Says Martin Shaw, P4C Project Manager

At the end of the September, the Grants Panel had fully allocated their £2m budget and the scheme was closed to new applications.

Grants have been offered to 44 projects which are on target to deliver over 70km of new public rights of way - over 42km of new bridleway and nearly 30km of new footpath.

The Secretary of State for the Environment, Owen Patterson said , “The Paths for Communities scheme shows how Defra’s network can successfully work with local partnerships.

As well as the obvious benefits to the local communities, projects like this have the potential to boost the local economy, for example through tourism.

The scale and scope of bids from communities have proved this is working well. More than 40 communities have committed almost 1480 volunteer days to the projects.

The leadership role of civil society at the local level is vital to the formation of working partnerships of this kind ” Also, over 100 rural businesses who expect to see economic benefits as a result of their local P4C project, have provided letters of support.

It’s fantastic that we attracted such a range of interesting high calibre applications but in some ways the real work starts here.

Three projects have had their final claims paid, the rest are working hard to get all the agreed work done, paid and claimed for before the end of February 2014. It’s exciting to see how P4C has mobilised and empowered local communities to make a difference to the path network in their area - from planning, through delivery to making use of the final product.

We’ve also included information on how to find other funding sources and a helpful guide to generating publicity for your projects, including how to develop your own ‘case story’.