Subject: Consultative Draft Core Paths Plan - Consultation -
Deadline for Response: 4th February 2008
Consultative Draft Core Paths Plan - your chance to get involved!
Aberdeen City Council has developed a Consultative Draft Core Paths Plan, showing candidate core paths to form a complete network of paths throughout the City. It aims to encourage healthy and sustainable access opportunities for all, for recreation and for active travel. We would like you to get involved and let us know what you think of these initial proposals, which will be the subject of consultation from now until the 4th February 2008.
Under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, Aberdeen City Council is required to prepare a Draft Core Paths Plan 'sufficient for the purpose of giving the public reasonable access throughout their area'. Before going on to prepare a Finalised Draft Core Paths Plan for the City, we want to ensure everyone with an interest is involved in giving us their views on this Consultative Draft, which is intended as a starting point for discussion. We are looking for the views of current and potential users of the outdoors, communities, land managers and others, such as partner agencies (whose aims, the Core Paths Plan may help to deliver) and other organisations.
The Core Paths Plan aims to provide a network of paths for recreation and travel, delivering benefits in quality of life; healthy, active lifestyles; economic development; the environment; and social inclusion.
Core paths can be many types of path, ranging from natural ground to high specification constructed paths. Taken as a whole the core paths plan must cater for all types of users (walkers, cyclists, horse-riders, canoeists, people with disabilities, etc.) but not all individual paths will need to be designed and managed for every type of use as this will not always be practical. The majority of candidate core paths are on existing routes but some new paths are also proposed in order to achieve a coherent network.
You can view the Consultative Draft Core Paths Plan on the Council's website, at www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/corepathsplan or at any of Aberdeen City Council's libraries across the City, The Point or key Council offices. Comment Forms are also available at all of these locations, which we would encourage you to use in submitting any thoughts.
Following this informal consultation and discussion, we will prepare a Draft Core Paths Plan which will then be formally consulted on for at least 12 weeks in Spring 2008.
Please note that the Plan includes proposals to recognise access to water and waterborne routes through the City (including the Dee and the Don). We have attempted to highlight known and proposed access points to/from the water that tie in with public roads/parks and practical vehicular access. Please try and check the plan and make your views known to the Council Planners, it would be good to have the Dee and Don formally recognised as a Core Path within the City. I will try and update if I hear when the 'shire are to open their plans for Consultation to allow similar feedback.
The website is:
www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/corepathsplan
Any problems please let me know as I can take up at future meetings of the City Outdoor Access Forum.
Regards
Craig Douglas
PS - One of the recognised sites for access/egress within the plan would be the Seaton Park slalom site