News Archive (Oct 2013)

Why do we always have to go into the countryside to enjoy walking ?

As already announced, the next Chesterfield Area Walking Festival is to take place from 10-18 May next year. We’re glad to be associated with this and plan to once again play a significant role in leading walks and checking that rights of way are passable on them.
We’ve great countryside in the Chesterfield area, as well as being close to the Peak, but can’t walking in a town be made a bit more enjoyable ?
The problem is fairly obvious.
In common with many towns we have not made much serious provision for pleasant, safe pedestrian or cycle routes in urban areas to replace the paths we had before they were covered by modern development.

Town centre footpaths don’t have to be like this

There has not been a lack of vision.
One version of the Chesterfield Masterplan of October, 2009 refers to ‘greening’ our river corridors.
Unfortunately this is often firmly associated with commercial developments such as the ‘Waterside’ project, which in a time of economic stringency may take some time to be accomplished.

Surely the time has come to break the links and consider the cheaper option of simply developing footpaths (and cycle tracks) from outlying areas to the town centre ? River courses for example are often ready made for such routes and (where flooding is a constant risk) are unsuitable for anything other than pathways.
The future development of the Avenue site at Wingerworth is a case in point. The Rother makes its way from there towards the town centre and in fact does provide a footpath / cycle way for part of the way between Storforth Lane and Jawbones Hill on Derby Road. None of this area however is a ‘right of way.’
For a fraction of the cost it takes to build new roads or high speed railways we could develop pathways by river courses and designate them ‘rights of way’ – rather than seeing ever more traffic unleashed on to areas like Derby Road.

There are four excellent reasons for doing this, and by-passing congested car routes wherever possible.

1. The cost of energy rises much faster than inflation or wages each year. This is unlikely to change. We have to face the fact that eventually we must cut back on car usage for our relatively short journeys. It’s not rocket science.
2. Even if by some miracle cheap renewable energy sources quickly arrived there is a limit to how many vehicles we can accommodate in town and city centres.
3. Few people deny that motorised transport contributes to pollution and global warming.
4. A lack of exercise and an increase in obesity is creating a huge public and private health issue for the future. We need to walk more. Join the Ramblers

Let’s enjoy each walking festival – but for those who want to leave their home and walk / cycle directly to either town or country, we need to make it a possibility and convert a vision into reality. Talk to your local councillor and let’s start to get walking on the agenda.