The proposed closure of the Ralli Quays towpath is a scandal (Developer given permission to close 300-year-old public footpath in Salford, 11 August). In 1932, the Kinder Scout mass trespassers could walk freely along the Irwell towpath from their homes in Manchester and Salford; it was the open moorland of the Peak District that was denied to them.
In 2022, the citizens of the Manchester-Salford conurbation now have a right to roam across the upland Peak District countryside, but the right to walk freely in their urban hinterland is being increasingly eroded by neoliberal developers and their collaborators.
