YOUR headline read 'Most footpaths to open' (July 3), yet one of the councillors says that the National Park, county council, parish councils and land owners could put up signs asking walkers not to use the footpaths.

The report went on to say that only about 15 per cent of the paths on the moors would be opened.

When the Lake District National Park announced that the 'high fells' were open to ramblers, the park authority, in conjunction with the National Trust, Cumbria County Council and Cumbria Tourist Board, published a map showing the routes on the high fells which were open and the access point to them. This makes it plain where you can and cannot walk.

If it is beyond the wit of the North Yorkshire authorities to make it absolutely clear where members of the public can walk without hindrance, then, as 'most footpaths are to reopen', perhaps they can publish a map showing the areas which are closed.

Reasonable walkers have sympathy with the plight of many farmers and have avoided walking on agricultural land. No one would wish to walk in the Whitby area where cases of foot and mouth are still occurring, but there are vast tracts of Yorkshire to which the public are being denied access for no good reason.

Bill Heppell,

Rawcliffe Lane, York.

Updated: 10:39 Thursday, July 05, 2001