Culter Path group
MANY people in Culter already know that it's not necessary to jump in a car or on the bus to get to the start of a good walk. If you don't, would you welcome more advice on where these local walks are? And if you do, do you experience problems with access, the state of the paths or have ideas for improvements to the local path network?
Would you be interested in helping to create new paths? And if you happen to own land, do you have problems with people acting irresponsibly on your land?
These are just some of the questions that the recently formed Culter Path Group is aiming to address. Four of us formed the group (as a sub-committee of Culter Community Council) after the "Planning for Real" exercise and after we had responded to the Aberdeen City Access Officer's draft of ideas for a core path network for the city.
We realised that, whilst the City's core paths (such as the Deeside Line) are very welcome, we could aspire to developing a set of our very own Culter core paths which would serve Culter people even better. A lot of these paths already exist. They need to be maintained and many would be improved if they were linked together in a better way.
We can achieve a lot by working with existing agencies such as the Forestry Commission, Aberdeen City & Aberdeenshire Councils, Scottish Natural Heritage and Aberdeen Countryside Projects, encouraging them to spend their budgets on our projects!
For example, we've already met the Forestry Commission's man on site to discuss their plans for marked paths in the Newmillhill wood and we're aiming for better links to other paths. Incidentally, access to the wood will be affected this autumn while the Commission clear-fell two compartments of conifers to make way for broad leaves instead. After that we should start to see the path work underway.
If the will becomes evident, we'll aim to identify schemes which local volunteers could get stuck into - although we're not at that point yet.
We aim to act as a focal point and forum for users and landowners for local access
matters. We're picking up on the Planning for Real outcome regarding paths but there's no time limit on comments! So get in touch with your bright ideas, complaints and questions. We also aim to be at the proposed "Your Culter" event in October (details elsewhere in the Courier) so hope to see you there.
The members of the Group are Catherine Lacy, Doug Stewart, John Troup and myself, Dave Plant (732863) chair.