After £3 million, Access Project Failed to Deliver a Single Goal – Says CLA

A multi million pound project to unearth discarded and disused rights of way looks set to be ditched – thanks to a campaign led by the Country Land and Business Association.

The Discovering Lost Ways project was a £15m flag ship scheme dreamt up by the Countryside Agency to rediscover and re-open long forgotten byways, drove roads and other ancient routes across the countryside. The CLA condemned it from the outset and argued instead for investment in modernisation and positive improvements to the rights of way network.

CLA President, Henry Aubrey-Fletcher, said:" After five years and more than £3m of public funds, the project has failed to deliver one single route onto the definitive There could not be a more damning outcome for this project or a clearer vindication of our arguments."

The CLA, he said, had kept the pressure on since Discovering Lost Ways was handed over to Natural England a year ago - and that NE now appeared to have accepted the arguments and was poised to cut its losses and recommend that the project should be shelved.

"This project was based on some pretty dubious assumptions about the number of ancient routes which existed, how easy it would be to find and re-open them and whether there was any real public demand. The outcome could only ever have resulted in chaos and confrontation and the reality proved to be a hugely expensive and wholly ineffective exercise driven up the political agenda by minority single interest groups.

"The routes they sought to rediscover had become lost because they were no longer needed and no longer relevant . If this project is scrapped it will be a major success for common sense and reason - but we need to move on and start tackling the real issues within the access debate."

The CLA president said that rights of way had suffered from half a century of under-funding and Natural England should focus on the problems, shortfalls and anomalies of the current network and concentrate on solutions which will enable the delivery of a properly funded, high quality 21st Century access experience based on genuine demand and sound management principles.