I set off to do my lockdown walk, doing it in reverse for a change. The first, or last section on this occasion, runs through the centre of an almost completed housing estate. The footpath has been continuously walked while the building has been going on, and runs next to a blackthorn hedge. The housebuilding company are in the process of creating a "better" path on the other side of the hedge, consisting of boring, flat gravel, with grass either side. I can see that this will be good for prams etc, although it finishes on a country road without pavements... but perhaps it'll end up going all the way around the estate. Anyway, there were no footpath closed signs, so I didn't know that the last footpath was blocked until I'd walked halfway down it and was met with a fence. I would've gone round the end of it but the man in the digger said it wasn't allowed. I mentioned public rights of way, lack of signs etc, but it's not his fault, he's just a worker who was faced with an irate walker. Sorry he said, you'll have to go round the roads, but which roads wasn't at all obvious so I ended up doing another mile.

I did a bit of digging when I got home and the appropriate paperwork had been lodged with Derby City Council lol, just checking! But there surely ought to have been a sign telling me the path was closed. I did find something that said the new path had to be like the old one, but that's not the case. I wonder if they'll keep the blackthorn hedge... I hope so.