To just ask you all to either wear some proper wellies and walk on the footpath, or stick to the sodding pavements

[flamingflamingos]

This is my field. It's winter wheat - it's been ploughed and pressed and drilled and rolled and just as it's starting to grow into what will be harvested for flour to produce bread, the general public have trampled it into the ground.

I understand the need to get outside, absolutely I support this country's network of footpaths - we have 6km of footpaths on this farm which are maintained so that everyone can enjoy the countryside.

But this is taking the piss. If you don't want to walk in the mud, don't walk in the countryside in January. Please, stop this. We are all accountable for how we behave.

Please god don't tarmac the paths and start fencing all the walks in - that's just turning a rural area into an urban one.

That Liverpool picture is shocking, I so hope this is just a temporary problem, people will soon get sick of the mud hopefully

@CrotchBurn

Well I hope all these outraged country folk remember their haughtiness when we get back to normal and they come lumbering down for a "day out in the big city". Maybe they can start reading up on things like not standing gormlessly two abreast on the escalators and spending 20 min staring slack mouthed at ticket machines while the rest of us wait politely so we can get about making OUR living

Oh, like the Londoners I see on an almost daily basis?

CrotchBurn

You sound a delight

@CrotchBurn

Well I hope all these outraged country folk remember their haughtiness when we get back to normal and they come lumbering down for a "day out in the big city". Maybe they can start reading up on things like not standing gormlessly two abreast on the escalators and spending 20 min staring slack mouthed at ticket machines while the rest of us wait politely so we can get about making OUR living

🤣 - a nerve has definitely been touched here!

I thought I was the only one moaning about people walking where they like. I never used to see anyone where I walk, and now there are loads - and yes, the footpath is all muddy, and yes, most people are making a new track in a DIFFERENT field on the other side of the hedge! AND traipsing through the crops when they spy someone (me) with the plague. They should all stay on pavement in town if they don't want mud! Rant over!

I lived and worked in London for 20 years. Perfectly capable of conducting myself properly on escalators and around ticket machines. It’s normally the suited and booted who annoyed me there as too busy staring at their bloody phones to be considerate in escalator etiquette etc!

I do not understand how farmers, out of all landowners, cannot fence their own land. Its tax deductible for them too. It's just part of responsible land ownership

We don't have any fences on our farm. Our fields are all bordered by dry stone walls.

If we fenced all the footpaths on our land it would create tiny little fields within fields. They wouldn't be practical, how would we get in with a tractor at hay time for example?

Why are farmers having to go to the expense of fencing footpaths because the general public can't stick to footpaths.

Additionally we farm a lot of open moorland. You aren't allowed to fence it and we don't own it. The law is very clear that in bird nesting season dogs must be kept in leads in the area. Almost no one respects that and bird numbers have dropped significantly as dog walkers have increased over the years.

The way it's farmed hasn't changed at all, it's in every environment scheme going. We regularly see people miles from the footpath with dogs running loose and disturbing the wildlife. People just don't care.

It's easier to blame farmers than take personal responsibility it seems.

@Stellaroses

If there is no public right of way there, then yanbu. If that’s a footpath that’s been enlarged by people going round or all-nighter side by side (and presumably there’s not a clear “path” marked out) then I’m sorry then I couldn’t get worked up about it. Mark out your “in use” area. Have lived in the country all my life.

If you have lived in the countryside all of your life then you know that's not how public footpaths work!

Any sogn marking the area aimmdeiately adjacent to a footpath will cause all sorts of issues.. and farmers use footpaths too, to turn vehicles at the egdes; cross them if the path goes through the middle of a field etc.

And anyone using a footpath has the responsibility to use it properly. That responsibility is part and parcel of the right to use it!

I've stopped using most of the footpaths and forestry trails over the last year. There are far too many clueless people wrecking the verges, car parks and pathways. And that's before you get to the litter...

