Working together on our
Rights of Way
Countryside Services
Powys County Council
Countryside Services
The work of Countryside Services includes:• Public Rights of Way
• Access Land
• National & Recreational Trails
• Other promoted routes
• Definitive Map and Statement
• Enforcement
• Working with volunteers
• Common land
• Biodiversity
• Outdoor Recreation – parks and recreation
Countryside Services
A few facts about our work . . .
• Powys has the largest public rights of way network in Wales,
more than a quarter of the Welsh network.
• 8,056km of public rights of way (5,800 miles)
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Footpaths – 5,864km
Bridleways – 2,598km
Restricted byway – 507km
BOAT – 219km
• 2000 square miles
• 579 square miles of Access Land in Powys.
• Over third all Access Land in Wales.
Countryside Access
• 2 National Trails –
Offa’s Dyke Path and Glyndwr’s Way.
• 8 long-distance Recreational Trails.
• Other promoted routes including
Powys on Horseback, Accessible
Powys, Circular Trails etc.
• There are 3,927km of promoted routes.
• Powys published a Rights of Way
Improvement Plan in 2007, this
document sets out our policies and
priorities to 2017.
Public Rights of Way
Maintenance & Improvement
• 5 Local Area Officers – public rights
of way, access land and
recreational trails.
• 2 National Trail Officers.
• 1 Volunteer Co-Ordinator.
• On average, Countryside Services
opens and maintains 277km of
public rights of way per year.
Volunteering on Rights of Way
• Volunteer Co-Ordinator has been in post since 2001.
• Over the last 13 years, 160 volunteers have been
involved with the Countryside Volunteer Programme.
• In the first 3 years the volunteers opened an average of 80km of
public rights of way per year; installing stiles, gates, bridges,
boardwalks and carrying out general path works.
• Since 2005 volunteers have built 150+ bridges and similar structures.
These vary from 3m to 20m boardwalks and 3m to 13m footbridges as
well as culverts and similar structures. The volunteers have repaired,
cleaned and improved many other structures and installed many gates
and way-mark posts etc.
• Last year, the volunteers created a new Accessible Community
Garden in Newtown, with raised beds, bridges and a boardwalk over a
pond.
Volunteering on Rights of Way
• The Volunteer Co-ordinator is trained to NEBOSH level in Health
and Safety and has Manual Handling and Off-road driver training.
Duty of care and safe systems of work is paramount.
• Over the years the volunteers have enjoyed a good deal of press
coverage including front page of a number of newspapers such as
Shropshire Star, Mid Wales Journal and County Times. We have
also featured on ITV News when we floated a bridge kit across
Clywedog Reservoir.
• We have engaged with educational establishments and supported
students with work experience programmes.
• For six years, we were able to have an Assistant role, which was
aimed at those in, or just leaving higher education.
Volunteering: The Future?
Countryside Services are now starting to
consult on a number of proposed new
volunteer projects.
1. Offa’s Dyke Path Warden Scheme
2. Glyndwr’s Way Path Warden Scheme
3. Recreational Trails Path Warden
Scheme
4. Rights of Way and Access Officer
Special Volunteer Projects
5. Outdoor Recreation Volunteer
Project
Offa’s Dyke & Glyndwr’s Way
Path Warden Schemes
These projects involve recruiting, training and enabling volunteers to
take responsibility for sections of the Offa’s Dyke and Glyndwr’s Way
National Trails.
After being trained and supplied with the relevant tools and Personal
Protective Equipment, the volunteers would be expected to walk their
sections at least four times a year, carrying out minor clearance and
improvement works as well as reporting any more major issues to the
relevant National Trail Officer.
This work would be unsupervised,
however volunteers must work in pairs
or groups so that no lone working is
undertaken.
Recreational Trails
Path Warden Scheme
Due to budgetary pressures, the Recreational Trails Officer Post
was made redundant. The Recreational Trails have now become
the top priority for the Rights of Way and Access Officers.
This proposed project involves recruiting, training and enabling
volunteers to take responsibility for sections of the Recreational
Trails.
After being trained and supplied with the relevant tools and PPE,
the volunteers would be expected to regularly walk their sections,
carrying out minor clearance and improvement works as well as
reporting any more major issues to the Area Officer.
This work would be unsupervised, however volunteers must work
in pairs or groups so that no lone working is undertaken.
Rights of Way and Access Officers
Special Volunteer Projects
As resources and budgets diminish it is proposed that the Area
Officers utilise volunteers to a much greater degree.
For 2014-15, each Area Officer will be expected to run one project
with volunteers. The project can be on a Recreational Trail or the
general public rights of way network.
All work will be managed and
supervised by the Area Officer,
with support from the Volunteer
Co-ordinator as and when required.
This project is a pilot and will be
reviewed in 12 months. The
expectation is that Area Officers
will work with volunteers to a
greater degree in future years.
How Ramblers Cymru can help?
• Give Powys Countryside Services
your feedback on these proposed
schemes.
• Working with us to make these
proposed schemes a success.
• Helping us to recruit volunteers by
publicising these volunteering
opportunities to members.
• These proposals are a starting point
and they will be reviewed regularly.
If schemes work well there may be
the opportunity to give volunteers
greater responsibilities in the future.
Web Presence and Social Media
Information available online at
www.powys.gov.uk/countryside
For details on promoted routes go to
www.exploremidwales.com