Over the coming months, once lockdown has eased, you’ll probably be hearing a lot more about the Slow Ways project. This is a nationwide scheme to map out all the footpaths and rights of way that link towns, villages and cities across the UK.
At this week’s Full Council meeting on 2nd March, Town Councillors unanimously passed a formal motion to support Slow Ways and committed to promoting the project for local residents to walk, review and use the routes, joining a growing number of other councils and organisations across the UK.
During the first lockdown, 700 Slow Ways volunteers across the UK carried out a massive desktop exercise to map the potential routes linking all communities in the UK, around 7,000 miles in total.
The next stage is to walk all of these to check their suitability. Unfortunately this is currently on hold because of the pandemic, but they hope to pick up again as soon as we come out of lockdown.
The Bradford on Avon Walkers are Welcome group has already signed up to help out with the project and we know of a lot of local people who have offered to help as individuals.
Richard Craft, Chair of BoA Walkers Are Welcome, told us:
“This is a fantastic project with so many health, leisure and social benefits. We’re thrilled to be involved and it will be something to really look forward to once we’re able to get out and about more.
Walking has proved to be a saviour for many people over the past year and we’re hoping that projects like this will encourage people to keep this up and walk even more.
The BoA Walking Wheel has proved how much people value clearly identified routes as it gives them the confidence to widen their walking horizons and explore further afield.”
The Slow Ways website has lots more information and lists benefits such as:
The Mayor of Bradford on Avon, Cllr Simon McNeill-Ritchie, who introduced the project at the Full Council meeting, said:
“This is an exciting project to map out the whole of the UK with walkers in mind, and it’s also a brilliant opportunity for us to raise the profile of Bradford on Avon as part of our town’s economic recovery from the past twelve months. I am personally looking forward to discovering new routes both nearby, and further afield, once government restrictions ease.”
If you’d like to find out more and sign up to help discover and map out local routes go to: https://slowways.uk/
