Volunteers help with waymarking, among other tasks
The great outdoors is already a thriving example of the Government’s lauded ‘Big Society’, but cuts to professional staff put at risk the ability of volunteers to help maintain the countryside.
That’s the warning from the Ramblers, Britain’s biggest walkers’ charity, which this week released a ‘Paths to Success’ list, detailing where volunteers have helped keep paths in good stead.
The Ramblers said its volunteer workers have helped keep open more than 600 footpaths. But local authority budget cuts – George Osborne’s comprehensive spending review revealed a 27 per cent reduction in funding for councils – mean not only an end to many authorities’ work on rights of way, but volunteers will be prevented from helping too.
The charity said volunteer work on footpaths requires a large amount of technical expertise and co-ordination. The planned cuts are likely to lead not only to a reduction in resources but also a decrease in professional rights of way staff, without whose expertise volunteering opportunities will dwindle, spelling disaster for our work as part of the Big Society vision, it said.
Chief executive Tom Franklin said: “We have thousands of volunteers who are happy to roll up their sleeves and get involved but funding and technical support is still needed in order for the Big Society to flourish in the great outdoors.
“The Ramblers have played an active role in local communities for decades, clearing footpaths, putting up signs and encouraging people to get healthier through walking but volunteers can only do so much.
“Professional staff in local authorities remain vital to the proper protection and improvement of footpaths. Their role in enforcing the law and processing statutory orders cannot be passed down to the Big Society. Equally, the role of volunteers can only develop and thrive if paid staff are available to coordinate this work, provide support and training, and negotiate with landowners.”
The Ramblers released a list of recent volunteer projects:
- North Yorkshire County Council – Ramblers volunteers replaced rotting stiles
- Leeds City Council – Ramblers volunteers replaced a broken fence with a self-closing gate, rebuilt a stone flanking wall and repaired a fence
- Isle of Anglesey County Council – Council staff and Ramblers volunteers cleared, waymarked and built gates and bridges on 40 paths
- Cheshire East Council – Ramblers volunteers cleared brambles and debris on 60 paths
- Derbyshire County Council – Ramblers volunteers installed gates, stiles and two bridges as well as clearing vegetation on 22 paths
- Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council – a group of Ramblers volunteers cleared the debris from a path that was blocked by flooding, allowing it to drain
- Lincolnshire County Council – Council staff and Ramblers volunteers cleared heavy undergrowth on two paths
- Staffordshire County Council – Ramblers volunteers fitted steps, handrails and stiles on five paths
- Ceredigion County Council – Council staff and Ramblers volunteers helped clear paths, and install stiles, kissing gates and bridges on 19 rights of way
- Norfolk County Council – Ramblers volunteers helped to raise money for, and assisted in, fitting steps on what was a very steep path
- Herefordshire Council – Ramblers volunteers worked to clear four blocked paths
- Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council – volunteers replaced vandalised waymarks
- Gloucestershire County Council – Ramblers volunteers raised money for kissing gates, which they then installed
- South Gloucestershire Council – a group of Ramblers volunteers cleared four paths so the public could use them again
- Northamptonshire County Council – Ramblers volunteers removed illegal signs that were blocking a very busy and well-used path that was shut by a developer
- Cambridgeshire County Council – Ramblers volunteers helped raise funds for benches as well as waymarking and surveying 25 paths
- Suffolk County Council – Ramblers volunteers cleared, waymarked and installed bridges on eight paths
- Buckinghamshire County Council – Ramblers volunteers cleared a path blocked by blackthorn bushes
- Hertfordshire County Council – Ramblers volunteers installed gates and cleared a path. Ramblers also worked with the council to develop a new walk, the Hoop, which they helped waymark and publicise
- Surrey County Council – Ramblers volunteers cleared nine heavily overgrown paths
- Kent County Council – Ramblers volunteers cleared three paths from crops and undergrowth
- Isle of Wight Council – Ramblers volunteers installed over 100 fingerposts to ensure paths were waymarked correctly.
