Millions of city dwellers could benefit from 20 new “green corridors” linking city centres with the calming countryside.
The National Trust, which is creating the routes, wants stressed city dwellers to rediscover the benefits of “therapeutic trips to the countryside”.
Bath will gain the first of the corridors on a three-mile route, which includes land previously earmarked for a park-and-ride site.
The trust has acquired Bathampton Meadows, 99 acres alongside the River Avon, and pledged to protect them from development for ever. Pathways will be created and the meadows restored to encourage more wildflowers, butterflies and wading birds.
The trust is planning to create another 19 corridors across England, Wales and Northern Ireland by 2030 and is working on routes in several large cities, which it expects to announce this year.
