Archive - Tuesday, 2 October 2001


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Tourism anger for footpath toll bid

LANDOWNERS claiming a right to charge walkers for access to Pembrokeshires public footpaths face the wrath of the tourism industry.

Edward Owen, chairman of the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society, insists that public access to the countryside is far too cheap.

It is time that rights of way are treated like the easements for water, gas and electricity and farmers received the benefit, he says.

The public walk where they like, dont pay for repairs and treat the hills as if they own them. Something has got to be done about it.

Mr Owen says farmers are expected to produce 21st century food while maintaining an 18th century landscape.

But the tourism industry says its would lose thousands of visitors a year if walkers were made to pay.

Mike Weaver, chairman of the Landsker Borderlands Tourism Association, says walkers make a valuable contribution to the Pembrokeshire economy.

It would have a very adverse impact in Pembrokeshire where a large percentage of people come here on holiday specifically for the walks, he says.

However he sympathised with landowners who had to tolerate the irresponsibility of a minority of walkers.

The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority has reacted swiftly to denounce Mr Owens comments.

Current laws would not allow landowners to charge for access along public rights of way. And recent legislation, which will introduce a new right of access to open country and common land, will eventually provide additional free access opportunities.

The majority of rights of way in Pembrokeshire were registered in the 1950s and claimed as such by parish councils. There are over 1,000 miles of footpaths, bridleways and byways including the Pembrokeshire Coast Path.

Payback schemes to individual landowners would require radical changes in legislation and a desire by the government to alter a basic right of access to the countryside via our network of public footpaths and bridleways, says the authoritys spokesman.