@GreenlandTheMovie,

Farmers don’t automatically fence footpath (not their land btw, the footpath is PART OF their land and walkers are on private land) because
1- it’s expensive. It’s not just the fence and maintaining it. It’s also then having to maintain the path SEPARATELY
2- sometime the path is in the middle of the field so it’s just not possible.
3- why should the onus be on the landowner and not the walkers? The current system was devised at a time when people would have ‘known’ not to walk on crops. As people are getting more selfish/ignorant of the rules, then maybe we neeed some adaptations to the rules re footpath. Maybe we could let landowners close those paths when having walkers is detrimental to their business? Instead of asking those farmers to make yet more investments whilst people carry on disrespecting their work.

@Mysterian

I'm not talking about surfacing the footpath. I'm talking about making it level, and adding a sprinkle of gravel on top to give the surface some grip so people don't slide about making it even muddier.

Ha ha ha ha!

That's not what a footpath is. Really! It isn't. That you think that's a reasonable suggestion illustrates the lack of information many have about how such things work!

@CrotchBurn

Well I hope all these outraged country folk remember their haughtiness when we get back to normal and they come lumbering down for a "day out in the big city". Maybe they can start reading up on things like not standing gormlessly two abreast on the escalators and spending 20 min staring slack mouthed at ticket machines while the rest of us wait politely so we can get about making OUR living

I'm a "city folk" and I positively do all these things. Especially "spending 20 minutes slack mouthed at ticket machines"

Am I a country folk trapped in a city folk's body?

Should I relocate to the countryside?🤣🤣🤣

This is awful! What is wrong with people? There's a gorgeous park and farmland just across from our house and it's the same there with the added bonus of dog shit on the floor and also occasionally hung from trees in bags. I will never understand this behaviour. You have my sympathy 💐.

@Stellaroses, you realise that the land on the footpath is part of the farmers land and you are on private property right?

What is so hard to understand that you seem to think farmers are not worthy of you respecting their property and work?

That's terrible. We live rurally too and see this happen a lot. Genuine question- one of our farmers plants over the footpath every year. What's the etiquette? Walk on the footpath or through the track lines?
It's annoying he does it but I'm not an asshole so not going to deliberately trample all over his crop

The surface of footpaths need to be maintained.

Farmers regularly drive tractors over footpaths, not simply making them muddy but impassable. If footpaths were maintained with a surface that it is possible to walk on, your problem would not be solved but it would be greatly reduced.

@NettleTea

They are not shrubs, they are some weeds.

poles and wire. you need a pole every 3 meters. Thats 2000 posts for OPs 6km of footpath assuming its all in one straight run. You need strainers, and corners and possibly gates.

plus the cost of the contractors to put it in which is a ball park figure of about £5 per meter to supply and fit

You are probably looking at about £30k right there at a minimum. Plus any environmental subsidies are going to be recalculated to remove the area now fenced, so lets say a 2m wide strip for 6km - thats 12,000 meters square or 1.2 hectares of subsidy which, depending upon what option the fields fall into, could be several hundred pounds per year.

Well said

[quote TonMoulin]@Stellaroses, you realise that the land on the footpath is part of the farmers land and you are on private property right?

What is so hard to understand that you seem to think farmers are not worthy of you respecting their property and work?[/quote]
I think this is a common misunderstanding.

People think rights of way across land means that the footpath is publicly owned, I genuinely believe many don't realise that a right of way just allows them to cross land in a particular place to get from A to B. Most rights of way exist from when people mostly travelled in foot, they were for the postman to get to farmsteads or the children to get to school. The intention was never that they became public property.

Much like if you have access across your neighbours garden to put the bins out, it doesn't mean you can also set up a table and a paddling pool.

Our local area has a "footpath warden" which at first made me laugh but actually he's quite handy. He made a plea on Facebook for some old planks of wood and got them for free. He's placed them at the corners of the worst fields (with the farmers permission of course!) and this has stopped people going into the field. He takes them up when it's harvest time etc and places them on the side. There are solutions. Or you could just roar offfff my land at the oldies who a walk through the countryside is their last bit of joy but who worry about sliding into a ditch. Or better you could electrocute them! We always have a choice to work with and within our communities or against them.

