Ramblers angry at extent of cutbacks

Peter Carr, chairman of the Shropshire Area of the Ramblers, said the new figures were 'very different' to the 25 per cent cuts in funding he said the council had claimed to have made.

He has sent an open letter to Councillor Steve Charmley, Shropshire Council's cabinet member responsible for active and healthy lifestyles, demanding an explanation.

He said taxpayers deserved an apology if the true scale of cuts had been hidden.

More than 3,000 people signed a petition last November protesting about a decision to slash the county's rights of way budget and called for the council to conduct a study into how much walking was worth to the local economy.

But council chiefs have questioned the figures and have insisted they are committing to maintaining walking routes.

Walking contributes about £65 million – or 11 per cent – of Shropshire's tourism revenue each year, which equates to about 1,000 full-time jobs.

In his letter, Mr Carr said: "The scale of the cuts you (the council) have imposed on the rights of way budget from 2009 to 2012 is 42 per cent, remarkably close to the 40 per cent that the Shropshire Area of the Ramblers has been campaigning on for the last year.

"It is very different to the 25 per cent that you still maintaining in an e-mail to me only last week.

"Now, either the figures are wrong, in which case this is an opportunity for you to correct them, or you concealed the full extent of the budget cut."

Councillor Charmley said: "When we talked about a 25 per cent cut, this has always been in the context of the cuts implemented to revenue budget last year, as that is what we were being asked at that time and that was across the whole service.

"The figures the Ramblers have identified is service reductions to only rights of way over a longer period of time. We are committed in maintaining and increasing the accessibility of our countryside routes."