Volunteers needed to test new UK walking network

Thousands of volunteers from every town and city in Britain are wanted to help make a new national walking network.

During the spring 2020 lockdown, people from across the nation plotted a network of walking routes that connect all of the country’s towns and cities.

Without leaving home, over 7,000 ‘Slow Ways’ walking routes were mapped using existing paths, trails and roads.

The team behind Slow Ways is now looking for people to walk and review the routes to make sure they work in practice.

Dan Raven-Ellison, who started the Slow Ways initiative last year, said: “The Slow Ways walking network will be something we can all enjoy for generations to come. Working from their living rooms and kitchens, volunteers have done an incredible job of drafting the network, but now we need to make sure it works on the ground, quite literally.

“To do that, we need people to head out and walk all the proposed routes to check them.

“Making use of country paths, underused ways and city streets, the idea is to make it easier for people to plan walking journeys between neighbouring places and combine routes to go on longer-distance walks.”

Thousands of people are needed to put the Slow Ways network through its paces, including assessing all the routes for accuracy, safety and accessibility.

• To help, visit slowways.org then choose a route, walk it and leave a review