Bruce Cutts, Senior Officer, People,
Landscapes, Access and Nature attended on behalf of Natural England (NE) to provide
an update on the ongoing work to upgrade the Coast to Coast Path National
Trail.
Members noted that
- The first two years had been focused on
the legal work required to gain statutory access to underpin the National
Trail route, and to ensure that the Trail was secure in perpetuity for all
users.
- Of the 66 major pieces of legal work on
the Trail, 24 were complete, 36 were not complete but there was no risk to
the continuity of the route and would be complete by the end of the
project; and 6 required monitoring.
Two of these were situated in North Yorkshire at Wray House, East
Harlsey and Northfields in Brompton.
- In the last 12 months a huge amount of
work had been put into the erection of finger-post signage in the North
York Moors National Park.
- Monitoring of the Coast to Coast Walk
Facebook page had shown that users of the Trail had uploaded pictures of
the new infrastructure and signage and were enjoying the tangible
improvements in the quality of the route.
- In the Lake District, flags had been
laid on some of the high fells, it had taken three months to airlift and
re-assemble the machine which carried out the work.
- NE had engaged with Leonard Cheshire on
an accessibility audit and looked at how and what the opportunities were
for increasing accessibility and removing barriers on the Coast to Coast.
- Work had focused on access to the north
side of Ennerdale Water in the Lake District National Park, where
accessible bridges without steps had been installed, along with
improvements to surfaces and waymarking.
- Work was underway at the Nine Standards
Rigg Route where six to eight miles of recycled mill flag stones have been
airlifted and will be laid on the eroded bare peat at that section of the
Coast to Coast.
- In terms of the A19, DEFRA had been
working with an external engineering company to produce a technical
appraisal report on a set of shortlisted options for safe solution to a
crossing over the A19, however with the financial pressures on the Country
at present and understanding the priorities for the new government, the
A19 crossing had been put on hold.
- NE had been working with the NYC PROW
team to develop an interim route which provided a safe pedestrian crossing
point of the A19, but this added another five miles to the user’s
route. National Trail funding would
be utilised to maintain the interim route, and there would be signage
erected at both sides of the A19 which stressed the importance and
desirability of users crossing the A19 at this point for safety reasons.
- There had been some community
engagement on the Trail in terms of the wider benefits for economic
development of local businesses and are engaging with some of the local
groups to help with the maintenance and monitoring of the route.
- Another aspect was the Nature Recovery
pilots which NE wished to contribute to, to both aid the pilot schemes but
also to enhance the enjoyment for users of the route. The major projects were West Cumbria
Rivers Trust, the Forestry Commission’s replanting schemes, Eden Rivers
Trust, Bug Life and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.
Finally, Mr Cutts
informed Members that the technical appraisal report on the A19 crossing would
be made available by DEFRA after the wider Coast to Coast stakeholder group
meeting in March 2025.
In response to
Members questions, Mr Cutts confirmed that the Trail attracted approximately 6
to 10 thousand users per year with people travelling from around the world, but
in particular, America, Canada, Germany and Holland, and that once it was part
of the National Trail family those numbers were expected to increase.
In terms of making
the Trail inclusive and accessible to all users Mr Cutts reported that NE had
worked with the British Horse Society and Cycling UK along the whole length of
the route, and added that the LAF had an excellent supporter for the A19 crossing
in the Principal PROW Officer, who had repeatedly done his utmost to ensure
that the network integrity focused on bridleway connectivity. The officer explained that the team had
worked throughout the project with Cycling UK who were the lead on developing a
complimentary ride. Based on experience
there was not enough demand to create a National Trail on the parallel ride,
but that the team would work with NE to promote it as a long-distance trail. A proposal was currently being considered by
Cycling UK and the British Horse Society, with the top proposal for the
crossing to be a bridleway bridge.
In answer to a
query the secretary confirmed that Martin Reynolds had been appointed at the
meeting in September 2024 as the LAF representative on the Coast to Coast
National Trail External Stakeholder Group.
Forum Members
thanked Mr Cutts for attending the meeting.
Resolved -
That the update be noted.