Public footpaths are a disgrace

Many thanks for this, Simon.  How nice of you to write.

I have just written this, below, to a friend (using your helpful website) who is similarly browned off with decades of neglect of Dudley's public footpath network in an important area that is the foothills of the Clent Hills Country Park.  Dudley is part of the Black Country that is like living in the stone age!  70 years ago they demolished the whole tram network and then started on the railway network by thinking that their train lines were meant to have cars and buildings running down them; and, since the 90s, that the tram network was meant to be rebuilt on them - as is now happening with our very last railway line and the most important!

"Please email Dudley Council Plus and Kevin and Heidi, above (as I have done with this email) who are both top officers at Dudley Council and are responsible for the increasing difficulty that many have in getting over ancient stiles without steps.  All of us OAPs are losing the right to roam because of access difficulties from our infirmities!  Kevin and Heidi are supposed to have £9,500 to spend in Dudley only, since last year but, I still cannot see any improvement whatsoever in our 32 sq Kms Clent Hills Regional Park, enclosed by the three main roads! "SOME BACKGROUND https://www.gov.uk/guidance/public-rights-of-way-landowner-responsibilities#problems-with-public-rights-of-way This government guidance from Natural England suggests that landowners are responsible for the upkeep of public rights of way with their stiles and bridges.  However, since the 1980s, the councils have relied on individual volunteers and voluntary groups rather than making landowners do the job.  When I put in two really hefty waymarking posts that were 10 feet in length, as part of the NW Worcestershire Urban Fringe Countryside Action Project (UFCAP) in the 80s and 90s, the farmer soon came along and removed them!  And, this was an official, professionally organised Footpath Improvement Programme in association with Dudley and Worcestershire Councils.  Since then, virtually nothing and many stiles and bridges have become dangerous to use. "More people need to write to ask for rural stiles and bridges to be properly maintained.  The farmers and landowners will not do it without legal enforcement action that councils do not do, it seems." Very many thanks, Simon for writing.  Please tell me what you think, what your experiences are or, where you stand on what you've read from me.