At a recent meeting of Cold Ashby Parish Council it was revealed that Northants County Council wish to save money by maintaining only those footpaths and Bridleways which are ‘valued and used by local communities’ and have asked our council to respond with a statement of value and explanation of usefulness for each right-of-way in the parish.

Parishioners will be invited to contribute to the council’s response at the Parish Assembly on May 17th.

The Rambler has been invited to speak at this meeting and would therefore welcome relevant comments from anybody who has used local footpaths – particularly those walkers or riders who have used our rights of way but do not live within the parish and would therefore not otherwise have a voice.

In the Rambler’s view, it would be counter-productive to simply take the ‘all rights of way are sacrosanct’ approach to this (tempting though this may seem!).

There is clearly a case for ensuring that limited funds are used to keep the most useful and attractive routes properly maintained and waymarked.

Whether you live within the parish or not,  the Rambler would welcome your views – preferably before the meeting in May.

An interactive map, showing all footpaths and bridleways and their assigned identifying codes is available here.

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