Footpaths Around The Broads Need Cutting

[DaveRolaves]

In previous years footpaths around the broads have been cut. This year footpaths  around the cross and the berney area have not been cut for a long time. Grass is around four feet high on the footpaths anyone else noticed the problem...Dave R...........

[grendel]

I dont think the problem is limited to the broads, there are several national cycle ways near me that are suffering a similar issue, where a 6 foot wide tarmac or gravel path has been reduced to barely one cycle width by the encroaching vegetation, the paths are clearly showing neglect. local authorities may well cite no mow may, but we are in July now, with no sign of action.

[Chelsea14Ian]

Very true.Very noticeable  when we were in Chambridge  the other week.Here in Martham  grass is quite long.In fairness  the other week they cut the verges from near Hemsby through  the village  also between  Horning  to Wroxham. 

[kpnut]

9 hours ago, DaveRolaves said:

In previous years footpaths around the broads have been cut. This year footpaths  around the cross and the berney area have not been cut for a long time. Grass is around four feet high on the footpaths anyone else noticed the problem...Dave R...........

Not just this year Dave. See the thread I started last year ‘state of footpaths’ of something similar. 
The vast majority of those not being cut are Norfolk County Council responsibility. Their council website has a page for reporting overgrown (to put it mildly!) footpaths. 
I did put a few on last year and when I revisited a month later, some had been cut. No idea if that was co-incidence or not. 
 

This year, I’ve tried my best to not get wound up about it, but it is really impacting my enjoyment of being out on the boat. That’s mainly what I use the boat for, to access the parts of the Broads not so easily accessed by any other means. 

[kpnut]

And without wishing to stir up the Broads National Park debate, if that is what the BA and Local Authorities do actually aspire to, then they won’t get there by limiting access. They have plenty of other regions of the country to look to for best practice of access.
Imagine the uproar in the Lake District if paths were so overgrown as to be impassable. I don’t think I’ve ever come across even one, even in the lower parts and that’s with walking all 214 Wainwrights over the years. 

[kpnut]

To report an issue to the Norfolk county council go to Norfolk.gov.uk

then choose ‘Roads and Transport’

then ‘Roads’

then ‘Report a highway problem’

then the green box ‘Report a public right of way problem’

then ‘overgrown surface’
and follow the instructions. 
 

It is the council’s responsibility to keep overgrown surface vegetation clear on public rights of way. I suggest anyone having issues in their own area to do a similar exercise. 

Don’t choose overgrown trees and bushes as that’s the responsibility of the landowner and just for the council to inspect. 

[grendel]

you have just reminded me of the fun i had with kents highways reporting over a road closure that affected a national cycleway, and the lack of suitable diversion route- report a highway obstruction- loops round and back on itself because if a highway is obstructed its an emergency and cant be reported online, but there is no other option for a road closed for 12 months due to construction (the traffic diversion- the only posted diversion, would take cyclists onto a busy major road, that narrows to barely 2 car widths at one point, it wasnt sign posted in the other direction, and to boot cyclists were required to do a right turn, just as the road widened after the narrow bit- right where the traffic tries to overtake the cyclist, how do I know, because thats exactly what happened to me when i tried to pull over to turn right, luckily the pickup with trailer aborted his overtake when he saw my signal.

[kpnut]

Well, not really ‘like’ Grendel, seeing as you’ve just written about being mown down by a car, but you know what I mean!

[MargeandParge]

Maybe it's a new strategy for covering the pot holes. Sorry couldn't resist. 

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

[MargeandParge]

Seriously we had a Lab for many years and the grass and plant seeds were a real problem. If those paths are cut about a meter wide you still get the over hanging flowers just back from where you walk. I believe that farmers and land owners can be prosecuted for obstructed or over grown rights of way. There is no argument against trespass if the path is not usable. 

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

[kpnut]

Actual obstruction by a barrier is a criminal offence, not a civil matter. 

Landowners have to upkeep stiles etc, sometimes with financial help from local authorities, and see to fallen trees and overhanging bushes etc. Councils have to see to overgrown vegetation coming up from the path itself. So if it’s grass, cow parsley, nettles, thistles, burdock and other herbaceous plants that’s causing a problem, it’s council. If it’s woody, it’s landowner. 
 

Finlay springer has a grass seed cyst in the space between two paws at the moment, no doubt got by going through all this grass at this time of year (home or broads, most likely broads). He’ll have to have it seen to at the vet after my next Broads trip, as I’d hoped it’d come out, but hasn’t. 
 

 

Now that’s an idea. Keep the paths as they are and make ourselves nicer ones across wherever we wish to go!!!!

2 hours ago, MargeandParge said:

There is no argument against trespass if the path is not usable. 

[Wussername]

Ah! Perhaps you need to keep springer on a lead.

[YnysMon]

4 hours ago, Wussername said:

Ah! Perhaps you need to keep springer on a lead.

Dogs need exercise. You can't forever keep a medium to large dog on a lead. 

We had a lovely walk around Thorpe Marshes this morning. The state of the paths was excellent, thank goodness. 

