As bank holiday weekend looms, Norfolk and Suffolk prepare to embrace visitors to its natural gems.

Top of the list are the Broads network, Britain's largest protected wetland with national park status.

Its rivers, the Bure, Ant, Thurne, Yare, Chet, Waveney and Wensum, broads and dykes are tourist magnets drawing thousands every year to enjoy its tranquillity, rare wildlife and views.

We all know that walking by water is natural therapy for the mind and body. Exercise in the fresh air surrounded by stunning natural environment is just what the doctor orders, free, fresh and uplifting.

Keeping fit, in the open air surrounded by landscapes with more than 190 miles of public footpaths to choose from, are remedies so good they should be on prescription.

So, it’s a crying shame so many broadland walks lie overgrown and inaccessible with dense 4ft grass, weeds and nettles where paths should be cut, impassable to walkers.

With the Broads importance to the regional economy, you’d think the council and landowners could get their act together and open all public paths.

So many times, this year, I’ve set off on a walk at some of my favourite walks that I needed a scythe to get through vegetation taller than me at 5ft 6ins and turned back to walk around village lanes instead.

Boaters moored up can’t get anywhere and are marooned on the river or dyke, which means village shops and pubs miss out on their custom because they simply can’t walk there.

This is a shocking neglect of our public path network with because of failure to carry out legal duties.

Norfolk County Council invites us to report overgrown paths and they will investigate. But some have been inaccessible for so long, I doubt it.

For an area so dependent on tourism, discouraging tourists by failing to maintain areas designated for leisure activities is counterproductive.   

We all want to help wildlife, but this is far more than No Mow May.

The Peak District and Lake District wouldn’t stand for it so why should we? 

But it’s not a problem confined to Norfolk, footpaths across the British countryside are being blocked or obstructed in nearly 32,000 places across England and Wales.

A BBC investigation found councils which have responsibility for footpaths had 4,000 more access issues on public rights of way in 2023 than in 2022 in a growing abuse and neglect of the path network.

To find out who is responsible for footpaths, you have to scour through reams of council and legal speak. My understanding – and I stand to be corrected is that it is the council’s responsibility to keep overgrown surface vegetation clear on public rights of way. 

So, if it’s grass, cow parsley, nettles, thistles, burdock and other herbaceous plants that’s causing a problem, it’s the council. If it’s woody, it’s landowner. 

English councils' funding settlement for 2024/25 is more than £64bn and they decide how this funding is spent, including on maintaining the public paths network.

Deterring tourists is short-sighted. Business and tourism groups should be campaigning too with us who set out to walk in the Broads several time s a week.

Everyone who is out this weekend and finds public footpaths impassable, please report it, follow it up and keep prodding until that public right of way to walk has been restored.

They are there to be used, authorities have a legal right to keep them open for us to use, and only by public pressure will we restore these vital amenities. 

Pen days must be numbered

When was the last time you used a pen?

For a wet ink signature on a legal document? 

Now that’s on the way out and the hunt for that illusive pen will be a frustration only people over a certain age will experience.

Pen skills will be lost to keyboard skills, facial recognitions and fingerprints.

It’s sad in one way but means no more leaky pens at the bottom of your handbag.

Let's celebrate Kirstie's parenting

Clucky parents berated Kirstie Allsopp on social media for allowing her 15-year-old to go interrailing across Europe with a 16-year-old friend.

He spent three weeks youth hostelling, organising his own itinerary.

Outraged parents accused her of irresponsibility.

But young people need to navigate and adjudicate for themselves to learn how to survive and be streetwise. Fifteen is just a number – some are wise beyond their years; others are daft as brushes.

Parents are far too risk averse and overprotective, doing their children no favours and causing them to be fearful and underconfident later in life.

Confidence comes from problem solving for themselves.

And, today, parental advice and guidance is just a phone all or WhatsApp away,

Adventure and independence are what youth is for.

Initiative, planning and gumption like this is what future employers want to see.

Rather than admonish, parents could learn from Kirstie’s parenting.

Our accents are simply wonderful

After another rip-roaring hilarious show by the fine Nimmo Twins at the Norwich Playhouse, I was reminded how rich and warm the Norfolk dialect and accent is.

The writer of Dear England, James Graham, used the MacTaggart lecture in Edinburgh to call for greater opportunities for underrepresented demographic saying the television industry is too “squeamish” to tackle its lack of working-class representation.

Add to that a lack of representation of Norfolk and Suffolk accents.

When one properly, they are tremendous but hardly ever heard on TV or radio.