Stephen Tarling - Sway Parish Councillor
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Sway Rights of Way - Footpaths

Sway Parish Council is not responsible for the footpaths in Sway - that is the responsibility of the highways authority, which in our case is Hampshire County Council, and the landowner.  For Rights of Way footpaths see the HCC Rights of Way site starting at http://www3.hants.gov.uk/row.htm
 
 

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However as well as the general public being invited to comment on any Rights of Way issues Sway Parish Council also try to keep a weather eye on the footpaths in our Parish. That task is currently undertaken by Cllrs. Peter Dance and Tom Greenwood.

Hampshire Rights of Way site has excellent details of footpaths etc. - either as maps or a list.  The maps available linked from http://www3.hants.gov.uk/row/row-maps.htm include on-line O.S. based maps, and also the definitive map. The definitive statement for Sway was updated following my 2012 review and is provided in pdf format under Sway on the pages numbered 87 to 89 of http://www.hants.gov.uk/rh/row/s.pdf
 
Footpaths should not be confused with footways at the side of a road - like a pavement for example.  Sway has 15 formal Rights of Way: 9 footpaths, 3 bridleways and 3 byways open to all traffic. Six of these continue into Hordle Parish, and one continues into the parish of Lymington & Pennington (where those will also appear with a different number in the lists of those other parishes). One bridleway leads directly into the open forest in Brockenhurst parish, and two bridleways are essentially forest routes over railway footbridges.

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Hampshire has an excellent page for reporting any Rights of Way issue, at http://www.hants.gov.uk/rh/row/report-list.html
which invites your comments under three main headings: structures (such as stiles or gates), obstructions (such as electric fencing) and signposting, plus categories for surface and other problems.   So if you come across any such issues on any of the 15 Sway Rights of Way please do report them online.

Note that fly-tipping on a Right of Way is dealt with by the local environmental health department - and for us that is part of New Forest District Council who fortunately not only have a good NFDC page on Fly-Tipping but also any incidents of fly-tipping can be reported through their 'Online services - Recycling, Rubbish and Waste' page by clicking on 'Flytipping - Report'
 
Following my survey of all Sway Rights of Way over summer and into autumn 2011 I wrote a piece which appeared in the November 2011 edition of "Sway News"

www.sway-parish-council.org.uk