“Nottinghamshire farmers are risking prosecution”, says Gordon Jones the County’s Footpaths Officer, “because many of the County’s footpaths are being ploughed up during the autumn cultivations and are not being re-instated”.
The law on ploughing and public paths is clearly stated in the recent Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. This allows a farmer 14 days to reinstate a public path after ploughing unless the ploughing is affected by poor weather conditions, and it also now makes it illegal for farmers to plough our headland paths.