An opening for new Warwickshire gates
Volunteers and footpath users have been the first to put 11 different gates to the test, some of which could soon be appearing across Warwickshire’s footpaths.
Warwickshire County Council’s Countryside Access Team has been joined by volunteers representatives of user groups, members of the Local Access Forum, and members of the press, at Kingsbury Water Park in North Warwickshire.
This was for the opening of the demonstration area for gates, where examples of 11 different gates, which could be used on footpaths, have been installed near the Information Centre.
The gates will remain in place (and survey forms will be available) until the end of November, the gates will then be re-used somewhere in the Warwickshire countryside.
Cllr Martin Heatley, Warwickshire County Council’s Cabinet member for the Environment said: “The aim of this exercise is to find out what type of gate people prefer to use, and which they find easiest to use. In particular, some gates are designed to be used by people with pushchairs, wheelchairs or mobility vehicles, and we’d like to get people’s opinions about them.”
The county council’s policy is to keep the network free from gates and stiles so far as is possible. However, gates are needed to control livestock. The county council is installing gates to replace stiles in order to improve the path network for the public.