Ramblers at a new gate on a footpath near Hastings

Volunteers from Britain’s biggest walking charity contributed almost £1m-worth of work fixing footpaths last year.

Figures revealed by the Ramblers showed its members spent the equivalent of £919,296, saving stretched authorities cash in the British countryside.

The charity’s Paths in Crisis report said more than 100,000 path problems were reported to authorities in England, but which hadn’t been fixed. It said its 152 path maintenance teams work with local authorities across the country to help fix these problems and ensure paths are kept clear for everyone to enjoy.

Benedict Southworth, chief executive of the Ramblers, said: “The Paths in Crisis report highlighted just how crucial the work of our path maintenance teams is, and that volunteering to help fix these problems is more important than ever.

“Our teams work tirelessly, clearing brambles and other overgrown vegetation, making sure paths are well signposted and improving path surfaces so they are easy to walk along.

“Many of our teams also repair or install gates and bridges and even look to improve accessibility for people with pushchairs or wheelchair users by replacing stiles with kissing gates.

“It’s truly amazing to hear that if local authorities had to pay for all the path maintenance carried out by our volunteers last year, they would have had to shell out almost £1m.

“We want to say a huge thank you to all our volunteers who work so hard to keep our footpaths a pleasure to walk. They offer such an invaluable service so we would like to take this opportunity to recognise their efforts.”

Each path team had an average eight volunteers taking part in 4½ hours’ activity on each of the 1,824 days they worked in 2013.