Hello Chelmsford Paths, and welcome to OpenStreetMap! Andy from OSM’s Data Working Group here.

This is a message to let you know that a few people have commented on your changesets. You can see them in your list of changesets on the OSM site at osm.org/user/Chelmsford%20Paths/history , where a speech bubble is displayed against them.

For the avoidance of doubt, OpenStreetMap is designed to be a map of everything, not just things that everyone can access. If something isn’t open to the public then you can add an access tag to indicate what the status is. osm.org/way/138628690/history shows an example of that. The path is visible on aerial imagery and doesn’t look temporary there, so is likely to still exist on the ground (although there’s no indication that there is public access).

You’ve deleted osm.org/way/687045285/history (you can see where it went at https://overpass-turbo.eu/s/22Fd ). If (unlikely in the woodland) there really isn’t any sort of path there then I’d suggest some sort of tagging like removed:highway=path or disused:highway=path together with an access tag that makes it clear that public access was not and is not allowed. Just deleting the path will not have the effect that you want - as you have seen at osm.org/way/687045285/history someone will just add it back.

If you like to discuss how best to tag things that exist but aren’t public, or that used to exist but don’t know, the forum https://community.openstreetmap.org/c/communities/uk/86 is probably the best place to ask your question. If you provide a bit of context, people will be able to help. If you’d like to reply directly to OSM’s Data Working Group, please email data@openstreetmap.org with a subject line of “[Ticket#2025042110000352] Chelmsford Paths”.

If sent this message as one that you have to read before continuing to edit, but as soon as you have read it you’ll be able to carry on.

Best Regards,

Andy