Great South West Walk's £250k for coast path improvements

The money has been raised to celebrate its 40th anniversary of The South West Coast Path Association

Funding worth £250,000 has been secured for improvement works to the South West coast path.

The money has been raised by the Great South West Walk to celebrate the 40th anniversary of The South West Coast Path Association.

It will enable 50 improvement projects to take place around the 630 miles of the path.

The association said it was "delighted" to have reached its target with more fundraising efforts taking place soon.

'Fantastic support'

John Slater, the Commercial Partnerships Director for the association, said: "Natural England and the Rural Development Programme have both given significant funding to support our Great South West Walk projects.

"There has also been fantastic support from across the tourism industry."

The association has reached its funding target before the planned fundraising walks take place.

Its now hoping to raise more money with the guided walks which begin on the south coast from 3 April and the north coast from 16 April.

There will be 56 sponsored walks in total, taking in the whole of Devon and Cornwall, as well as Somerset and Dorset.

The South West coast path is the longest of the country's National Trails.