Path Improvement Grant Scheme (PIGS) 2012

PIGS is open for bids again! The scheme is run by the Rights of Way and Countryside Section at Wiltshire Council and the Wiltshire and Swindon Countryside Access Forum.

The scheme is aimed at helping local people to make innovative improvements to countryside access in their area. PIGS provides match funding and can be used to help lever in other funding sources. In 2012 around £60,000 will be available for community led projects.

This is the fifth year the scheme has run and around 30 projects have previously been undertaken. Some examples of previous schemes are:

Rowde - a new pavement and permissive footpath linking the village and the canal at Caen Hill, meaning that people do not have to walk along a busy B road anymore. This route provides safer links between the village and the canal and bus stops, as well improving access for canal users to access the facilities in the village. PIGS grant £5000

Castle Combe – surfacing the main pedestrian link between the two parts of the village, meaning it can be used more easily all year round. PIGS grant £3529

Amesbury – the creation of signed circular routes from the town using public rights of way, with publicity to promote these routes. PIGS grant £1925

Ogbourne St Andrew – upgrading two stiles with kissing gates to the link to nearby Ogbourne Maizey. PIGS grant £340

Tisbury – a new permissive path to bring walkers out at a safer point on a road near the village. The route previously ended by going over a stile, down a steep bank and onto the road in a narrow cutting, the new link exits onto the lane where it is wider, doesn’t have a steep bank and it now has a kissing gate. It is now more accessible for less agile walkers to use the whole path out of the village. PIGS grant £300.

Great Somerford - a permissive path along an attractive section of the river Avon. PIGS grant £245

Tollard Royal – a bridle gate and permissive bridleway to link up two rights of way. Previously walkers, cyclists, and horse riders had to negotiate a busy stretch of B road to join the two. PIGS grant £200

If you have an idea for a scheme please contact Wiltshire Council’s Rights of Way and Countryside Team: michael.crook@wiltshire.gov.uk, 01225 713349.

Further details of the scheme are on the Countryside Access Forum website:www.wiltshirelaf.org.uk