You’re out for a walk, following the route on the OS Map when suddenly you reach a field stretching before you, a plain brown uninviting expanse. You check your map and GPS – yes, there should be a path here. We’ve probably all faced this scenario. And that’s what the Ploughing and Cropping Campaign is designed to prevent.
Fortunately, most farmers and landowners are conscious of their legal obligations to restore a Right of Way (ROW) to its statutory width within 14 days after agricultural work. There are, however, farmers who do not, and it is for this reason that the Ploughing and Cropping Campaign was introduced by Nottinghamshire County Council (NCC).
The basic idea is for volunteers to survey the ROWs in various parishes using NCC maps which show cross field and field edge paths. I participated in the survey between 2015 and 2017; at that time, the program ran quite successfully, and the number of correctly reinstated paths gradually increased over the years. Unfortunately, significant budgetary cuts led to the temporary withdrawal of the scheme but as an alternative NCC continued to send reminder letters to landowners.
Better news came in March 2023 when additional resources were available. Dave Wright was appointed as an NCC Enforcement Officer and the scheme was resurrected. The following is a quote from one of Dave’s recent emails:
“One of the first tasks was to reinstate the volunteer scheme to improve compliance across the county. The number of complaints regarding ploughing or cropping issues was increasing and the volunteer scheme was a good way of being proactive about bringing that number down again, encouraging farmers and landowners to take action without prompting. As a part of resurrecting the scheme I decided that it was a good time to modernise the process and we now utilise online forms, both for expressing interest to become a volunteer and for making a report. In the most recent period of volunteer activity, March-June 2024, we had 10 volunteers signed up to participate with 205 total submissions and an overall 'compliance upon first inspection' rate of 79.4% with 100% of field edge paths passing inspection. Landowners with paths that failed first inspection were contacted and asked to reinstate the paths as necessary. Generally, this is a polite letter with a map highlighting the section that requires action but sometimes, for repeat offenders who are particularly difficult, we serve legal notice on them straight away.
Of the 40 failed paths, 31 were actioned in this way The remaining 9 are paths that were properly reinstated without prompting.”
As Dave explained when we went out for an induction session, the survey does NOT deal with obstructions, wonky stiles and the like. These need to be reported through “usual channels” – Ramblers ROW volunteers or the NCC website. Also, it may be surprising to learn that field-edge paths get such a high pass rate. Most of us will have struggled with head-high impenetrable vegetation along the edges of a field but as long as the crop itself (or the area under cultivation) does not extend to the field margin this counts as a “pass”.
Dave went on to say that “The overall aim of the scheme is to increase the compliance rate as far as possible. Each campaign will increase the number of farmers reached, encouraging them to reinstate their paths as a matter of course. We will have to continue to expand our reach, moving around the county to bring the rate of compliance up in other areas too. We are always open to having more volunteers join us to help cast a wider net and cover as much of the county as possible”.
It seems that the majority of volunteer surveyors are Ramblers members. If anybody wishes to contact Dave for registration as a possible volunteer, the link is https://forms.office.com/e/NucFqLFGuz - all you need is an interest in ROWs, the ability to read a map and access to a smartphone (for transmitting the data and photographs back to NCC). The scheme hopefully will be resuming in September or October and new volunteers are welcome, particularly in the north of the county.
And finally, many thanks to Dave for his help with this article and for organising the scheme so efficiently - it has been a pleasure to work under his supportive and helpful guidance.
James McGill