A recent trip to Cornwall saw me standing in a farmyard, covered in mud, eating homemade cauliflower soup and surrounded by friendly faces. Despite cauliflower being a much maligned vegetable it’s one of my favourites, but that wasn’t what brought me to a farm in Cornwall.
Ramblers Cornwall’s REACT (Ramblers Environmental Action Clearance Team) have been working hard to re-open a network of paths near Liskeard and I’d come to lend a hand. You can read a lovely blog post by Sarah Gardner about her sunnier time with the group. After the dreadful summer we have had, it was inevitable that digging postholes and clearing away vegetation was going to be muddy work. That soup was certainly welcome and delicious (thanks Sylvia).
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
On site with us was Linda Holloway, the Senior Enforcement Officer for Cornwall County Council. Her role is to assert and protect the rights of the public to use Cornwall’s path network. REACT provides another tool in her armoury to keep paths open. The ability to join enforcement together with a ready solution on the ground means that more paths will be repaired and re-opened, and legal action can be reserved for when it’s really needed. REACT has worked closely with the local authority over the last couple of years, saving it the equivalent of £42,000.
Eighty teams like REACT work with local authorities to keep paths open. Twice this year I have met with local authority officers who have seen directly how effective Ramblers volunteers can be. We have eighty teams – but we need more. If you are a volunteer and this sounds like something you’d like to try, contact your local authority to show them how effective Ramblers volunteers can be. If you are a walker, and you’d like to volunteer with us, have a look at the opportunities on our website.
Despite the mud, we had a great day and we left with a real sense of satisfaction. The only downside was having to admit that this winter has finally done for my walking boots and that there was almost as much mud inside as outside. Still they have seen good service including acting as a valuable ‘prop’ in my interview for Chief Executive.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Once paths such as these are in a fit state to be opened again, Ramblers groups start taking groups of walkers along them, to publicise their existence. It doesn’t take long for the local community to reclaim these treasured paths, to be enjoyed for a long time to come.
Of course, we don’t just do path maintenance. Last year the Ramblers helped 1200 people to safeguard their local paths, including most recently the historic Mud Lane, at Purton in Wiltshire, which had been neglected for decades.
Being a supporter of the Ramblers doesn’t just offer you fun and friendship but also a chance to give something back, in return for the freedom that walking has brought you. By working on behalf of walkers the Ramblers helps bring jobs, health and wellbeing to local communities.
That’s something that I have been talking to Ramblers about over the last three months as I have travelled around attending annual meetings of our areas. From Cornwall to North Wales, Derbyshire to Somerset, I have met people working to help people walk and to protect the places that we love to go walking.
Over the next year we are going to talk to as many people as we can who share our passion for the outdoors. We’ll be talking to them about how we can continue to protect the sense of freedom that being outdoors on foot brings and enable others to access that freedom. More to follow in my next post…
Benedict is chief executive of the Ramblers – you can follow him on twitter @BenedictSouthWO
