Limestone Heritage Project Access Programme

The AONB affords a wide range of recreation opportunities for walkers, cyclists and birdwatchers predominantly through a well managed Rights of Way system.

There is a real need though to extend opportunities for access and enjoyment to those groups presently disadvantaged either through personal mobility problems or through lack of access to private transport or because their legitimate recreation needs are not well provided for.

There is also a further need to better inform people of the recreation opportunities available to them and to educate people about the unique and fragile nature of the lowland limestone heritage they come to enjoy.

Extensive grazing marsh extends out into Morecambe Bay - click to enlarge

Ideas of new access, such as a
route to Jenny Brown's Point
have not seen progress

An integrated package of access proposals was devised at the outset to deliver the following:

improved opportunites for disabled people and others with mobilty problems to access and enjoy the AONB
targeted action to extend opportunities for people to visit and enjoy this AONB without a need for using private vehicles
providing new opportunites for horse-riding and an improved information service

Unfortunately, the Project has made only limited progress towards its original goals.

The AONB Service has no statutory powers with regards to access and consequently can only develop access improvements with the agreement of landowners. The ambitions set out for the Project were somewhat unrealistic it now seems, however a few major improvements have been possible to the network during the lifetime of the Project

The AONB Service will continue to promote opportunities for further access improvements, building on the benefits of the Limestone Heritage Project.

The link here lets you download and read our Access Report(33 pages - 177kB pdf format - text only)