In response to Jen Mason. I am one of two volunteer hill walking rep.s for BMC Peak Area. If I might give a slightly different view. I'm very familiar with the Ringing Roger path, the subject of the before and after pic.s in the article. As presented they perhaps don't fully convey the state of the path before repair and the extent of the damage. The section of path repaired as a consequence of Mend Our Mountains 1 was in a terrible state, a deep eroded trench and rain gutter, maybe as much as 6 metres wide, full of loose rubble, deteriorating and spreading as walkers tried to find a manageable way down, eating into the surrounding moorland year-on-year. This was certainly just as hard on the joints to negotiate as any engineered path I've experienced. This is a honey-pot route from a very popular Peak District destination (Edale). The repaired path section, whilst an engineered stone pitched path, is very well done (Peak District Nat. Park chose a very good and experienced contractor who did a lovely job) and I've found it quite comfortable to walk on, both up or down. When I watched people use it for a while at the end of last year they were all sticking to the new path by choice on that occasion. It's only 1 to 1.5 metres wide and as such is indeed allowing a significant area of previously damaged moorland to recover. The result is a much improved area of moorland and a far less intrusive path line with a good chance of withstanding many years of the heavy hammer that it will inevitably receive. I believe it highly likely that people will continue to prefer this new path to walking on surrounding sensitive area beside it. I hope this might give Jen and those who have similar concerns a little confidence that maybe the project work supported by Mend Our Mountains may not be quite as misguided as Jen fears.