The upkeep of footpaths and a mystery solved

I asked Norfolk County Council about the schedule for maintaining footpaths and other rights of way after complaints in the summer about paths being overgrown. This is their reply:

The cutting contracts are still underway, after a delay to the first cut due to the pandemic.   For routes on the scheduled cutting contract, those on Norfolk Trails will in general will receive up to 3 cuts annually.  Highways maintained PROW that are on the contract will receive 1 cut annually with a selection receiving a second cut. There is a map on the website which shows both the Trails and PROW cutting.  This information has not as yet been updated to show this years cutting detail but it is more or less accurate.  http://maps.norfolk.gov.uk/highways/

I also asked why my old-school paper Ordnance Survey map appeared to show a footpath that wasn’t a footpath when I was out walking with friends recently. The mystery is solved:

Regarding your query about OS mapping – OS show the routes as recorded on the Definitive Map but they do have a caveat on them to say that they may not be 100% accurate or up to date.   The Definitive Map is continually being updated as routes are diverted or added and the information is passed on to OS but as they only re-publish maps on an infrequent basis there may be periods of time when routes are wrongly depicted.  Sometimes the OS also show routes which are not actually legally recorded rights of way, usually with a pecked black line, which indicates a route that they have noticed during survey but it may not have any legal standing.