Council committed to repairing local footpaths

Council committed to repair local footpaths

Having surveyed the whole network of Rights of Way Rochdale Ramblers concluded around 10% of the network needed some sort of attention.

At its request, Rochdale Council has been provided with a full copy of the survey and it is understood that the council will now group jobs to make repairs more cost effective.

Roy Thorniley, Footpath and Countryside Secretary, The Ramblers, Rochdale Group said: “The initial plan was to drip feed the 174 reports in to the Council over a period of months so as not to clog the system.

“The Ramblers had already submitted 49 reports to the environmental management with a view to getting the network improved.

“However, there was a welcomed development.

“At the forum the Council asked for the full list of the remaining 125 path problems. This would allow them to use the content of the report to support any budget applications. The list was supplied and days later the maintenance team replied saying that they preferred the complete list giving the overall picture as they were able to group jobs together and allocate them out more cost effectively to the maintenance teams in the various geographical areas.

“We are hopeful that this will speed up stile repairs, signage and way marking problems, and other issues over the coming months without having to submit another 125 individual reports.

“At the forum we also learned that the review of the definitive map was several months behind schedule and it was unlikely that we will see a new draft map in 2015.”