Overview

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Cleaner, greener and safer environments that people can access and enjoy are consistently rated as an important issue in surveys, offering health benefits for physical, mental relaxation as well as encouraging investment and discouraging crime.

In terms of Public Rights of Way (PROW) the County's performance is measured through the national best value performance indicator 178 - ease of use of PROW against agreed criteria.

BVPI 178 gives a quantifiable figure of how easy the public find it to access the rights of way network in the county.  This obviously has an impact not only on how easy the communities of Worcestershire can access thwir own countryside and natural heritage but also has obvious links to health agendas (i.e. obesity)

The indicator is the total length of rights of way, which were easy to use, as a percentage of the total length of all rights of way. Rights of way appear on the definitive map of public rights of way for the highway authority area and are numbered. ‘Easy to use’ means

i) signposted or waymarked where they leave the road in accordance with the authority’s duty under s.27 of the Countryside Act 1968 and the extent necessary to allow users to follow the path (a public right of way wholly within a built up area and with a hard surface provided along its complete length and with a clearly defined route may be excluded from the measurement); ii) free from unlawful obstructions and other interference, (including overhanging vegetation) to the public’s right of passage; iii) surface and lawful barriers (e.g. stiles, gates) in good repair and to a standard necessary to enable the public to use the way without undue inconvenience.