Community consultation

The path network in any area will be used by a variety of people. And if you want to produce a path network that all those people will value and support, you need to take their views on board when deciding your priorities.

As part of that process, you need to think about who is likely to use the paths and try to work out what level of demand there might be for using them. You can also look for "evidence" on the ground to back up your argument - such as existing routes that have developed by the tread of many feet, wheels or hooves. In this way you can build a strong case for developing your ideas and funding organisations will prefer to hear about well defined "target users" rather than a vague suggestion that "people will want to wander, honest".

Through discussion with people in your paths group and others, you should already have a map that shows all the paths in the area, as well as the paths that have been identified by the access authority as core paths or wider path networks. You may also have a list of potential actions that you could take – these are likely to be suggestions from people within the group – for example, Bill would like to put in a new path here, whereas Anna would like to improve the drainage on an existing path to make it a bit less muddy. Now's the time to take those ideas to the rest of your community, including local land-owners, and find out what they think – they might have clear priorities between the actions or they might have different ideas of their own.  Your access authority will will also have a lot of information which they collected during their consultation on the core paths plans, so it's worth checking with them at an early stage.

There are different ways you can consult the community and you'll probably have a good feeling for what will work well in your area. You might want to do something very informal and just ask around, but you need some way of documenting what you found out so you can show potential funders that there is support for your ideas. A more formal approach might be better in the long run and will provide you with the evidence you need for funders. Some of the possible approaches to use are:

• Putting a questionnaire in your local shop / pub / community centre which asks for people's views

• Holding a formal consultation event where you ask people to discuss and prioritise ideas

• Asking (and recording) people's views at a local event

The sort of consultation that works best will depend on the size of your community and the type of information you're looking to get back. There are a lot of websites dedicated to different methods of community consultation, which will give you some ideas to try in your area.  There are also national standards for community consultation, which you should read before you start.