A BETTER deal for the thousands of walkers who have been prevented from using the hundreds of miles of public footpaths on the North York moors this summer is being urged by the park's watchdog.

The foot-and-mouth outbreak on the moors has proved the value of public footpaths to the national park's economy, says the moors association, which is now pushing for a higher standard of maintenance for the network.

"Large swathes of North Yorkshire have been out of bounds for several months and the impact on the tourist industry has been catastrophic. Despite pleas that the countryside is 'open', visitors have stayed away.

"Now the true worth of our public paths has become evident, perhaps it is not asking too much for government to require local authorities to provide a higher standard of management and, if necessary, provide the relatively small amount of money involved," says the association.

It adds: "A large-scale lottery-funded project to open up all our paths and provide signing, gates, stiles and bridges would be a start."

The footpath network is a priceless heritage for the park and the countryside in general, says the association. "Of course, in an ideal world, it would be attractive to sit down and plan a new network which satisfied the needs of the population for recreation, while at the same time giving few problems for farm and land management.

"Such a day is far off, partly because of the nature of the legislative framework of public rights of way, but also because of the long history of conflicts arising from blockages and other disputes".

It says footpath management has had a higher priority in the park than in some areas. "The authority deserves sympathy and praise for the way it has attempted to open up some paths during the current and increasingly severe outbreaks in the area."

But, it adds, in other areas footpath maintenance has assumed a "very low priority" in terms of staffing, budgets, and the use of legal powers to require the re-opening and unblocking of paths.