Re: Disabled folks and RoW

turtill@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 00:42:20 GMT, Palindrome <me9@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

turtill@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:14:51 GMT, Palindrome <me9@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
<snip>
Styles are one thing. But a tarmac'ed path up the side of a Dartmoor stream, with bridges across every gully, no.
I have mislead you again. I am only talking of RoW. I must remember to
make myself clearer when posting.
I'm talking about public footpaths and pack-horse trails across Dartmoor. Signposted RoW.

The problem isn't so much mud as foot-deep water - where a stream crosses the path, there may be stepping stones. Or a clapper bridge. Or just the water. Where a tor is encountered, roughly quarried "steps" with narrow gullies crossing them and gaps where a boulder has rolled out. Many can't even be navigated with a mountain bike, let alone a wheelchair..

Well mountain bikes shouldn't be on Footpaths so maybe you are talking
about Bridleways or even BOATS. If a RoW is obstructed the obstruction
should be cleared. I don't think many crips are going to want to
travel through foot deep water.


It is those sorts of paths that *are* being converted into tarmac'ed paths, with wooden bridges across the streams and back and forth ramps on the steep bits.. Why? Disabled access... The council, with EU money, has just spent 450,00GBP on one 5 mile stretch. Go figure. Phase 2 will add another 5 miles. Including adding street lamps in places..

If the Council owns the RoW it can improve it however it wants. If
they want to put bridges across steams good for them. The Council will
have been elected and therefore it has a mandate. Why are you so
opposed to crips enjoying Dartmore? You enjoy it so why shouldn't a
crip?

The disabled can enjoy it - as you wrote yourself, they get the able-bodied to help them across natural obstacles. Must the same as even the most able-bodied use Sherpas to get up Everest - there is nothing wrong with getting help to overcome something that cannot be overcome without it.

Once altered, no one can enjoy it, because the very unspoilt beauty that it once had is no longer there to enjoy.

A hillside with only trees and gorse is beautiful. A hillside with the trees and gorse cleared and a zig-zag path, complete with safety barriers, steel hand rails, warning signs and lighting is many things, including wheel-chair friendly, but it certainly isn't unspoilt beauty.

A moorland stream, flowing in a setting much the same as it has for hundreds of years, is beautiful. Put a tarmac path down both sides and an alien lump of wood and steel of a bridge across - and it is not.

If you can't get to a beauty spot unaided - use help to get there. Leave it as you found it. People's children's children will be able to do the same.

--
Sue
.

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