From: Brian D Finch
To: Herald
Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2007 2:10 PM
Subject: Glasgow Core Paths Plan
Brian D Finch
Maryhill
Glasgow
Tuesday 7th August 2007
Dear Sir,
On reading the expansive, and presumably expensive, Glasgow City Council produced glossy document entitled Glasgow Core Paths Plan: Consultative Draft (consisting of one page listing the contents, plus seven pages of text and colour photographs, one mapping index sheet and fifty-eight pages of single-side printed maps, plus one double-sided comment form and one page of notes for completing said comment form) I am immediately struck by the extreme paucity of the information contained therein. Apparently this Core Paths Plan was drawn up in response to the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 which placed the duty on (all?) local authorities of drawing up a plan for a system of paths '...sufficient for the purpose of giving the public reasonable access throughout their area'. The intention is that core paths will be: 'Sign posted, Well maintained, Barrier free, Monitored, Inspected on a regular basis and, Continually improved'.
Disturbingly, though the text states: 'A Right of Way may become Core Path but not all will; it depends on the outcome of this consultation process', I can find no other mention of public Rights of Way anywhere in the entire document - and certainly not in any of the maps. Why not? Is the intention to replace in the public consciousness the concept of rights of way with that of core paths 'giving' access - which gift might subsequently be bureaucratically revoked, whenever it is felt desirable so to do, by those who consider themselves to be our masters?
Given that the public consultation period (which ends on Friday 31st August) is almost halfway through, the City Council do not seem to have been diligent in bringing this plan to public notice. I have found a few copies of the plan in Hillhead Library and none in Maryhill. As far as I am aware, they are not on public display in the Mitchell Library. Why not? Are there pallets loaded with boxes of these books piled high in warehouses, ready to be pulped when this sham consultation is concluded?
Yours sincerely,
Brian D Finch