HUNSDON PARISH COUNCIL
PROMOTING THE PUBLIC RIGHTS OF
WAY IN HUNSDON PARISH IN
CONJUNCTION WITH
THE PARISH PATHS PARTNERSHIP
HUNSDON PARISH COUNCIL
PARISH PATHS PARTNERSHIP
1. What is the Parish Paths Partnership?
It is a partnership between the County
Council Environment Dept. through its Countryside Access Officers, its
Countryside Management Service and the Parish Council. The aim is to maintain and enhance the
rights of way network. The Parish
Council’s role is to monitor the condition of the paths and ensure that they
are kept open and that any structures, i.e. stiles, gates, bridges etc. are up to standard. To achieve these aims there is a close
working relationship between the three branches of the partnership as well as
with the local landowners and farmers.
Grants are available from the County
Council to cover costs of materials and labour where volunteers are not
available.
A secondary role of the partnership is to make people
aware of the footpath network and to encourage full use by means of publicity
and production of maps and leaflets.
2. The role
of Hunsdon Parish Council.
The
Parish Council formally joined the Parish Paths Partnership in May 1999. The services were enlisted of David
Hunt, a former member of the Parish Council within which he had previously a
responsibility for public footpaths.
His role within the Partnership was to act as co-ordinator with responsibility
for the day-to-day upkeep of the paths.
The Parish Council Clerk, John Ashley, acted as the second member of the
team providing administrative back up and responsibility for implementation of
capital works and financial management of the County Council Grant. Unfortunately due to other
commitments David Hunt was unable to give the time to the project which he had
hoped and reluctantly withdrew from the project early in 2001.
The
Clerk although retiring from his position in 2001 agreed to carry on as
Footpath Warden and has continued in this capacity to the present day.
The
initial task facing the two wardens was to carry out a comprehensive survey of
each path within the parish and this was submitted to HCC detailing the general
state of the surface and structures together with recommendations as to work
required to bring the network up to standard.
During
that year and in 2002 various works were carried out to improve or replace the
structures and with the co-operation of the farmers involved a routine established
to ensure that paths across cultivated land were kept open. At the same time a programme of mowing and
strimming of field edge paths several times during the growing season was
organised by the Countryside Access Officer at HCC thus ensuring free access
over the network throughout the year.
3. The next steps.
Towards
the end of 2002 the Countryside Management Service felt that the time had come
to let people know more about the network of public rights of way on their
doorstep and it was suggested that a map be produced detailing the paths. A similar suggestion was made to Eastwick
and Gilston Parish Council and as there were many paths that crossed the
boundary providing circular walks the two councils decided that the project
should go ahead as a joint venture by initially producing a map board which
would be sited at strategic points in the parishes.
A
start was made in 2003 with the artwork for the map being undertaken by Helen
Paterson who had produced a similar map for Codicote. The work went ahead with various revisions in the light of
experience in other parishes. One of
the suggestions was to insert the footpath number for the paths, both in the
two parishes but also those of adjoining parishes where the paths passed off
the map. This was then supplemented by
the insertion of a prefix letter to show the actual parish involved. The work
of producing the final print and construction of the boards was undertaken by
the firm of Fitzpatrick-Woolmer who specialize in this type of work, with
funding being provided by HCC via the Parish Paths Partnership. The boards were completed and erected in
March 2004 and were the subject of articles in the local press in April.
Map board erected on Hunsdon Village
Hall Car Park
Press photo in Herts & Essex
Observer of Map Board at Eastwick. From
left, Matt Perry, Countryside Management Service, Helen Paterson, artist, John
Ashley, Hunsdon Footpath Warden, Albert Towse, Eastwick & Gilston
Councillor and
Footpath Warden, David May, E &
G PC Chairman, Bud Carthy, Hunsdon PC Chairman.
4. The folding map project.
The next logical step was to amplify the information provided by the map boards into the form of an A2 size paper folding map. This again was a joint project by both parishes; use being made of the information already available for the actual map with the reverse containing the legal description of the rights of way, some local history and other notes relevant to the footpath network. The front cover featured a colour picture of Cockrobin Lane, an ancient track on the border between the parishes
Printing was by
Lithmark Ltd of Hitchin, again with funding by HCC through the Parish Paths
Partnership. Initial distribution was
by the insertion of a copy in the form of a free supplement with the June 2004
issue of Hunsdon Village News. With a
circulation of 340 this reached some 75% of dwellings in the Parish. To help offset the publishing costs further
copies were sold at 50p to all comers in Hunsdon Stores and The Crown public
house. A similar procedure was adopted
in Eastwick and Gilston.
5. Walks in and around Hunsdon.
The information
provided by the projects so far only showed where the footpaths were, so
Hunsdon PC decided to go another step further along the line and produce a
series of circular walks with an accompanying sketch map starting in the centre
of the village and spreading out across the parish borders. These contained not only the directions for
the walk but things of interest along the way. The first of these was published in the April edition of Hunsdon
Village news and the intention is to produce one walk each month throughout the
summer, ultimately publishing these and other walks as a collection in the form
of a book for sale.
John Ashley
Hunsdon Parish Paths
Warden