Volunteers put in more than 3,000 hours in helping keep 2,500 miles of West Sussex public pathways in good condition

The figure was shared during a meeting of the county council’s planning and rights of way committee on Tuesday (October 11).

There are around 4000km/2,500 miles of foot-ways and bridle-ways in the county and every single one of them needs to be inspected at least every 15 months.

It’s quite the job for the Countryside Services and Rights of Way teams and far from the only task on their ‘to do’ list, which is where the volunteers – known as rangers – come in handy.

Over the course of 57 days, they cleared 4,185m of vegetation, laid 31 tonnes of stone along the rights of way and installed ten 5m and 6m bridges and one plank crossing.

On top of that, they installed 74m of board-walk over five sites, cleared 20 fallen trees, installed or repaired 13 signs and installed 140m of revetments – boards used to stabilise the banks of streams.

Nicholas Scott, the principal rights of way officer, said volunteers were ‘a big part of the service’ and ‘a very import resource’ for the service.

Looking at the rest of his report, he told the meeting about efforts to make it easier for people to access the rights of way.

One such effort involved offering landowners gates to replace stiles, which some people would be unable to climb.

Mr Scott said 48 gates were given to landowners during 2021, on the understanding that the landowners would install and maintain them.

Throughout the year, the service spent more than £560,000 of capital funding and S106 money to pay for the work carried out along the network.

This included £70,000 for anti-slip improvement work to bridge decking at a Shoreham-by-Sea bridle-way; £12,000 for bridge design works in Crawley and Angmering; and £20,000 for bridge design works and repairs in Fernhurst.

Another £100,000 of work will be carried out during 2022/23, largely made up of surface work in Kirdford, Aldingbourne and Selsey.

For more politics news, visit https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/news/politics