Landowners across the UK are blocking the delivery of 117 miles of traffic-free active travel routes, forcing locals to take matters into their own hands, according to campaigners behind a new toolkit designed to help rural communities push for greenways and active travel routes. 

This week a new toolkit was launched by active travel campaigner, journalist, and road.cc contributor Laura Laker, entitled ‘Rural path campaigns: Where magic meets tarmac’, containing useful tips and case studies which aim to “empower” locals to create greenways in their areas.

According to Laker, the author of ‘Potholes and Pavements: A Bumpy Ride on Britain’s National Cycle Network’, rural communities are resorting to delivering their own traffic-free paths thanks to a lack of both funding and political will – and the work of some obstinate landowners.

A Freedom of Information request submitted as part of the project found that of 73 local authorities responsible for delivering greenways, land access is holding up delivery for 23 of them, totalling 117 miles of routes.

Laker also pointed out that “most councils simply aren’t trying to deliver any paths”, with community groups struggling to push for more than 200 miles of paths across the UK, across at least 50 areas. Many of these routes have been held up or blocked for years, even decades.

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“To convert a typical railway path takes a great deal of effort: a resistant landowner can hold things up for years and it can be better to consider an alternative route. We can’t spend time on more than one difficult route at once. It takes all our effort to progress it an imperial inch per year,” one council officer told Laker.

As a result of this stalemate, a number of communities, Laker says, are “identifying creative solutions, building support and driving projects forward”.

For example, on Kent’s Isle of Sheppey, the Sheppey Light Rail Greenway group cleared brambles from a disused railway path after a hoped-for traffic-free route, allegedly promised by successive council administrations for 40 years, failed to materialise.

With no alternative to driving on the island, the path enjoys strong community support. A new council officer helped revitalise the project, while bramble clearing volunteer events built momentum and support, with construction support and funding soon coming from local businesses and the government, with the backing of local landowners.

And in the village of Curry Rivel, in Somerset, residents planned and built a short 200m path alongside a busy main road, as part of their aim to create a safe active travel route to the nearest town of Langport.

They then won climate emergency funding from Somerset Council, topped up by a local landowner, and are currently working on extending the route.

In rural Dumfries and Galloway, the Kier Penpont and Tynron Development Trust (KPTDT) identified a 4km traffic-free path linking villages as the top local priority for residents. Raising funds for the project from a range of different sources, including the local windfarm.

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Laker’s toolkit hopes to build on these examples by breaking how to approach creating your own traffic-free route down into steps, from an initial idea to path building, taking users through working with landowners and councils, understanding relevant policies, identifying potential funding, and managing volunteers.

The toolkit has been supported by a range of groups, including the charity behind the National Cycle Network and the Canal and River Trust.

“Working on this project for the past year has been one of the great privileges of my career so far,” Laker said.

“In both the book, and in this toolkit, I have been constantly inspired by the efforts of small groups of people, sometimes over decades, absolutely committed to achieve something positive for their communities, not least for children.”

“However, the case studies in the toolkit underline how ludicrously hard it is to build traffic-free routes in this country. While our road and rail networks are delivered by national bodies on multi-year funding cycles, retired engineers, veterinarians and civil servants are left to cobble together the land access, funding and political will needed to deliver walking, wheeling and cycling routes.

“This leaves communities effectively stranded on transport islands, which it is only possible to enter or leave by car. With fuel price shocks driving up the cost of motoring, this situation is far from sustainable.

Flax Bourton Greenway
Flax Bourton Greenway (Image Credit: Sustrans)

“Seemingly everything, from the planning process to a lack of funding for rural active transport, is stacked against communities wanting a greenway – but they refuse to give up. I hope the words of those who have succeeded can inspire, inform and initiate more of these routes nationally – and bring delivery time down to years, not decades.

“I also hope they shine a light on the benefits of these paths to local communities. Some of those words are incredibly moving, such as from groups in Somerset and rural Scotland where local mobility scooter users can finally access nature unaided for the first time – or children can cycle to school.”

“With government funding largely focused on urban areas, rural communities can feel left behind. These traffic-free paths are arguably most valuable where people have the fewest transport choices, however – boosting local economies, health and accessible routes into nature. Funding for rural paths exists, it just takes a bit more creativity in accessing.

“Traffic-free inter-urban paths are hugely popular local resources, giving communities low-cost, sustainable transport options as well as benefiting health, rural economies and the environment.

“With fuel prices remaining high, and growing cost of living and health crises, there has never been a greater need for alternatives to car dependency for short trips.”