Durham County Council as the Highway Authority has a statutory duty to protect your right to use Public Rights of Way (Prow), and to ensure that their surfaces are maintained, they are signposted from metalled highways, and kept clear of obstructions.
Problems reported to us are varied, the sort of obstructions or hazards you may find on your travels could be related to any of the following:
- Vegetation
- Ploughed paths and growing crops
- Gates and stiles
- Bridges
- Bulls
- Widths of rights of way
- Obstructions
- Misleading signs
- Intimidation and nuisance
- Electric fences
- Prevented from crossing land
Reporting fly tipping and anti social behaviour
Rubbish, and fly tipping on public rights of way should be reported by calling the new Customer Service telephone number on 0300 123 7070.
Antisocial behaviour on paths, such as unauthorised use by motorbikes or quadbikes should be reported to the police. Although this is a recognised problem on the rights of way network, we have no specific powers to take enforcement action against offenders.
Information Required
To help us investigate your problem please provide us with as much information as possible:
- Your contact details
- Location of where the problem was found (Parish, District, description of route, grid reference, etc) -help in identifying these can be found by using the information/search tools on our Online Mapping system.
- Type of path (footpath, bridleway, byway and Definitive Map number if known)
- The date, type and description of problem found
- Landowner details (if known)
- Map showing location of the problem
- Photographs of the problem found (if any available)
How to Report a Problem
Contact the relevant Area Officer by telephone, letter, e-mail or on-line.
Telephone:
- Kevin Telford – North Durham Area Officer (North) - 0191 383 4536
- Owen Shaw – East Durham Area Officer (East) - 0191 383 3452
- Peter Crinnion - Central Durham Area Officer (Central) - 0191 383 4536
- Nick Hall – North West Durham Area Officer (North West) - 0191 383 4086
- Leigh Coulson – West Durham Area Officer (West) - 0191 383 4452
- Mike Murden – South West Durham Area Officer (South West) - 0191 383 3381
Letter to:
Access and Rights of Way Section, Network Management, Regeneration & Economic Development, Durham County Council, County Hall, Durham, DH1 5UQ.
e-mail address: prow@durham.gov.uk
Two schemes that make a big difference to the Public Rights of Way network in the County Durham area are the Volunteer Rangers and the Parish Paths Partnership (P3).
If you are a regular walker, interested in the condition of Public Rights of Way in your area, perhaps you would like to play a more active role and be interested in joining our Voluntary Rangers as an adopt-a-path warden or part of the work parties.
Do you have ideas or are you interested in improving Public Rights of Way in your area and would like to organise and run your own works programs then perhaps you will be interested in the Parish Paths Partnership (P3).
Reporting problems on footways or pavements If you need to report a problem on a footway or pavement please see the advice given on the Highways Action Line (HAL ) web page or telephone 0191 3706000 or by calling the new Customer Service telephone number on 0300 123 7070
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