Many people avoided country footpaths over the holiday weekend because of confusion about which routes were open.

More than 1,000 miles of paths were open in East Sussex despite restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease.

The latest guidance from the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food (MAFF) is that keeping paths closed is no longer necessary.

The Government is now calling on authorities to reopen all rights of way in counties where there has never been a case of foot-and-mouth.

But East Sussex County Council admitted the latest advice came too late for a total opening this weekend.

Some people avoided using some rights of way because they did not know whether they had reopened or not.

A council spokeswoman said: "The county council has worked closely with farmers, landowners, tourism representatives, the Ramblers Association, local councils and many others in a rolling programme to open up the countryside to help rural businesses and tourism.

"It has followed MAFF advice throughout. But the new guidance has come too late for a total opening last weekend.

"This is because farmers and landowners needed time to make arrangements for their livestock and new advice needs to go out to the public about using paths."

Simon Eden of West Sussex County Council said: "The position is that 80 per cent of our network is now open.

"We have an ongoing programme of opening rights of way as soon as risk assessments have been completed. We anticipate that the entire network will be open by the end of next week."

Parts of the South Downs Way remained closed last week because of animals grazing along the route.