Rishi has praised the work of the Yorkshire Dales National Park team who have delivered important improvements to the Coast to Coast Walk.
The Richmond and Northallerton MP joined National Park staff and volunteers on White Mossy Hill in the upper dales to see work done as part of improvements to the world-famous long distance path.
Next year, the 197-mile walk across the North of England which was devised by the fell walker Alfred Wainwright, will be designated a UK National Trail.
It will be the culmination of Rishi’s 10-year campaign to have the path officially recognised and funded.
Rishi walked along a stretch of the path near Nine Standards Rigg in Birkdale to celebrate completion of the work by a team headed by the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
It is the biggest single project ever undertaken by the National Park’s ranger service.
The work saw thousands of reclaimed flagstones hauled to the upper dales and airlifted the final few hundred metres from the road to the fellside path. A helicopter pilot dropped pallet-loads of flagstones every few metres.
The stretch was the most notorious on the walk because of the peatland bog which made it difficult for walkers to cover the leg between Kirkby Stephen and Keld.
The flagstone path across the moor will help to protect the surrounding sensitive peatland habitat, designated as a Special Area for Conservation.
Rishi said: “The scale of the project is very impressive. Getting the flagstones up to one of the most remote parts of the park and then laying them across almost two miles of moorland has been a massive task.
“The work protects the landscape and will improve the experience for the growing number of walkers who will be attracted to tackle it when it becomes a National Trail next year.
“The National Park team has done a fantastic job. The park was among the first organisations to back my Coast to Coast – Make It National campaign when we launched in 2016 and it has now completed the most demanding task in the work to bring Alf Wainwright’s celebrated walk up to National Trail standard.”
Member Champion for Recreational Management at the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, Lizzie Bushby, said: “Rishi Sunak’s advocacy for the designation of the Coast to Coast as a National Trail has been essential to the project’s success.
“It’s great that he came to meet our rangers to see the upgraded route in Birkdale. The public funds spent on upgrading the trail will prove to be excellent value for money, providing a way to enjoy the National Park while conserving peatland and giving a boost to local hospitality businesses.”
The £800,000 cost of the project on White Mossy Hill came from the £5.6m Rishi secured for the work needed to bring the entire 197-mile route to UK National Trail standard.
His Coast to Coast – Make it National campaign to have the path upgraded was launched in April 2016 with the support of the Wainwright Society – the body which acts as custodian of the famous fell walker’s legacy.
The then Conservative Government committed to funding the work in 2019 and Natural England was asked to start work on the upgrading with local authorities along the route between St Bees in Cumbria and Robin Hood’s Bay on the Yorkshire coast.
The path runs 70 miles through the heart of Rishi’s constituency, bringing 6,000 visitors a year to the area. That number is expected to increase further when it is promoted as National Trail.
Alf Wainwright wrote the book A Coast to Coast Walk in 1973. It is widely believed to be the most popular long-distance walk in England and attracts walking enthusiasts from across the world.
