Footpaths and Walking
Coaley Parish Council is fully supportive of walking both as a recreational pursuit as well as a simple way for parishioners to maintain or improve their physical health and mental well-‐being.
The Parish has an extensive network of paths and these provide many opportunities for attractive short strolls, but the network also links to neighbouring parishes and to the Cotswold escarpment for longer walks. Indeed the recently designated Lantern Way is a 14 mile route that connects Coaley with Uley, Cam and Dursley.
Such longer walks are popular with visitors to the area and this can bring extra people in to use and help sustain local facilities such as the shop and pub. There are a number of existing walks from the Railway Station that will soon be publicised on the Dursley Wecomes Walkers website. This could help bring more walkers through the village.
All the benefits and enjoyment that walking can bring will only be achievable if the local footpaths are passable and stiles and gates are easy and safe to use.
Where are the local paths?
All the public rights of way in the parish are shown on the Definitive Map of Rights of Way. This is the responsibility of Gloucestershire County Highway Authority. The Definitive Map can be viewed by following the link below. Once you have opened the map just zoom in to Coaley. You’ll see that each path has a separate number to identify it.
http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/roads-parking-and-rights-of-way/publi…
Problems and Maintenance
In order to keep the network of paths safe and usable the Parish Council will work with landowners to try and ensure the footpath network is well maintained and improved.
If you are out on a walk and find a problem, please let the Parish Council know by sending an e-‐mail to the Parish Clerk identifying the path number, location and detail of the problem. If you wish you can report a problem direct to the County Council via the following link:
http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/roads-parking-and-rights-of-way/publi…
The Parish Council will liaise with the landowner and the County Council’s Public Rights of Way Team to try and resolve the issue.
Local Walks
The Parish Council intend, in due course, to include some suggested walks on this web page. These will all start in Coaley and be of different lengths to help encourage enjoyable and healthy walking. If you have a favourite route you’d like to share with others please send the details through to the Parish Clerk.
You can access walks in the surrounding area via the following links:
http://www.dursleywelcomeswalkers.btck.co.uk/
http://www.cotswoldsaonb.org.uk/explore-and-enjoy/what-to-see-do/
http://gloucestershireramblers.org.uk/grwalks/
http://www.strollinginstrouddistrict.org/downloadablewalks.asp
Future Improvements
Introducing improvements to make walking more easy and enjoyable is something the Parish Council will promote. In particular, easy to use kissing gates can help less able people and the elderly to remain more active and healthy. The Parish Council will seek to identify funds to help improve the path network locally. Your suggestions for where improvements would be of most benefit would be welcome.