The State Of Footpaths

[Meantime]

3 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

Once you let them "fall into dis-use" you may have lost them forever.

That's the fear. Many of these foot paths were established centuries ago and used by farm hands as the short cut to the local village, to get home, or to the pub after a hard days graft in the field. These days it can be a constant battle with land owners to keep them open. Use them or loose them. It must be said however that back in the times when these paths were first established there was no local council who used to come around and trim the undergrowth away from the footpath. It was mostly controlled by regular usage of the path treading the weeds and the undergrowth down.

[Cheesey69]

As one who is tasked with keeping public footpaths clear around my section of the m25, I feel every one’s pain. 
unfortunately, strimming  is just one aspect of my job and I’m afraid low priority, more pressing matters always seem to appear, and yes these other jobs are also statuary ones. More so in most cases. 
You could employ more workers but that’s a commitment for life. You can’t just off load them at slow times. 
For value for money it’s a good strategy to make your operative multi skilled. I for one can drive a snow plough, repair pot holes, drive a road sweeper, hgv class one, temporary traffic management, spray weed killer and the list goes on.
And believe me, if you’re clearing public footpaths on the outer reaches of your patch, someone, somewhere will say you are wasting time and money doing that when you could be doing this. 
push your local council to find out why is this service lacking but I think you will find out that it will boil down to the lack of warm bodies to do the work 

[Vaughan]

1 hour ago, Cheesey69 said:

I for one can drive a snow plough, repair pot holes, drive a road sweeper, hgv class one, temporary traffic management, spray weed killer and the list goes on.

A man after my own heart! 

For me, it included driving a telescopic mobile crane, to get boats out of the water.

[kpnut]

Subcontracting to local landowners is what’s done round here. Saves having to have a seasonal labour force. Yes, farmers make a bit of money on it, but employing people also costs money along with buying and maintaining machinery. Many of our farmers take a pride in ‘their patch’. We are a ‘walkers are welcome’ area, even the local pubs etc advertise as muddy boots welcome. 
In my opinion, where there’s a will there’s a way and it is not sufficient to ignore a statutory responsibility just because there are other things to spend money on. It becomes another ‘rural vs urban’ argument to say money is better spent on tarmac etc. 

[marshman]

Hmmm - the three biggest landowners  around here are not quite so benevolent!!! They operate on the principle thats whats theirs is theirs and even if you think you have any rights, the most important thing is the large sign you see everywhere spelling out in no uncertain terms "PRIVATE" !!!! Walkers are definitely widely discouraged , certainly not a "walkers are welcome " area around the Broads.

Don't get me wrong there are lots of footpaths around, but farming is big business and restoring, renewing and cutting and clearing, is not really No 1 on the Agenda. Or thats how I see it....!!!

 

[kpnut]

On 12/08/2022 at 12:14, kpnut said:
But when I went past the dead trees pumping station and along to Fleet Dyke it was another story. I got soaked to my waist by the overgrown vegetation, mostly reeds but some patches of thistles. This is one of the paths I reported on the council website online form.

 

 

 

 

Well, what a difference a couple of months make. Not taken from the same spot, but the same path that I battled with in august and just in september Helen (Ynys Mon) and I walked along with the dogs, still overgrown then but not as bad as august. 
The path has obviously been strimmed right back, it’s not just the vegetation dying back in the autumn. 
I wonder if it’s down to our and others reporting, or just co-incidence. 
The Ludham to Potter riverbank path was much better after putting in a report too. Although I have a feeling it’s nothing to do with the reports submitted, I’d urge anyone finding an awful path next year to report it and perhaps they won’t end up so bad. It must be a far more soul-destroying job to clear it when do overgrown than to just do a maintenance visit.
We’ll see!!!

[YnysMon]

That’s good news. As you know, I kept losing sight of Seren in all the growth in September. 

[marshman]

Thats part of of the main river bank, the flood prevention put in place by BESL and they cut these once a year usually in autumn in part to inspect them for damage etc I guess. At some stage in the near future, I believe they are trying to "unload" the commitment!