SIR — I am prompted by Mr Naylor’s letter (Chronicle, May 14), to write to you about the work Hampshire County Council does to look after the network of nearly 3,000 miles of public footpaths and bridleways across the county.
The council has a good track record of maintaining this network and improving it so that many more people can easily enjoy access to Hampshire’s countryside.
Our ranger teams work closely with local parish and town councils to identify and keep on top of the most important routes and improve access where, for example, there are high stiles or difficult surface conditions.
Results published by the Audit Commission have consistently shown Hampshire as one of the top performing authorities for this work.
We realise, however, that there is more to be done and improvements can be made to our service.
One of these is the information and feedback we provide for people who contact the council about problems on the path network.
We believe we could do this more effectively if investment was made in the systems used for managing our information.
We are therefore currently looking at benefits of the various options that are available, although no decision has been taken to spend the figure quoted in Mr Naylor’s letter or the article published on April 30.
Mr Naylor proposes that responsibility and funding should be given to parish councils for the management of local paths. Hampshire County Council is already working with many parish and town councils to do exactly this.
In recent years the county council has increased funding for the Small Grant Scheme, which enables local communities to apply for money to improve local paths often through the involvement of volunteers.
The scheme is proving to be very popular, and many successful projects have been completed.
The more that local councils would like to work with us in this way the more the county council would look to increase the funding available to apply for.
Yinnon Ezra, Director, Culture Communities and Rural Affairs, Hampshire County Council.
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