates, Ramblers volunteers tell us they simply couldn’t have reached all those new walkers without the help of dedicated staff. But with the Government setting aside a ring-fenced budget for local authorities to spend on public health, and the increasing interest in walking as sustainable transport, more resources for projects such as Get Walking should soon be available locally.

Longer walks would have to be self-funded through individual membership, as they are now. But an imaginative approach to Ramblers membership, perhaps offering different grades and a more flexible Group structure, could make this more realistic for people who currently don’t see the Ramblers as having much to offer them.

Get Walking staff are based in local authority offices, enabling them to make connections across a host of different activities. While they’ve had to concentrate mainly on fulfilling promises to the project’s funders (the Big Lottery Fund and Ramblers Holidays Charitable Trust), they’ve still found time to ‘add value’ with other initiatives, such as running the Walk Sheffield festival or managing volunteers to plan the new Manchester Green Corridor walking route. In future, funded Ramblers staff based in local authorities might co-ordinate walking activities more widely, from running Get Walking programmes to helping the local Group run shorter walks. With the Lottery money running out at the end of this year, we’re already including these ideas in future funding bids.

So what can existing Ramblers members and volunteers do to help us achieve this vision? One way is to ensure your Group offers walks that are accessible to a wide range of people. Short walks (less than 8km/5 miles) at an easy pace are ideal, including walks in urban areas or from places with good public transport connections. If you’d like to lead shorter walks but your Group currently doesn’t offer any, don’t feel discouraged from putting yourself forward. There’s more on leading walks at www.ramblers.org.uk/volunteer.

Another way is to send out the message that Ramblers can help local authorities, the NHS and other funders achieve their objectives by promoting walking locally. Enclosed with this issue of walk, you’ll find a leaflet aimed at local funders, telling them the good news about Get Walking. Among our members are many councillors, local council and NHS officers, community leaders and others with influence locally. If you’re one of these people, or know one of them, please make use of the leaflet. Together we really can put the Ramblers at the heart of walking.

Des de Moor is the Ramblers’ senior everyday walking officer.

Soon after he left school in the early 1930s, a weekend’s walking in the Surrey Hills opened Len Clark’s eyes to the great outdoors. “And thanks to my new YHA card,” he says, “I went on to explore most of Britain’s national parks before they were even invented!”

A member of the Ramblers for 60 years, Len’s enthusiasm was undimmed by the Second World War: he cycled around the Brecon Beacons while stationed in the Welsh borders. Then one lunchtime, shortly after the war, Len picked up a 1945 report by the former Ramblers President John Dower, proposing the creation of national parks in England and Wales. “As I tucked into my macaroni cheese,” he recalls, “I found to my amazement that this chap had discovered the same exciting places as I had. What’s more, he had the right ideas about opening them up for all whilst protecting them from despoliation.”

Yellowstone, in the US, had become the world’s first national park way back in 1872, but the idea was slow to cross the Atlantic. Throughout the 1920s and ‘30s outdoor recreation became increasingly popular, and more and more walkers were frustrated by the denial of public access to the Pennine fells. Hundreds took part in the legendary Mass Trespass on Kinder Scout in 1932, which saw five walkers jailed after scuffles with gamekeepers. The Ramblers was founded three years later and quickly joined forces with other groups already pressing for national parks. But it was only after the hiatus of war that Attlee’s government established the Hobhouse Committee, which finally proposed 12 national parks in England and Wales.

Len Clark got involved with the campaign and, on a first date with his future wife, listened to the second reading of the 1949 National Parks Bill from the public gallery of the House of Commons. “It was a mixture of enthusiasm and polite debate,” says Len. “Although the initiative came from the left, virtually no-one was against the national parks. But the Lords were a bit miffed at losing their traditional rights over land that they’d managed for generations.”

Thriving despite challenges
When the Peak District National Park opened in April 1951, it was the first tangible product of the new legislation. Ten parks were up and running within eight years, but it would take another half-a-century to secure the remaining two on Hobhouse’s original list (the New Forest and South Downs). National parks were only a part of the 1949 Act, though, which also brought in new definitive maps of public rights of way, laid the foundations for National Trails, and introduced protection for other important landscapes and wildlife sites.