@Mysterian

I'm not talking about surfacing the footpath. I'm talking about making it level, and adding a sprinkle of gravel on top to give the surface some grip so people don't slide about making it even muddier.

Out of interest, have you ever tried to surface a footpath on clay soil. Sprinkling some gravel will have a very minimal effect and might last a week if you are lucky.

Hardcoring a path in a way that will actually last is a big job, usually involving heavy machinery, and would almost certainly mean the path was impassible whilst it was being done. And it costs £££, for six miles of paths it wouldn't be viable for the OP. And AFIAK, it can't be easily done when the soil is this wet.

I think, to be honest, in winters like this, people have to accept some rights of way are not fully passable- just as they would not be during e.g. a flood. As a rider, there are bridleways I don't use during winter because I know the ground will be too muddy, and it's better to leave them and have them passable for the other 9/10 months of the year.

Electric fencing is a good shout, OP, and it's obviously not illegal- I know lots of people who fence their horses off footpaths (sometimes double fence to avoid people feeding) with electric fencing.

@Uhhuhoyaye

The surface of footpaths need to be maintained.

Farmers regularly drive tractors over footpaths, not simply making them muddy but impassable. If footpaths were maintained with a surface that it is possible to walk on, your problem would not be solved but it would be greatly reduced.

Really

The surface of public rights of way do not need to be 'maintained'. It's not a park, it's farmland that you have the right of way to cross should you need to. We can't block it but it's not our job to keep your shoes clean.

Several footpaths on our land quite sensibly follow the cart tracks that have been used for generations to move between fields. We still use those cart tracks for their intended purpose, of course we drive on them with tractors, how else do you suggest we get silage out to sheep in winter or make hay in summer?

I repeat again, it is our land. That we farm. Often with tractors. We can drive tractors wherever we need to, the footpaths are permissive only and do not give the public the right to treat private land like a public amenity

We live in rural Gloucestershire, and most footpaths around the village look exactly the same sadly.

Lockdown has meant that everyone now "has" to walk all of a sudden; and there are so many more dogs in the village.

@Uhhuhoyaye

The surface of footpaths need to be maintained.

Farmers regularly drive tractors over footpaths, not simply making them muddy but impassable. If footpaths were maintained with a surface that it is possible to walk on, your problem would not be solved but it would be greatly reduced.

All of this is perfectly legal. The only thing that's not legal is obstructing the footpath.

@GreenlandTheMovie the path in the photo is now fenced, with electric.

But your post is very simplistic. Asides from the reasons I've already stated, fencing footpaths is in no ones interesting. Until coronavirus, the vast majority of footpath users were responsible and respectful.

Fencing the path makes for a less enjoyable walk, surely? It also means that more of the field will be out of production due to machinery workings too close to the fence line, but mostly it's just unnecessary? The only "fenced" footpath we have is down the side of a grass field that is grazed permanently with belties, because our personal feeling is that young cows and members of the general public are a dangerous combination.

If farmers were to act in a responsible way and footpath users were to act responsibly, no one would need to be annoyed. There is no need to insult one another on a forum.

@CrotchBurn I do actually work from that London from time to time and I do manage it in a fairly non-clampit fashion. There's no need to be rude to everyone just because you've outed yourself as a muppet.

To be honest, if most footpaths have served their purpose for the last 50 years and farmers and walkers in 'normal' times have been in accordance with each other, this just has to be put down to the extraordinary times we are living in at the moment. No, it's not right or fair, but it is likely to be temporary.

Your arrogance & entitlement is extraordinary. Don't damage footpaths so they cant be walked on. Or if you do, repair them so they can. Take responsibility for your actions.

It is a criminal offence to disturb the surface of a footpath which driving a tractor etc over it often does.
People shouldn't walk over your farm damaging tour crops etc, but you shouldn't damage footpaths.

The Highways Act 1980
131A Disturbance of surface of certain highways.

(1)A person who, without lawful authority or excuse, so disturbs the surface of—

(a)a footpath,

(b)a bridleway, or

(c)any other highway which consists of or comprises a carriageway other than a made-up carriageway,

as to render it inconvenient for the exercise of the public right of way is guilty of an offence