Agenda item

·         Silence Mine Direction

·         Green Lanes

Silence Mine Direction

Following the consultation, Sue Smith confirmed the extension of the restriction of open access at this site through to April 2025. She thanked the LAF for its response to the consultation, and confirmed that there would be continued monitoring of the instability of the land in and around the mine, as well as consideration of the impacts of the restriction on the adjacent highway and the Restricted Byway/ public footpath that run across the site.  The PDNPA will continue to liaise with DCC on this matter.

Speaker – Sue Woods – Green Lane Alliance

The National Park Management Plan (2023-28) sets out aims and objectives for natural beauty, assisting nature recovery, tranquillity and reducing carbon emissions, and any actions on Green Lanes needs to be consistent with these objectives.  Enjoyment, protection and access have to be balanced against each other.  There is no Green Lane Action Plan for the year ahead.  Neither is there a report on last year’s plan, so the public can’t assess the effectiveness of how well the PDNPA is doing to look after Green Lanes. Will the work on Green Lanes be discontinued and will the LAF be happy with that?  Sue Woods stated that if the work is to stop, then the LAF should ask for a detailed Rights of Way programme for the coming year, which states where Green Lane work sits within that plan.

Louise Hawson thanked Sue Woods for her contribution, and said the points raised would be picked up in Item 6 - Access Update.

Green Lanes

Over the last year there has been a comprehensive scheme of maintenance of routes, including a number of Green Lanes.  There will be further details about this under agenda item 7, but Staffordshire County Council has also been involved in a programme of repairs.  This has improved accessibility generally and the 2022-2023 Action Plans are in place until the end of 2023.  The work on Green Lanes has been incorporated into the Recreation Hub work with an update being provided to the next LAF meeting. Sue reported on the results of the latest ease of use survey on rights of way within the National Park, with a score of 82% of routes being found to be easy to use. An update was given about the Access Fund, which is used to improve access and accessibility in the National Park.  Money comes in from donations via the PDNP Foundation and from sales of the Miles Without Stiles Guidebook.  Yorkshire Water’s sponsorship has enabled a reprint of the Miles Without Stiles Guidebook.

Charlotte Gilbert queried progress on Swan Rake and Limers Rake at Hollinsclough, as she is involved in putting together a Heritage Lottery bid which will be used to make bridleway improvements at Washgate.  Works have been done on the Derbyshire side and they want to replicate that on the Staffordshire side. It would be good to know when Swan and Limers Rakes are going to re-open, as they link into the network around that area.  Charlotte wanted to know what measures would be in place to ensure further damage doesn’t occur on the Rakes, for example, is Staffordshire CC likely to confirm the route as a bridleway.

Sue Smith stated that she didn’t have a specific update for Swan and Limers Rakes, but emphasised that the maintenance scheme was comprehensive and that work was ongoing, and at significant cost. Louise asked if the Forum could raise the issue with Staffordshire CC. John Towe mentioned that bridle gates aren’t good for wheelchair users, to which Charlotte advised that the design of the gates was being looked at.

Austin Knott updated the group that the works on Swan and Limers Rakes had been paused, but had started again recently, with the aim of completing in the autumn.

Jez Kenyon, on the subject of Miles without Stiles, said quite a lot of stiles aren’t very user friendly.  Sue Smith added that, as an example, Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) was only providing funding for gates rather than stiles.

It was agreed that the LAF would write to Staffordshire CC to ask for an update on repairs to Swan and Limer Rakes, and the overall Green Lanes maintenance programme.