Today, Britain’s national parks are thriving. Walkers account for well over half of the 10 million visitors to the Peak District each year, contributing nearly £225m to the local economy and making it one of the UK’s top rural tourist destinations. Like areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONBs), national parks must conserve and enhance the area’s scenery, wildlife and heritage. But they’re also obliged to promote education, recreation and (since 1995) the economic and social well-being of their local community. It’s easy to see how these difficult and diverse duties can often conflict. So extra resources are made available to help cope (national parks are funded by Defra; AONBs depend on an annual grant from their local authority), and where problems do arise, the ‘Sandford Principle’ maintains that priority should always be given to conservation.

Overall, it seems to work. “National park countryside has definitely improved over the last 60 years,” says Kate Ashbrook, a trustee for both the Ramblers and Campaign for National Parks (CNP). “The independent park authorities are a good thing: more robust and less parochial. And there seem to be fewer big threats now, such as MOD ranges and china clay workings on Dartmoor.” Nevertheless, national parks aren’t immune from a range of modern pressures. Quarrying remains contentious, especially in the Peak District and Yorkshire Dales where large-scale mining rights dating back to the 1950s are technically still valid until 2042. And the Government’s recently proposed new planning guidance could make it easier to drive major electricity lines through national parks. There are administrative changes under debate at Westminster, too.

Park management changes
In a bid to increase local accountability, Defra is reviewing the structure of English national park authorities. “Local people must have a say in running their national park,” says Ruth Chambers of the CNP. “But the parks are also national assets, and any changes shouldn’t upset that balance.”  In a separate move, the proposed new Public Bodies Bill would give ministers wide powers over national park authorities’ work. “It’s right that the parks are accountable to Parliament,” says Ruth Chambers, “but ministers shouldn’t be able to micro-manage their work. We think that these changes go too far.” Issues like these are meat and drink to the voluntary societies that support each national park, such as the Snowdonia Society. “We monitor strategic decisions and take part in consultations affecting the park,” says the Society’s director, Gareth Clubb. “We also organise practical conservation work, such as litter picks and footpath improvements, as well as visits and social events.”

Scotland, meanwhile, had to wait for its own Parliament before national parks made the leap north of the Border. After that, things moved fast; Loch Lomond and the Trossachs was designated in 2002, closely followed by the Cairngorms National Park in 2003. Although the small print differs slightly, the Scottish parks have broadly similar aims to their cousins further south. Last autumn, the Cairngorms brought Highland Perthshire within its borders, creating an enlarged national park twice the size of the Lake District. “Highland Perthshire was part of the original Scottish Natural Heritage proposals, but was left out for political reasons,” explains David Green, convener of the Cairngorms National Park Authority. “There was huge support for righting this wrong.”

Not surprising, perhaps, when you consider the benefits. The park is attracting more young residents, unemployment has fallen, and tourism accounts for almost a third of the growing local economy. A recent survey also highlights mounting prestige for the Cairngorms brand, with twice as many visits prompted by national park status as there were in 2003.

Growth and cutbacks
In the future, Scotland could see a new national park on the island of Harris. While south of the border, Natural England is considering proposals to link the Yorkshire Dales with the Lake District. Yet the spectre of economic cuts looms large. Just before Christmas, Defra announced a 21.5% reduction in national park authority budgets over the next four years – and the effects are already being felt.

In the Peak District, the national park authority is disposing of its extensive land holdings and transferring its Losehill Hall education and conference centre to the YHA. Nevertheless, Andy Tickle at Friends of the Peak District takes a pragmatic line: “For some sites, new forms of ownership and management could be key to meeting new challenges such as climate change, enhancing biodiversity and encouraging wider access for all. Many people may be uncomfortable with the politics, but if the end result is that land is better managed for everyone, then is that necessarily a bad thing?”

For Len Clark, he’s seen it all before. “The national parks have had their ups and downs in the last 60 years, but they’re something we can be proud of,” he says. “They ensure public access, with strict planning controls discouraging developers from abusing the unique mixture of exhilaration and awe that makes them so special. They’re absolutely a success!”

Click here for more walk‘s recent coverage of Britain’s National Parks.

You should never read too much into the symbolism of a political photo opportunity. But if you’re looking for straws to clutch at, you look for them wherever you can find them, don’t you? So for any supporter of the proposed all-England coastal path, one of this year’s silly-season press photos could be significant. On holiday in Cornwall, David and Samantha Cameron posed for pictures on the South West Coastal Path above Daymer Bay, near the village of Polzeath. With cuts coming thick and fast, the outlook for the all-England project looked bleak, so perhaps the choice was a good omen? Maybe the coalition understands how valuable countryside access is to domestic tourism; it’s estimated that the South West Coastal path earns the region more than £390,000 per year per mile.

