Selby Green Party is raising concerns about roadside paths that have fallen into disrepair, and rights of way that risk being lost forever from public access maps.
Green Party members in the Selby area have taken a lead in supporting the ‘Walkshire’ [1] campaign in encouraging local authorities to make existing roadside paths safe and accessible to all.
A member of Selby Green Party recently persuaded North Yorkshire County Council and Tadcaster Town Council to remedy a heavily overgrown path which had become almost unusable. The path which runs alongside Leeds Road in Toulston, Tadcaster has fortunately now been reclaimed for the benefit of walkers.
“We want to ensure that everyone, including wheelchair-users, can safely use roadside paths without risking their lives. Let’s make the whole of Selby’s network of paths safe and accessible to all, so that Yorkshire is truly ‘Walkshire'” he said.
Cherry Waters of South Milford said “We’re also supporting the Ramblers Association’s ‘Don’t Lose Your Way’ campaign [2]. There are a lot of Public Rights of Way which don’t appear on the Definitive Maps held by councils, and if they have not been applied to be added to these records by January 2026 they will be lost forever. These could be routes that people have forgotten exist, but would be used if we knew about them, or routes that are commonly used but aren’t actually on the Definitive Maps, so could be closed to public use permanently, at any time, without any notice.”
Selby Green Party is also promoting the fledgling national organisation ‘Slow Ways’ [3] which is shortly to launch a network of footpaths across the country. Their intention is to open up completely new tracks as well as to reclaim older but inaccessible tracks, to enable people to travel village-to-village by foot.
During 2020, Slow Ways volunteers constructed a map of potential tracks across the country, and the next stage after lockdown ends is to walk these routes to prove they are usable. Selby Greens will be helping to establish this network of tracks, and welcomes anyone keen to help!
NOTES:1. “Walkshire” is the campaign from Welcome to Yorkshire to encourage all to enjoy the benefits of walking in 2021 (https://www.yorkshire.com/walkshire)2. Ramblers Association: Don’t Lose Your Way Campaign https://www.ramblers.org.uk/get-involved/campaign-with-us/dont-lose-your-way-2026.aspx3. Slow Ways: www.slowways.uk
