On 31st October, a two-page Official Notice appeared in the Liverpool Daily Post, announcing the making of a Modification Order under Section 53 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. At about the same time, A4-sized notices and maps were posted on (or rather wrapped around) various Public Footpath signs in Gateacre and elsewhere.
This is the procedure being used by the City Council to designate 54 footpaths as official Public Rights of Way.

Since 1994 - when we assisted the Merseyside Environmental Trust in carrying out a survey of local footpaths - we have been pressing the Council to fulfil its statutory obligation to publish a Definitive Map of such rights of way. This it has now done: unless objections are received to the designation of the 54 footpaths, they will be legally protected against blockage or obliteration. It is, though, unfortunate that only the (relatively) 'non-controversial' footpaths have been included. Virtually none of the 70 or so additional footpaths identified by the M.E.T. survey has, as yet, been given any official protection, and we shall therefore be pressing for further Modification Orders to be made.