About us

No way!

The PNFS is made up of people like you with a common passion for walking. Whether it's a walk over fells and hills or using an urban path to get to the shops, whether we're taking our children to school or exercising our dogs, walking is part of our lives. We value our rights, embodied in the law, to walk the rich network of footpaths our countryside and towns have to offer.

Like you we know the frustration of finding the way blocked or overgrown, of having someone tell us we shouldn't be on their land, of misleading notices that have no legal status. PNFS members have been dealing with problems like these throughout our long and distinguished history.

It is a simple fact that, despite the protection in law, footpaths would be diverted or extinguished to the detriment of the public without the constant monitoring and vigilance that the PNFS and other charitable organisations provide.

We have a team of about ninety volunteer inspectors who regularly walk the footpaths in the area that they are responsible for. They report any faults and obstructions to the responsible local authority and and work with them to reach a satisfactory result. Although we prefer negotiation to confrontation, we can and do take court action to protect the footpath network for all walkers.

The law requires that local authorities consult us when they consider diverting or closing a right of way. We take local members' views into account when we give our response. Our opinions are valued highly by the authorities we work with, but in cases where we cannot agree with them, or cannot reach a satisfactory conclusion, we are prepared to go to court – and we do.

As a society we believe that protecting path is about more than chasing up problems. That’s why we put money into improving the path network with work such as planting signposts and building bridges. We have now planted over four hundred signposts and thirty bridges across our area, and we maintain them in perpetuity.