[Talk-GB] Portraying and labelling Countryside Access Map alignments and paths actually walked

[Bob Hawkins]

I should be interested to learn the general consensus regarding definitive alignments of Public Rights of Way and paths actually walked, and whether contributors have similar predicaments to mine.  I have two cases in Shiplake, Oxfordshire:
1. Shiplake FP 37  Footpath #528052488 Changeset #52405541
I had labelled the straight line path to the kissing gate before the railway as Shiplake FP 37, originally.  Since devoting my time to adding PRoW information in the Oxfordshire Chilterns and using Oxfordshire County Council’s Countryside Access Map, I have become aware of official path alignments.  I pondered long and hard over this issue.  I decided, finally, that it would be incorrect to label the straight line to the kissing gate before the railway as footpath 37, although this is the path used for a long time, and it makes no sense to walk the official alignment in an open, grassed field.  There has been nothing official to change its alignment, as far as I am aware, however.  I felt the best solution was to map footpath 37 as the Countryside Access Map shows, label it as such, and re-label the straight line as foot=yes, highway=footway alone.  Should anything arise to prevent that, it can be removed instantly without affecting anything else.
2. Shiplake FP 10  Footpath #23639524 Changeset #52419186
The opposite applies to footpath 10: walkers in this case take the right-angled fence line from the stile (at the junction with Shiplake FP 11) towards Plough Lane while the Countryside Access Map shows footpath 10 crossing the field diagonally from a point before the stile.  This has the effect of labelling the short section immediately before the stile wrongly as footpath 10 when it should be footpath 11.  I plan to visit the site and alter OSM with the same attitude as for footpath 37.
With regards
Bob Hawkins

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