Using an online mapping tool provided by the Ramblers charity, members of the public have traced myriad former rights of way that had literally fallen off the map. Paths that hosted drovers and their livestock, old routes to historic sites and overgrown coastal routes have all been rediscovered. The government has established a deadline of 2026, after which unrecorded routes will be lost as public rights of way for ever. The scramble is therefore on to submit legal applications to register the lost paths. Some countryside campaigners have warned that clearing old paths would disturb what have become natural habitats for wildlife.

Source: The Guardian November 03, 2020 18:51 UTC