SO, just how easy is it to report ‘issues’ with a public right of way? It’s not...

Armed with my OS Map app, I come across lots of ‘issues’ - the beauty of the app, is there is no argument you can see exactly where the path ought to be, even when there appears to be no sign of a stile, gate or gap in a wall.

And there are lots. There are very few signs, in my experience, away from the most popular routes of course. I don’t mind that as much, map reading skills will sort that out, and as long as you have reception, and remember to download before you head out, map apps are an enormous help. But what does annoy me is barbed wire over a path, or an impossible to climb wall for anyone but the most agile, not to mention if you have a dog with you.

And really, woe betide anyone responsible for the collapse of a farmer’s wall by trying to clamber over it.

So, faced with a wall and wire at the top where a stile ought to have been, I took photos, included the grid reference, OS map number and parish, and sent it off to the email address on the North Yorkshire County Council website.

The response? I’d not included enough detail and unless I did, my case would be closed in four weeks.

There was nothing to say what details I’d missed off just a link directing me back to the website.

I did eventually succeed in getting all the necessary information and have been told my case is being investigated and will in all likelihood result in the landowner being contacted - I await to see what action, if any will be taken; and I do wonder if it’s a case of the council relying on the co-operation of the landowner to rectify a situation that may well have been ongoing for very many years.

On its ‘rights of way maintenance’ page, North Yorkshire says landowners, the council and the public all have responsibilities to do with public rights of way. I fully appreciate the responsibilities of the public, leaving gates as you find them, not damaging crops, and taking litter home , but what about the landowners?

It is the landowners responsibility to maintain stiles and gates, and the council says all rights of way should be signposted where they leave roads - it is currently replacing all missing and damaged ones, and asks that people report those that it has missed.

Outside the national parks, maintenance of rights of way is taken care of by countryside access officers, area rangers and a team of countryside volunteers.

The work includes repairing broken stiles and gates, and the installing of signposts and waymarks; they also liaise with landowners in a bid to resolve problems, check obstructions and survey paths. Volunteers are very much part of what the council does with its rights of way; and once upon a time, parish councils would ‘walk’ rights of way in its patch, making sure they were passable - perhaps some still do.

Like with so many things, it will be a matter of resources why not every right of way in the county is routinely checked, and it will be up to the public to keep an eye on routes and report any issues; otherwise, all we will be left with will be the most popular of paths, and they will become over walked, which isn’t a good thing for anyone.

MEANWHILE, my attempt to walking 2,000 miles in 2022 rattles on apace, and so nicely in fact that I have now increased it to 2,022 miles.

At time of writing, June 8, I had completed 927 miles - just need to cross the 1,000 mark by the end of June.

To give it a bit of a boost, I spent the Saturday of the Platinum Jubilee weekend walking the Yorkshire Three Peaks with my 22 year old son.

It was very quiet, apart from around Ribblehead, and we managed it in three minutes under 11 hours, and that was with a dash - or more accurately on my part, a shambling jog, to the finish at Horton Train Station.

My FitBit tells me it is 28 miles, so a bit longer than my usual walk, and of course, there is the added excitement of Penyghent, Whernside and Ingleborough. The Saturday was very windy, which had me on my hands and knees on the final scramble to the top of Ingleborough, really did not want to get blown off.

As with every time I have climbed the peaks, either together, or separately, I spotted a small child dashing up one of the peaks in wellies, completely nonplussed, and was also passed by a family of five with the dad carrying a substantial toddler on his back. There was also the family of four, with grumpy teenager trailing several feet behind and hating every minute of it. My son, as we approached Horton, announced he’d be going for a run once we got home to ‘stretch his legs’.

I am raising money for the Alzheimer’s Society, and Craven’s two fell rescue teams ,Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association, and the Cave Rescue Organisation.

You can donate online for: Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/lesley-tate1

For the Alzheimer’s Society: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/lesley-tate2

And for Cave Rescue Organisation: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/lesley-tate3

FINALLY, I could not let the Diamond Jubilee celebrations go by without mentioning an item included in the Craven Herald’s reporting of the actual coronation itself, in June, 1953.

A member of Barnoldswick Urban District Council at a meeting in Coronation week took exception to the tatty ashtrays in the council chamber - battered and broken by years of service.

The good councillor posed the question - did such ashtrays uphold the dignity of the council, and others, felt like him, it certainly did not.

The council decided to replace the ashtrays with new ones - as a souvenir of the Coronation, and so they would ‘go down in posterity’. I wonder if they still exist somewhere.