Wander round the Warren
Ashford Warren which is a Local Nature Reserve (LNR) and
a Site of Nature Conservation Interest (SNCI) located on the edge of
Ashford has seen a flurry of activity over recent months. With help and
funding from Ashford Borough Council, KSCP and the volunteers have helped
to create glades, cut the meadow area, clear bracken and invasive scrub,
install waymarkers and bollards, and tidy up rubbish. Further work is
planned for this popular site, which will be aimed at improving the access
for visitors and the habitat for wildlife.
‘Step into the Garden of England’
Be on the look out for information about the Kent
Walking Festival 4th-12th September. Southeast
counties alternate the running of this festival and this year it is being
held in the Maidstone and Canterbury Districts. KSCP will be running three
walks for the festival based around the orchards of Chartham, King’s
Wood and an 11 mile walk along the Stour Valley Walk from Fordwich and
back through the villages of the Little Stour. For further information
contact Kent Walking Festival, Kent County Council, 2nd Floor, Invicta
House, Maidstone ME14 1XX - Tel no 01622 696403 E-mail: walkingfestival@kent.gov.uk
www.kentwalkingfestival.co.uk
Full steam ahead with ROWIP!
As part of the CROW act (Countryside & Rights of
Way) Local Authorities are being asked to produce a Rights of Way
Improvement Plan (ROWIP). Kent has over 4,000 miles of Rights of Way and
Kent County Council has set up a team of people to produce this plan. This
could be the answer to a lot of people’s dreams with the opportunity to
provide new link routes, remove unused paths, and improve existing rights
of way. The plan will need considerable funding and the local authorities
will need a new determination to succeed. Lets hope, for example, that all
those circuitous cycle routes using PROW are improved, with more direct
routes achieved through the plan.
Safe routes to schools
Did you know that 90% of children in Denmark cycle to
school and that the figure in the UK is 2%! Also a greater percentage of
UK children have bikes than ever before. There are perhaps some obvious
reasons such as the topography of the two countries that goes some way to
explain the marked difference but surely not an 88% difference. The
government and highways authorities could certainly do a lot more to
provide safer routes to schools and perhaps some parents should look at
how easier it would be for their children to cycle to school.
