Disaster’ in how county footpaths managed

Herefordshire Council has defended not bringing any prosecutions against landowners who fail to keep the county’s network of public footpaths open.

It emerged last month that it had taken no court action over such cases in the last decade – despite their being “known persistent landowners” responsible, according to veteran campaigner David Howerski.

Now the council has hit back at his suggestion that this was down to a fear of costly legal challenges.

A spokesperson said: “Herefordshire Council aims to resolve most cases early on, typically through a formal letter, [which] allows us to address problems efficiently and ensure compliance without needing to escalate to legal proceedings in most cases”.

They added that the lack of prosecutions “reflects our focus on resolving issues through engagement and cooperation with landowners”, with court action “only pursued when all other avenues have been exhausted”.

“The council does not avoid taking legal action against persistent offenders due to concerns about costs,” they stressed.

Responsibility for the rights of way network, which extends some 2,164 miles around the county and is key to making swathes of it publicly accessible, was recently passed from the council’s public realm contractor Balfour Beatty to the council’s own officials.

But Coun Toni Fagan told fellow councillors last week that this “has been an absolute disaster”, due in part to loss of longstanding council staff, coupled with IT problems.

“It would be great to get a grip on the public rights of way service,” she said.

Council leader Jonathan Lester replied there had indeed been “a couple of false starts” with the move, which had come in for criticism at a recent summit of the county’s parish councils.

“Officers are working to ensure that we answer those criticisms, and that we have a fresh approach to make sure public rights of way [service] is much, much better as soon as possible,” he said.

Coun Fagan later said she was aware of 47 closed paths in the county, of which 31 “need bridges that are way beyond the capacity of volunteers”.

With an ongoing lack of resources to address the problem at county level given the pressing need to sort the county’s roads, the role of local parishes in maintaining footpaths is “absolutely key” – yet these still need funding and training, she added.