SOUTH WILTS GROUP RAMBLERS ASSOCIATION

 Footpath committee Meeting 3rd November 2008

Present - M Callow, U Milner-White, J Hawkins, P Dashwood, N Cowen, N Martin, G Read

Apologies - N Dunnell, S Dawson

VOLUNTEER WORKING PARTIES  

Heavy - September       Repair of Bridge Stapleford                                          10 hours

            October            None

Light -  September        Berwick St John 8- 400m cleared.                                12 hours

            October            Durnford 13- 500m cleared.                                       17.5 hours

MATTERS ARISING

1.1 Response to Walk Letter- Graham has replied in detail by email to Mr Hands and has had an acknowledgement. He has also sent a letter to Walk we await to see if it is published.

1.2  Volunteers needed to survey and way-mark the part of the Wessex Ridgeway path that passes through South Wiltshire. Norman will liaise with Nick to divide this up into lengths suitable for survey. We will then ask for volunteers.

1.3 Norman has discussed his resignation with the chairman and has agreed to remain in post for the time being to see if a replacement can be found.

1.4 Norman has started removing old documents from the Footpath Committee files. John is interested in keeping some of the historical documents. Norman will arrange for him to collect these.

2. AGENDA ITEMS

2.1. Signing Access Land

Problems with the quality of the signs will be reported. Graham is willing to manage the next phase of signing if better signs can be found.

2.2. Redlynch Project

This is still ongoing. 4 kissing gates still need to be installed for New Forest. We also have some money to use from the Parish Council - Norman and Graham will look at repairing/replacing some stiles in order to spend some of this.

3. Footpath Reports - 8059 - 8066

These are listed below. The problems were all discussed with Nick and are all on his work schedule.

4. Correspondence and Agreed Responses

4.1 WCC - Proposed Diversion of Footpath 11 at Newton Tony - Order made to divert path - objections can be made until 20th October. Phone call to local resident - objections have been made locally plus a possible application to add track used for years as ROW.

4.2 WCC - Rights of Way Improvement Plan published. Patricia and Martin will peruse this as they formulated our response to the draft. They will report back on any significant issues.

4.3 WCC - Salisbury FP 105 St Ann Place- Public meeting date announced. 10th March 09 10.00 am Methodist Church.

4.4 WCC - Sutton Mandeville FP 35 Order already confirmed to add path- a 'Wiltshire Gate'  was then found to be blocking the new path. The Farmer has agreed to replace this with an easy to open field gate.

5. ANY OTHER BUSINESS

5.1 Graham noted that the area committee had discussed a number of long standing problems on paths in South Wiltshire. He sought an assurance from Nick that resolution of these was still on the WCC agenda. Progress had been made to resolve a problem on Dinton 5 following the serving of a section130A Form 1 Notice on the WCC by the area committee.

5.2  Nick reported that Whiteparish Parish Council has asked for a copy of the survey that Graham did last year which he has supplied. Graham noted that the photos related to the survey are available to view in the internet. Nick hopes to get back to the problems in this area now that the demand for seasonal clearing has reduced. The small tractor and flail have worked well on paths that are clear of large vegetation.

5.3 Martin reported that he may not be able to attend so many meetings in the new year as he is probably working on Mondays then. We agreed that we could change the day of meetings to Wednesdays if necessary.

5.4 Patricia said she was concerned about the general state of Sedgehill and Semley. Nick agreed that this parish needed a lot of work and that he is conscious of this when he plans work programmes.

6. NEXT MEETING    Monday December 1st 2008 2.00 pm Wilton Depot Meeting Room. This is only 1 month but will put our meetings back to the right month after missing one in August.