The newly released Government Plan has a provision for £665,000 to be made available from 2020 to 2023 to improve countryside access for Islanders and visitors.
Within the budget, £195,000 is earmarked to be spent in 2020, with a further £215,000 in 2021, then £165,000 in 2022 and £90,000 in 2023.
Creating new paths and access for other non-vehicle users are two of the pledges within the Government Plan.
But Environment Minister John Young said money was tight.
‘A lot goes into the upkeep of the coastal paths around the Island, as well as the car parks and hard-standing areas because they are key for tourism,’ he said. ‘One thing that we are planning is to link all those routes and tracks across the Island, which is one of the objectives in the plan.’
The Government Plan stated that Jersey’s countryside was currently under pressure due to limited funding and had struggled for investment since the 1990s, meaning it had gradually deteriorated.
It adds that much of the infrastructure is long past its replacement date and in addition, a lack of coordinated working by access providers in the past has resulted in an ad-hoc and often confusing jumble of signs, unconnected paths and untargeted and non-strategic funding. The current funding in the plan will work towards changing that, according to director for natural environment Willie Peggie, who said: ‘There are a lot of corridors and paths to be joined up, and it is all about joining these up through the centre of the Island to allow walkers and wildlife to move around. There has been a lot of focus on the coastal areas that attract people, and this will help look at the centre of the Island.’
