Thanks to you all for the welcome and taking the time to reply, I much appreciate all your advice .I am overwhelmed that so many of you have taken the time to reply .
@ Andies -I did discover how to report issues to the local council Prow (which is Essex) last week and I have made quite a few reports in fact I fear Like you I will be accused of making too many reports
but to me that means there are too many landowners not following the rules.
I wish you all the success with the lost footpath reports ,let us know how you get on. I believe the Ramblers association are going to have a reporting system online this month for people to report lost footpaths. I am looking forward to seeing it.
@whitstable Dave - I am trying to find out from the council if one of the lost footpaths have been extinguished , they say they will have to investigate further so I await the result.I am glad you managed to get some of your reports of issues sorted.
@ BWW- thanks for your welcome it sounds like you have hit the nail on the head about the D.M.
@Richardh- like you I have moved down from the land where there is no public footpaths but where you are free to roam (well almost).I find it oppressive for walkers down here and it takes a lot of pre route planning to make sure you don't tread off the barely marked footpaths lest an angry farmer appears with his shotgun.
@Pleb and Davidedgar -I have been considering joining the ramblers assoc.I agree they do good work but £49 per year is a bit too much for me at the moment and as I don't fancy walking with large groups of people I dont think I could justify the expense.
@ Ninth - I had a look at your link to the Devon council .quite a slick mapping page loads so much faster than the essex prow page
@ Rural Roamer - I feel your pain regarding crops over the footpath , the favourite here is farmers ploughing the footpath to extinction
I think I need Gunwharfman to come to essex and run over some of the ploughed footpaths a few times to reinstate them.