By ROBERT GIBSON

Last updated 13:30, Thursday, 07 August 2008

THE CLA in the North-East has welcomed the establishment of Natural England’s new Stakeholder Working Group on Unrecorded Rights of Way.

The rural economy experts said it represented a valuable opportunity to create a rights of way network that matches modern needs.

North-East director Angus Collingwood-Cameron said: “Un-earthing historical evidence on long-defunct routes is no way to create a modern joined-up access network, as was demonstrated by the discontinued and discredited Discovering Lost Ways project.

“This, after five years and nearly £5 million, failed to get a single route on to the definitive map. The new group must learn from this and look forward to what is needed now and in the future.”

Mr Collingwood-Cameron said successive governments had “tinkered” with legislation without addressing the real issues.

The current system was “chronically under-funded, excessively bureaucratic and seems to please nobody”.

“Further investment seems unlikely as Government is already pouring £50 million into creating coastal access, with no budget for maintenance, and rewriting two previous Acts of Parliament so as to avoid public rights of way legislation,” he continued.

“We will be telling the new stakeholder group that we must have a modern rights of way network that matches modern needs - not searching for dead-end routes to mines and mills that closed centuries ago. We must seek to provide for the residents and visitors who actually want to use the routes.”

The CLA will be represented on the group by national access adviser Andrew Shirley.