ECCLESHALL PARISH COUNCIL – FOOTPATHS COMMITTEE MINUTES – May 1st, 2024

A meeting of the Footpaths Committee was held on Wednesday, May 1^st, at 7pm at Eccleshall Community Centre.

Present were:-

Councillor R. Taylor (Chair)               Councillor C. Wilkins

Councillor D. Hill                                  Councillor S. Perren

Co-opted members:

Mr. Graham Cole

Mrs S. J. Worden (Clerk)

Observer: Cllr. P. Jones

1).    Apologies:-

Apologies were received from Cllr. Mifflin.

2).    To approve the minutes of the meeting held on February 7^th, 2024.

The minutes, which had been previously circulated, were agreed and signed.

3).    Review of current maintenance schedule, work completed to date and any new issues to consider.

The updated maintenance schedule was circulated for information prior to the meeting.

Items pending included:

• Replacement of a finger post at Bishops Wood – to be completed.
• FP94 broken stile – requires volunteer support due to distance from the road and carrying of required equipment and materials. The Clerk will re-request support from the Rights of Way team.
• FP118 – requires 3 stile repairs and 2 x fingerpost repairs. A resident local to the path has requested one of the stiles be converted to a kissing gate. However, as not one of the most used walking paths, the cost would be prohibitive. Mr. Cole will contact a local resident to try and identify the landowner for the fields the path crosses, so the council can ask for their support in maintaining the route.
• FP21 – There is a collapsed gate and a broken stile at the start of the route. Members agreed to leave the stile repair for now as there is open access to the route and the stile is not needed. It was noted that the field is heavily ploughed to the edge which make the path difficult for walkers. The landowner details are not known.
• Walk 10 (old leaflet) – various stiles and tidying as time permits as not a key route.

4).     Footpath Walks:

• Members were updated on the design of new information boards for Bishop’s Wood. The content has been approved by Forestry England and the SCC Rights of Way officer is also supportive. There will be a final sign off of the artwork before manufacture. There will be one large board located in the centre of Bishops Wood and 2 smaller boards located at the west and east entrances. It was resolved to recommend approval of £861 plus VAT for the board artwork, signs, posts and fixings. Installation will be quoted separately, and the Clerk is in the process of obtaining quotes.

5).    To receive feedback regarding ongoing issues on Bridleway 47 (Fairoak) in relation to resident concerns over track surface:

The current situation is that Savills, on behalf of the church commission, have reviewed land registry records and concluded that the stretch of bridleway land requiring remedial works for vehicular access is unregistered and therefore the Church Commissioners have no legal obligation to maintain it. The bridleway has been inspected by the Rights of Way team and as the condition is suitable for pedestrian, cyclist and equestrian access, they have no requirement to undertake any works to improve the surface. The Rights of Way officer noted that any landowner with the private right to use the track should have some responsibility for it in their respective deeds and that this may need to be progressed via independent legal advice. Members noted this was a frustrating outcome for the residents but now seemed to be a private matter.

6).    To consider the revised quote for a single heritage trail via Trail Tale

Members were originally provided with a quotation from Trail tale for 5 trails, with 4 or 5 points of interest per trail at a cost of £600 + VAT per route, to include 5 years of subscription on Trail Tale. It was then agreed to request a quote for one trail to include the town centre area as a trial. This has been quoted at £1200 plus VAT, to include 20-25 points of interest, with the option to add the further trails later for a one-off cost of £1,800. It was resolved to not proceed with this proposal, as the cost was very high, and it was felt it would not be used enough to justify the price.

7).   Update on Keep Eccleshall Tidy Team (KETT)

• There are no updates to report.

8).    Correspondence:

• There was no further correspondence to receive.

9).   Items for next meeting

Items can be forwarded to the Clerk.

10).  Date of next meeting:-

Wednesday 14^th August 2024, at 7pm, Eccleshall Community Centre, prior to the Planning committee meeting.

There being no further business, the Chairman declared the meeting closed at 7.30pm.