Since the change of government, civil servants have been hard at work identifying where spending cuts could be made. Only health and overseas aid have been spared. The headline details of those cuts have now been published (see p12), but during the run-up rumours were coming thick and fast, prompting veteran access campaigner Kate Ashbrook – the Ramblers’ former chair – to dub 2010 “the age of uncertainty”. “In my years of campaigning, there’s never been anything like it,” she said. “Decisions are being made very quickly and it’s impossible to say what may be around the corner.” For the campaigning umbrella group Wildlife and Countryside Link, the coalition’s cuts threaten to take us beyond uncertainty, to an age of austerity. The organisation is the joint voice of 25 countryside organisations, including the Ramblers. It picked up on Nick Clegg’s argument that it would be “morally wrong” to leave future generations with huge debts, saying: “It would be just as immoral to bequeath them an impoverished environment.”

Painful cost-cutting

The belt-tightening on current budgets has already had an impact, and that’s before the cuts announced in the comprehensive spending review kick in from April onwards. In August, Natural England was forced to slow the pace of work on the all-England coastal path, and it has also had to look at selling land and cutting jobs. Painful decisions are being made elsewhere by other public sector organisations involved in the countryside, and local authority budget cuts are biting too. The Ramblers’ campaign ‘Dead End for Walking?’ has shown that hard-pressed councils are failing to meet their obligations on the footpath network, and many are making cuts to what are already hard- pressed rights-of-way teams (Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council is even considering scrapping its team altogether). The squeeze on spending is also hurting third-sector organisations that rely on grants from the public purse. For example, the Nevis Partnership, which maintains paths on Ben Nevis – Britain’s highest peak – looks set to fold after losing council funding. The fate of the partnership made headlines earlier this year when its manager, Brian Wilshaw, was reported as having suggested that the 160,000 or so people who go up the mountain each year should be charged £1 to do so. He told walk that he had been misquoted, but the scale of the cuts coming has meant many organisations involved with managing the countryside have started thinking the unthinkable – whether that’s selling off land and facilities, or charging the public for access.

In the face of the onslaught, Kate Ashbrook argues that countryside ‘users groups’ need to do more to make the case that public spending is actually public investment – that spending delivers benefits, such as increased tourism and improved health for local people. “It’s a case the Ramblers have been making, but perhaps not clearly enough,” she says. At the same time, organisations like the Ramblers should be ready to remind decision-makers of their legal duties, as ministers get to grips with what the government’s ‘Big Society’ is all about. “Volunteers add value, but they can’t take on the job. They need support and management,” Kate says. That theme is taken up by countryside management expert Professor Nigel Curry, who is the director of the Countryside and Community Research Institute at the University of Gloucestershire. “The ‘Big Society’ is half about giving the public an empowering opportunity, and half about dumping what used to be state responsibilities on to unpaid volunteers,” he says. “How you view it probably depends on how cynical you are.” But, Curry argues, the rethink about how the countryside is cared for must look beyond short-term savings. He says that funding for the countryside – through rights of way, access, farm support and forestry budgets – has been relatively generous over the past couple of decades, representing a shared investment in the environment. Quick savings now risk throwing away the value of 20 years of spending.

The role of the ‘Big Society’
Fully understanding what the ‘Big Society’ is all about is also concentrating minds at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). Martin Harper, the RSPB’s head of sustainable development, is keen to stress that what he doesn’t want to see is more land leaving public ownership, saying: “As a rule, keeping land in state ownership is the best way to protect it.” He’s not saying whether or not the RSPB is one of the eight organisations that have expressed an interest in taking over the Roaches from the Peak District National Park, but the charity does have a track record of helping the park: in April it and the National Trust took on the Eastern Moors estate, which includes such popular walking areas as Curbar, Froggatt and Birchen Edges. Martin Harper says that sort of transfer can mean that the countryside is being managed by specialists who understand issues such as conservation and access as well as public bodies do, but who can do the job more cheaply. However, he thinks it’s important to remember that cuts are not only about the need to reduce the deficit – they also reflect a belief that the state should do less.

