We’ll be revealing your votes for favourite new gear, with everything from the popular Best Walking Boot to the coveted Best Mid-Layer up for grabs. We’ll honour your favourite overall walking brand, name the best national retailer, then move on to eagerly-awaited winner of the new “Best Rambler-Led Walk” award. Plus, you’ll get a chance to see and meet the people the people behind your favourite brands, as well as some familiar faces from Ramblers and the pages of walk.

Elsewhere at this year’s show (which also includes entry to the Bike, Boat and Active Travel shows*) you’ll find an embarrassment of  riches awaiting you – from adventurous activities like ice climbing and zipwiring to a food market and a beer and wine tasting experience. Speakers on the main stage include urban birder David Lindo, BBC2 personality Cameron McNeish and walk contributor Paddy Dillon, plus experts, photographers and adventurers. For those up for a challenge, the Climbing Village will feature a wide range of walls for the complete beginner to accomplished climbers, or head for the Travel & Adventure Stage, where you can hear from to a wide range of explorers, including shipwreck hunter David Mearns and world record-breaking adventurers. There’ll also be highlights from the Banff Mountain Film Festival showcasing throughout the weekend, an entire photography village for those looking for tips and tricks, plus a new ‘Careers in the Outdoors’ clinic for anyone considering trading the office for the forest. Hope to see you there, and do come say hello!

*Your Outdoors Show ticket also includes a free showguide courtesy of TGO Magazine and a goody bag. To book, visit www.theoutdoorshow.co.uk.

Trumpeting so-called ‘people power’ and the reduction of unnecessary bureaucracy and waste, the Coalition has ordered local councils to make huge savings in order to dig us out of debt. But politicians need some joined-up thinking to ensure that the axe doesn’t fall on our footpath network. As a nation, we’ve definitely got a bit porky over the last decade. The millions spent by the previous government on health education ads and internet campaigns will go under the Coalition – but I’m not that bothered. The best way to get people to change their behaviour isn’t by nagging or nannying, but by gentle peer persuasion. That’s why starting to walk by joining a group like the Ramblers is a good way to meet people and gradually increase your stamina.

But walkers need footpaths, and local authorities are being forced to reduce staff and slash funding for repairs and maintenance to rights of way. Sorting out the paperwork relating to disputes will now take longer than ever – up to 10 years in some places! The Ramblers’ Dead End for Walkers? campaign highlights 19 councils that are the worst offenders, including North Yorkshire. It has 10,000 rights of way issues outstanding, and no plans to increase the funding to sort them out. And Cornwall plans budget cuts of 10% over the next four years, despite neglecting half the paths in the county.

I can vouch for the appalling state of footpaths in Cornwall. Once you leave the coastal path and try to cross the peninsula between St Ives and Newlyn, you can easily get lost. I ended up with horrendous scratches from gorse the other year, and had anybody else been brave enough to walk the route, they’d have heard me cursing. In North Yorkshire, where I own a home, there are a plethora of signs in some areas and absolutely none in others. It’s almost as if the council wants you to stick to the popular, long-distance routes. Gloucestershire has cut half its Highway Authority staff, Surrey’s rights of way maintenance budget has been slashed by a fifth, a hundred bridges need replacing in Wiltshire… the list is endless. Of course, you could argue that it’s more important to protect services for the elderly, schools and hospitals – and I agree, some difficult choices have to be made. But at the same time, if councils promoted walking our overall health would improve and hospitals and clinics wouldn’t be packed with fatties suffering from heart disease.

Our footpaths are part of our national heritage. They’re of such social and historical significance that I want to see them listed like ancient monuments and architecturally important buildings. Instead, unless they are within a national park or part of a recognised long-distance route, they are treated like second-class amenities. The recession means that progress on England’s long-awaited coastal path will slow down too – work is continuing in the five pilot areas, but there are concerns about the long-term budget. We have one of the most varied and historic coastlines in the world. It’s a national treasure, right up there with the Tower of London and Stonehenge. This path will not only benefit Brits, it will attract tourists from all over the world and bring much needed revenue to remote areas.

In our new ‘Age of Austerity’, walking ticks all the right boxes. But it has to be easy. With more of us staying home for holidays, what better way to explore the countryside or our historic cities? Walking around London can be confusing, which is why the Ramblers’ Putting London on the Map campaign is a great idea. The plan is to record every inner London footpath on a legally-binding map, which is the case in every other town and city in the UK. I’ve seen how developers totally ignore rights of way: time after time, I’ve tried to follow a route down the Thames, for example, only to find locked gates or building sites blocking the path. It’s just a shame the map won’t be complete in time for the 2012 Olympics. Wouldn’t it have been great to offer all visitors a definite walking guide to our wonderful capital city?

Janet Street-Porter is Ramblers vice president and Editor at Large of The Independent on Sunday

From media queen to Vice President of the Ramblers, Janet Street- Porter is a true renaissance woman – and a phenomenal walker to boot. Dominic Bates meets her for a stroll around her adopted home in the North York Moors

You grew up in Fulham and Perivale, the daughter of an electrician and a dinner lady. Where did your love of walking come from?
My mother was Welsh and we spent all our summer holidays in the village she grew up in called Llanfairfechan, on the Menai Straits. Mum and I would walk everywhere, collecting firewood, picking bilberries and hiking over the mountains to Conway.

How often do you go out walking now?
I try to walk every day. If I don’t do at least a short walk every day then I start to feel miserable. In London, I like to keep to the backstreets, avoiding main roads as much as possible. When I arrive in a new place, I always want to have a map to work out where I can walk.

Who would be your dream walking companion?
No one. Walking alone is my idea of luxury, in utter silence, listening to the sound of the wind and the birds. It’s simply the best way to unwind and feel at peace. Nothing is more rewarding than experiencing the  landscape and the elements – the worse the weather the better!

Is there nobody at all…?
I’ve got a few close friends I like walking with. Vic Reeves was a good laugh when we walked to Leeds a few years ago; and Will Self and his wife Deborah Orr are good walkers too.

Any pet peeves when you’re out walking?
Don’t get me started about off-road vehicles destroying green lanes and ruining the environment with their horrible noise! I belong to the Yorkshire Dales Green Lanes Alliance and we are fighting to get off-roaders banned from historic drovers’ roads and bridleways.

You have homes in both Clerkenwell and the North York Moors. Where does your heart lie: in the town or country?
Both. I miss the cultural life of London, the museums, theatre, opera and galleries, but I wrote my two most recent books in Yorkshire and I love the solitary nature of the moorland where my house is.

What ambitions do you still have left  to fulfil and how best would you like to  be remembered?
I don’t care what anyone says about me after I’ve gone! I want to carry on discovering new paths, new landscapes. I’m not someone who harps on about the past; I think the best is still to come.

Read the full interview in the Spring issue of walk magazine, on newsstands now.