Assembly stumbles over access

15 November 2006
 
The Welsh Assembly’s policy of opening up access to the countryside and the coast is being hindered by the assembly government itself, according to a report from the auditor general for Wales.
The Cardiff-based government had failed to ring-fence the extra £2.4M it handed to councils to introduce the Countryside and Rights of Way Act, with the result that ‘many authorities did not initially spend all of the extra resources on CROW-related work’, reported auditor Jeremy Colman.
The ranking of public footpaths has leapt upwards on the central political agenda in Wales, with it recently deciding to move ahead of England and create increased access to the coast, as well as an all-Wales coastal footpath by 2014.
But Colman has highlighted major financial problems ahead for this proposal, which would significantly boost use of the general footpath network.
Describing the state of the network as ‘poor’, he said that it was worsening – with the rural authorities of Carmarthenshire, Gwynedd, Conwy and Ceredigion worst of all. Even to maintain the network in its current poor condition, councils needed to spend £8.4m a year – at 2003 figures – but total spending currently was just £5.1m, and some councils were spending much of their share on non-maintenance issues.
The most significant barrier to improvements, said the auditor general, was ‘the lack of political priority locally, and resulting lack of resources’.
Although the assembly had realised this, it was faced with only 12 of the 25 local access authorities possessing a specific countryside strategy.

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