How that will shape up in the area of countryside policy should emerge next spring, when the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) publishes its Natural Environment White Paper. Martin Harper is hoping that it will take power from the centre and give it to local people. If the new way of doing things is truly community-led, he says, people will be more ready to volunteer. “There are some really big gains to be had in making it even easier for people to get stuck in.” That’s a view that strikes a chord back in Cornwall. Away from the coastal path, the county’s rights-of-way system is badly neglected. But in the face of council cutbacks local people are taking up the slack. They are being led by Graham Ronan, who chairs Cornwall Ramblers. “We’ve always known all about big society here in Cornwall – since long before anyone in the government coined the phrase,” he says. “What we’re trying to do is a balancing act. We’re still holding Cornwall Council to account on its statutory duties as the highway authority, but we’re also looking to do more ourselves.” One aspect of that has come recently through a Ramblers-funded training day on path obstruction. It taught a group of volunteers the skills they need to gather formal evidence to email to the council. The first session turned out four trained volunteers. That may seem like a small contribution, but it’s a real boost for the council’s team of two officers, who cover all of Cornwall’s 4,388km/2,727 miles of paths.

At a national level, the Ramblers faces a similar conflict, according to Adrian Morris, its head of walking environment. He’s an enthusiastic supporter of a greater involvement for volunteers in access work, but stresses that the Ramblers have to continue to act as a watchdog too. In the coming months, local councils will be making their decisions about spending, he says, and rights-of-way budgets are expected to be cut by up to 50 per cent. “What we need to be doing is highlighting the massive benefits that walking brings to people’s lives, especially at a time of stress and austerity,” he says. “We need to let councillors know how much it matters, because it will be seen as an easy cut.” But at the same time he’s certain that the Ramblers should be looking for opportunities in the ‘Big Society’ agenda. In future, that may mean taking over rights-of-way work on contract, or even land ownership, he says. “The big picture is that there’s going to be a fundamental re-appraisal of the relationship between the citizen and the state,” Adrian says. “I’m not sure if that’s what Cameron was intending with the ‘Big Society’. But that’s what’s happening and we need to engage with that debate and be open to the possibilities, because it needn’t all be negative.”

Countryside for sale?

Nature reserves
One option on the table at Natural England is to sell off some of the country’s 224 National Nature Reserves, the jewels in the crown of their network of protected wildlife sites. Natural England owns many of them – close to 20,000 hectares of land in all.

National Parks
Park authorities are looking to raise money to make up for a predicted shortfall in funding next year. For example, the Peak District National Park Authority is looking for someone to take the Roaches – a popular walking and climbing spot – on a lease, and is considering selling its education and conference centre, Losehill Hall.

Woodland
The Forestry Commission is looking at what it can sell from its huge estate of nearly 900,000 hectares of woodland in England and Scotland. The Welsh Assembly Government also has woodland that may be sold.

Rivers and canals
British Waterways, which manages 3,540km/2,200 miles of canals and rivers, will become a third sector charity in the same model as the National Trust. It could look to sell or lease its waterways as a means of raising funds.

Illustration: Nina Hunter @ Illustration Ltd

“Millions of people are going to be affected by today’s announcement in all sorts of difficult ways,” explains Tom Franklin, Ramblers Chief Executive. “We understand that together we face some tough times ahead. However, walking has always been a simple pleasure, a free activity that any family can do, even when money is tight. When today’s cuts take effect at a local level, walking in the countryside will be taken back 50 years, to a time when you were lucky to be able to reach the end of a path without difficulty. We urge local councils to safeguard this essential and cost-effective service before we close off the countryside and deny an entire generation one of life’s free joys.”

Please help ensure valued paths do not become dead ends. If you use paths to get to work, to reach local shops, access parks and other green spaces or to enjoy a ‘cheap day out’ at the weekend, please get involved in our Dead Ends campaign and sign up to be part of the campaigning movement.

Image above based on an original image by Flickr user BOSSoNe0013 and distributed under a Creative Commons 2.0 licence.

Following a sustained campaign by the Ramblers and its members, the government last year passed the landmark Marine and Coastal Access Act (click here to read walk‘s feature on the announcement). This piece of legislation placed a duty on government to create an all-English coastal path, which would bring wonderful walking opportunities, recoup huge benefits for the rural economy and encourage marine conservation by promoting the nation’s coastline. However, the implementation of the path is at risk because of the current economic crisis – so the Ramblers is calling on members and walk readers to help protect your coastline by taking action. Visit the Claim the Coast website today for more on how you can get involved and make a difference!

Image submitted to the Claim The Coast group on Flickr: Looking south west to Dunvegan Head (far distance) with the Ardmore Peninsula in the foreground, Waternish, Isle of Skye, Scotland – by woolyboy