Poole volunteers clear right of way on former rail line

Volunteers have been restoring Cordite Way, a path on an old military railway line

Campaigners who successfully registered a disused railway line as a right of way have said they hope to open the first section in summer 2024.

Poole Harbour Trails community group spent 13 years trying to formalise the footpath at Sandford, Poole.

The overgrown route follows the railway that serviced a naval cordite factory that closed in the 1950s.

The group received permission earlier this year to start clearance but had to wait for the nesting season to end.

Group chairman Andy Hadley said: "We want it to be disabled friendly as much as we can, and support those with buggies and cycling.

"As we build higher density in the town centres, people don't have outdoor space of their own so we need to value and protect outside space in the countryside for people to be able to get to."

The group received permission earlier this year to start clearance but had to wait for the nesting season to end

The disused railway was used as a path by locals for many years until it became obstructed in 2010.

Campaigners said what followed was a 13-year-struggle to get it recognised as a right of way.

The Friends of the Cordite Way Clearance group began work last month on the first section to the viewpoint overlooking Poole Harbour and Arne peninsular.

Walking charity Ramblers said the project was a "fantastic example of how a local community is really understanding the benefit of public rights of way in terms of connecting us to each other and to nature".

Recent research by the charity found that more than 49,000 miles of paths in England and Wales did not feature on official maps and were at risk of being permanently lost.

The government has set a deadline in England of 2031 to apply to get these paths re-registered but Ramblers wants the deadline scrapped.

The charity's head of paths, Jack Cornish, said: "We should be improving opportunities for communities to get outdoors and connect with nature, not reducing them."

A spokesperson for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said its Environmental Improvement Plan aims for every household to be within a 15 minute walk of a "green or blue space".

It said the government's £14.5m Access for All programme also included measures to make "protected landscapes, national trails and wider countryside more accessible for all communities".

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