West Essex member Essex Ramblers, Len Banister, has issued a challenge to the newly-appointed Superintendent of Epping Forest, Jacqueline Eggleston, citing 'major concerns' over the state of walking paths in the forest.
Says Len: "Over the past two years the quality of walking in the forest has declined steeply. Many paths have become impassable due to reduced maintenance, the use of heavy contract vehicles and inadequate ranger numbers. But the main difficulty for walkers, especially in the winter months, is the destruction wrought by cyclists.Whereas a few years ago walkers could travel whole stretches of the forest using secondary paths which were little more than animal tracks, nowadays this option is closed to them. These paths are being destroyed. Even when the ground is just damp, they become uncomfortably rutted. When wet they are reduced to quagmires. The legacy of this damage is carried on to the summer as the ground hardens," He continued: "We now have a forest-wide destruction of paths and habitat. In the past, many of these problems would have been picked up by keepers who would have patrolled on foot or horse. Now keeper numbers have been reduced and they have been given police-style cars. They have additional duties looking after car parks and thus have less time to report the condition of the forest." Len has suggested that vital measures must be taken to ameliorate the situation for walkers, flora and fauna.These include: -
- keepers should produce an inventory of the condition of all the forest paths, primary and secondary
- cyclists are directed to rides and restricted from other areas in the same way as horse-riders
- several areas are allocated or created where mountain- biking can take place.