[Smoggy]

The rockland cut path is still overgrown but useable, we managed back in shorts and tee shirt last night in the dark with no torch and no moon with just one nettle sting, maybe Newcastle brown is a nettle antidote.

Definitely hemlock not giant hogweed.

[Wonderwall]

It is not limited to the broads , trust me .

 

[Mouldy]

The path between Hunter’s yard and Womack Dyke has always been well maintained.  Not now, it isn’t.  Bloody glad I put my jeans on to go to The Kings Arms!

[YnysMon]

There were some signs of the Rockland path having been cut back. Just not a lot! Taller nettles etc. snipped off. In fact, it gave me the impression that a fed-up local had been around with a pair of secateurs, rather than a council job.

[Wussername]

Have you not noticed that on the roads verges, roundabouts, stretches of grass are not being cut or cutting has been reduced from three to two or indeed one cut a year. A Norfolk County Council decision I believe. Safety on the roads has been compromised. I suspect that footpaths and mooring cutting falls somewhat below the priority of the highway revised standard.

Conservation and the all important cost savings during these austere times have seemingly justified the action taken.

[DaveRolaves]

Read all the posts about the problems with overgrown footpaths. For us the problem is in this year. For the last five years plus the footpaths around the cross area and the berney area have been cut possibly four times in the growing season which has maintained the footpaths so that people can walk on them. This year is different - they dont cut the footpaths grass is four feet high in places. Over the years we have got to know the man who cuts the footpaths around the cross and we have also seen him cutting the footpaths from reedham to the berney area - this year we have not seen him. The remote footpath around the island from St Olaves along the cut and then along the Yare and then back along the waveney to St Olaves in previous years has been cut - this year its not been cut at all.

[kpnut]

Norfolk county council, as I suspect many other councils have cut back on maintenance as you say Andrew. 
That doesn’t take away their legal obligation to maintain public rights of way, be they roads or footpaths. 

Deterring tourists is a very shortsighted policy for the area and the relevant business/tourism groups should be pushing the council too. 

Discouraging anyone from accessing the outside environment is very shortsighted, although I don’t think the councils’ remit is particularly to preserve the health of the nation! They wouldn’t shut swimming pools and leisure centres if that were the case. 

Why do we get so many decisions wrong in this country? Fire brigade rather than prevention!

Further to my reporting of various path issues, I’ve only had a response to one so far. To say it wasn’t bad enough to fit the criteria. I now need to ask what the criteria are. 

I’m hoping by not hearing about the others, that they’ve been assessed and in the process of being dealt with. I’ll see over the next few weeks. Last year, after reporting at about the same time, (June), by late August the paths had been mown. Better late than never!

[Mouldy]

1 hour ago, kpnut said:

Further to my reporting of various path issues, I’ve only had a response to one so far. To say it wasn’t bad enough to fit the criteria. I now need to ask what the criteria are. 

I’m hoping by not hearing about the others, that they’ve been assessed and in the process of being dealt with. I’ll see over the next few weeks. Last year, after reporting at about the same time, (June), by late August the paths had been mown. Better late than never!

I contacted Rockland St Mary Parish Council, to try to find who is responsible for maintaining the path from Short Dyke to the Staithe.  It took two weeks for them to tell me they didn’t know, but would find out and get back to me.  Still waiting.

My wife attempted to walk along the path from Womack Dyke towards the main river this morning and found it impassable.  The path that runs parallel to the moorings is the same.

1 hour ago, kpnut said:

Norfolk county council, as I suspect many other councils have cut back on maintenance as you say Andrew. 
That doesn’t take away their legal obligation to maintain public rights of way, be they roads or footpaths. 

Deterring tourists is a very shortsighted policy for the area and the relevant business/tourism groups should be pushing the council too. 

Agreed.  For an area so dependent on tourism, discouraging tourists by failing to maintain areas designated for leisure activities is surely counterproductive.  It’s a similar situation to the removal of waste facilities a few years ago.  ‘Let the tourists take their rubbish home with them’ was the theory.  When we’re onboard our boat for two weeks, we do not have the facility to store rubbish up for that long.  Sadly and much to my personal dismay, we find ourselves throwing items that could and should be recycled into general waste for landfill.

Another short sighted and regrettable decision by the local authorities.  No wonder this country is in such a mess! 🤨

 

[Chelsea14Ian]

A mixture  perhaps of no mow May carrying on to now July.Trying to save money on Maintenance and acting as if there doing there bit on helping the environment. Which would be okay if it was managed,but I don't think it is.

[Bikertov]

What I don't understand with all these relatively small value cutbacks is this - with our council and general taxes going up each year, where is all the money raised actually going to  ??

[MauriceMynah]

Cleaning rust off the tools.

[Cheesey69]

1 hour ago, Bikertov said:

What I don't understand with all these relatively small value cutbacks is this - with our council and general taxes going up each year, where is all the money raised actually going to  ??

£220,000 in wages four one cutting crew, yup just one not including machinery. we have four crews. It's just part of my duties through out the year, In winter I could be snow ploughing. 

This year the growth has been spectacular and here is the but, easy to cut back sending us out if other maintenance tasks have been put off and now need doing