Good Ways Network CIC

Slow Ways is a grassroots initiative to develop a national walking network that connects all of the UK’s towns, cities and villages - starting with Great Britain. Our work focuses on inspiring and supporting people to enjoy routes, contribute to the network and help others walk, wheel and explore with more confidence. Routes are free for the public to access, follow and enjoy. Any adult can sign up to contribute by sharing, reviewing, surveying or verifying routes. During the reporting year our activities included supporting volunteers, maintaining our website and apps, running online and physical events, publishing stories, sharing maps, supporting route checking, developing partnerships and continuing our Wayfarers volunteering programme. By summer 2025, Slow Ways had grown into a 140,000km national network of around 10,000 routes, created by more than 3,000 contributors. Together the community had shared around 16,000 route reviews, 2,000 surveys and roughly three million words of guidance and advice. During 2024-2025, volunteers submitted 2,454 route reviews, reviewing 1,903 routes and contributing around 465,000 words of practical route knowledge. A further 429 route options became verified during the year, meaning they had received enough positive recommendations from the community to be considered good enough to follow. The New Economics Foundation completed an independent evaluation of Slow Ways in January 2025. It estimated that Slow Ways had helped generate around 50,000 extended walking or wheeling trips, including around 19,100 that were additional and would not otherwise have happened. The evaluation also found that 94% of England’s most deprived communities are within one mile of a Slow Way route, showing the network’s potential to support fairer access to walking, nature and everyday active travel. This was also a year of transition. We completed our National Lottery Community Fund Growing Great Ideas project, launched a public Crowdfunder in spring 2025 and raised over £100,000 from more than 2,000 supporters by 31 August 2025. This support is helping us pivot towards Good Ways, a new membership-based platform and app that will make it easier for more people, groups and communities to share recommended routes for not just walking, but running, cycling, wheeling, horse-riding, skating, swimming, paddling, pushchairs and wheelchairs - whatever peoples’ abilities or interests. We plan for Good Ways to become the home of charities, nonprofits and public sector organisations that wish to engage communities with active routes. Good Ways is now in development and will be reported on more fully in our 2026 report. We hope you will have tried it!