Walkers urged to join pathwatch campaign
Walkers in Shropshire and Mid Wales are being asked to survey the state of the paths network by the Ramblers charity.
The Big Pathwatch is asking for volunteers to use a mobile phone app and report on the condition of the public rights of way paths in their area.
These paths can be seen on OS Explorer maps as a dotted green line and the project aims to cover all of them.
Trevor Allison, 69, is the area footpath secretary for Shropshire Ramblers and said that the survey of the county was a challenge.
He said: "There are five-and-a-half-thousand kilometres of paths in Shropshire and 300 kilometres in Telford & Wrekin. Anyone interested in helping can register to join the Big Pathwatch and they then select a square kilometre they want to cover.
"It is then up to them to survey the area, note all the rights of way, report on the condition of the paths and record the exact distance walked.
"Once they have collected all the information they upload it and then an electronic map is immediately updated."
The Big Pathways project is scheduled to run until December 31 and the information collected will give the most detailed picture yet of the state of the national path network.
Mr Allison, from Ruyton-XI-Towns, said that the collected data will give the Ramblers the statistical information they need when asking the councils for funds to maintain the pathways.
He said: "All councils are having to cut their budgets, Shropshire Council is no different and the budget for rights of way has been hit.
"To help maintain the path network about 70 Parish Paths Partnerships have also been set up.
"These groups are run by volunteers, but are supervised and supported by Shropshire Council, who provide training and equipment to the groups.
"Some of these groups are formed by ramblers, but others are people who want to do their bit to help maintain the paths."
There are 140,000 miles of pathways across England and Wales but the Ramblers fear more and more are becoming overgrown, flooded or blocked. More than 86,000 problems were reported on England's paths last year, including missing signs and broken gates.
