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News

Leading by example

A plea has gone out to dog owners to take special care with their pets as the height of the lambing season and a critical time for ground nesting birds reaches its peak…

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Bluebell season

To celebrate the annual bluebell season, Ramblers are launching a series of events across the country to help walkers get out there and enjoy the spectacle. It’s all part of an ongoing campaign with the Natural History Museum to better understand one of our most iconic and threatened spring flowers…

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Back to basics

Children can get back to basics and learn how to live free from the land on one of several survival days taking place in the North York Moors National Park during the school Easter holidays…

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Free navigation courses from Cotswold

Ramblers’ recommended retail partner Cotswold Outdoor and Ordnance Survey have teamed up to offering a series of free navigation courses at various stores across the country…

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Visit us at the show

The tents are up, people are zip-lining through the air and the Ramblers walk magazine stand is all set-up – drop by and say hello if you’re at the show!

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Events

Peak District walking festival
 

Peak District walking festival

24 April – 9 May 2010

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Haltwhistle walking festival

24 April – 3 May 2010

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Swanage & Purbeck walking festival

3 – 8 May 2010

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Isle of Man Walking Festival

13 – 18 June 2010

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The Annual South Downs Way Walk

18 – 26 June 2010

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» View all Events

Vital new footpath won in Buckinghamshire

The Ramblers is celebrating a new public footpath being recorded in Bourne End, Bucks, after a long battle by the Bourne End Residents’ Association during which the Ramblers gave legal and technical advice.

The 360-metre route runs along the old railway line from Cores End Road to Willows Crossing in Bourne End. It will be added to the official map of public rights of way following a public inquiry held in January into the residents’ association’s claim. The inquiry inspector, Mr Mark Yates, ruled that there was evidence that the route was a public right of way.

The applicant needed to show that the route had been used by walkers for 20 years, without being stopped or asking permission. The residents’ association produced such evidence from 153 people for the period 1982 to 2002. The landowner, Mr Charles Pitcher of Lude Farm, Penn, challenged the evidence, claiming that fences had been erected during this period which made it clear that he did not consider it to be a public path. However, the inspector was not convinced that the fence was there during the relevant period, or that it kept people out.

Says Jim Penfold, chairman of the residents’ association: “We are delighted to have won this vital path which, when joined to other dedicated footpaths, links the two villages of Bourne End and Wooburn, enabling people to walk safely between them, away from the roads.”

We are especially grateful to the Ramblers for its invaluable legal and technical advice on claiming paths.”

Kate Ashbrook, Ramblers chairman, comments: “We congratulate the Bourne End Residents’ Association on their persistence. Their application for the path was rejected by Buckinghamshire County Council and they had to appeal to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to direct the council to make the legal order. This was then opposed so there was a public inquiry. The council remained neutral so the residents had to lead the case. It took seven years to win this path.”

For more about the Ramblers’ footpath campaigns, visit www.ramblers.org.uk/rights_of_way

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