Cornwall county council has hit back at the Ramblers Association after it was recently accused of "not doing its bit" for Public Rights of Way and not making improvements.

The county council's Environment and Heritage Countryside Service, which is responsible for the management of 300 miles of Coastal Path, 6,500 rights of way in Cornwall, national cycle routes and country parks, points out that they have already formed 170 partnerships with parish councils who do valuable work trimming local footpaths to try to clear and maintain public rights of way.

Alan Ibbotson, environment and heritage countryside manager, saidL: "The county council was, and always is, very active in saying to the Government that they must make extra funding available. They made a promise that they would put aside millions of pounds for council budgets to put towards public rights of way work but at the end of the day, we found that in fact, there had been a very minor increase.

"The county council is constantly pushing the Government to 'ring-fence' a larger amount of money for the countryside.

"The county council is aware of the shortfall in funding in comparison to the increased demand for users and holiday makers. This was highlighted to the Countess of Wessex on her recent visit to St Levan's Well where we explained to her that the Coastal Path attracts over 1.5 million walkers a year and brings in an estimated £10 million to Cornwall. We have to rely on the Countryside Agency to supply us with money for Coastal Path maintenance."