Agenda item

Martin Bennett, member of the Peak District LAF and Footpath Secretary & Access Officer for the Derbyshire Dales Group of The Ramblers, gave a presentation on the role of a Footpath Secretary.  Martin stated that the footpath network is a unique national asset that brings many benefits to the population.  The Ramblers are a statutory consultee on planning applications.  Martin and the Parish Path Wardens cover 73 of the 110 parishes in the Derbyshire Dales area, with the aim of each path being walked at least once a year.  The wardens report back on any problems, including signposting, obstructions, bridges, stiles and gates.  These are then referred to the relevant authority.  Other issues that are looked at are barbed wire adjacent to stiles and gates, and also road safety where the route of a path means crossing a road at points where there is poor visibility of oncoming traffic, especially on the busier, faster roads, where there may be high volumes of heavy goods vehicles.

Paul Richardson thanked Martin for a great presentation.  Paul asked how the public can contact the Parish Path Wardens, who walk the footpaths in their parish to flag up problems with way marking, obstructions and maintenance on stiles and so on.  Martin advised that people should contact The Ramblers who would pass the details onto the relevant authority.  Alternatively, people can report things to the relevant Highway Authority directly.  Reporting issues directly to the Highway Authority is not always straightforward.  The reporting process for Derbyshire is via an online system, which can sometimes include up to 20 steps and is enough to put people off.  Fix my Street is a much easier system.  With the DCC Highways reporting system, the acknowledgement you receive just provides a reference number, without the body of the text of your email detailing the problem, so if you are reporting multiple issues, it is problematic keeping track of things.  Paul queried why there couldn’t be a national central reporting system.  Louise suggested that the difficulties with the reporting process could be raised with DCC Highways at a future discussion.