Plans to resurface ‘potholed’ track at park
Bradgate Park Trust has applied to resurface parts of the 3.8km track that loops through the 850-acre estate, from Newtown Linford to Old John before continuing to the Deer Barn Visitor Centre.
Planning documents submitted to Charnwood Borough Council reveal visitors to the park have increased by a quarter of a million since 2014, rising from 500,000 a year to 750,000, with the park seeing a jump in popularity since the start of the pandemic in 2020. As a result, the track is often churned up in bad weather becoming “muddy, potholed and in many circumstances unusable”, according to the trust.
In some places, the path is so badly eroded tree roots have been exposed, creating a risk to their health.
Visitors sometimes avoid the damaged paths by detouring through “more fragile areas of the landscape”, said the report, including in areas that are home to ground-nesting birds.
“The proposed works will resurface the existing path with the objective of protecting the landscape, specifically minimising the damage to more sensitive surrounding areas,” the documents add.
The resurfaced paths will be three metres wide, allowing rangers to use vehicles to move around the park. James Dymond, director of the Bradgate Park Trust, said: “We’re aiming to provide a better route for visitors and prevent the current damage and erosion taking place on this track. Encouraging people to keep to surfaced tracks will also minimise potential damage and disturbance to other areas of the park and important habitats and wildlife that make the park a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).”