‘Lost Ways’ has lost its way!
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008
“This is a quote from a Liberal Democrat Peer speaking this spring in the House of Lords”, explained Dorchester Councillor Trevor Jones. “He was talking about a Government project called Lost Ways which was meant to identify footpaths across England in both town and country not yet registered as rights of way. Believe it or not £4.5 million was spent in just two counties in the last few years and yet no additional paths were registered at all! So the project has now been abandoned.”
“Unless old paths are registered people will lose the right to use them in under twenty years time. A typical town path is pictured to the right and of course there are scores of them across West Dorset. Lib Dem controlled Dorchester Town Council tried to make a start on the registration procedure a couple of years ago but found the procedures hideously complicated and very expensive, so they took the matter up in the Lords to try to get legislation changed.”
“The Government do now seem to recognise that there is a real problem and have committed to discussing with experts what should be done,” concluded Cllr. Jones. “Certainly if nothing is done there’s going to be uproar in due course as the public are refused the right to use paths they have walked for generations.”
