Shrewsbury P3 presentation To Shrewsbury Ramblers AGM Nov 2018 What is P3. P3 is short for Parish Paths Partnership. There are some 60 groups around Shropshire. Footpath issues are reported to the council by members of the public. The council then prioritise them depending if there is a hazard to walkers and also whether it is a major footpath e.g. the Severn Way or the Shropshire Way. The council worker, in our case David Hardwick, then liaises with the landowner(s), gets the appropriate hardware and, a couple of days in advance, informs me where we will be working. I then organise transport. The council provides us with a budget for transport and tools which gets to us via the Shrewsbury Ramblers accounts. Who is Shrewsbury P3? Shrewsbury P3 is a group of volunteers who have an interest in working on footpaths in order to keep them easily accessible. Slides A1 – A5 Personnel 5 no Various reasons for volunteering are postulated. I suppose the most obvious one is that regular ramblers and walk leaders have an interest in keeping footpaths in good condition. About half of the P3 team belong to The Ramblers. Other volunteers enjoy the teamwork, the banter, and the fact that at the end of the day they can see the good work they have done. Others see it as a way of keeping fit, and others are encouraged by their homebased partners to remove the men from under their feet. Note ! women are always welcomed. We have 13 regular volunteers who normally give up 1 or 2 days, even up to 4 days every month. There are generally 4 work parties per month with normally between 4 and 6 volunteers. There is also a ‘Mini P3’. This is where between 1 and 3 of us go out to rectify specific small issues on our ’20 Walks’ routes, examples being path s clearing by brushcutter, repairing or replacing marker posts and renewing stile steps. Shrewsbury P3 is unique in Shropshire. Where other P3 groups work largely around their own Parish, we cover an area from Shrewsbury towards the south of the county. This means we can travel some 50 miles on the day. During the last 12 months we have been working almost exclusively towards the south of the county, around Church Stretton and Wenlock Edge, and Craven Arms. There are many paths around these areas and this gives us the opportunity to break into 2 or 3 groups, working within a short distance of each other. We are able to fit 3 kissing gates or stiles per day, filling any spare time up installing the odd Marker or Finger post. So let me show you a few examples of our work. Slides 1SB1-1SB3 3 no Craven Arms This job was a bridge and 2 metal gates near Craven Arms. In the first picture there is a redundant gate to the left of the stile. That was removed and fencing installed. It is all part of the job to keep field boundaries sheep and cattle proof.
Slides 2G1 – 2G17 9 no Goughs Coppice A path in Gough’ s Coppice near Church Stretton was steep and very muddy. It was decided that it needed some steps. We did several sessions during the winter where we carried tools, timber and hardcore up the barely climbable hill. The result of this was some 100 steps hewn into the rock and hardcored. As you see it was very muddy underfoot and at one time it snowed on us. We were given a motor powered wheelbarrow but it slid off the track and turned upside down. It would not start after that so we had to barrow the hard way. Slides 8MG1 – 8MG5 5 no Wenlock Edge A pleasant August day saw us at a place called Ticklerton installing 4 metal gates along the edge of a field and out to the road. Doug and Neville were sorting out the component parts of a kissing gate. This was a good day where we were all working within sight of each other and a lady living at the farm gave us tea and biscuits. Closer to home we have cleared and hardcored 2 paths in Shrewsbury and renewed 2 stiles and a kissing gate at Hook a Gate. Slides 12B1 – 12B6 6 no Belle Vue The first in Belle Vue was a route from near Belle Vue Road to a railway bridge which was used by school children and had got very muddy. We laid 8 tonnes of hardcore to make the 100 metres of path clean to walk on. Hardcore days are always very hard days! Slides 12H1 – 12H4 4 no Hook a Gate Two stiles with dog gates and 1 super large metal kissing gate were installed on Walk 20 at Hook a Gate. Apparently we should have fitted 3 ordinary kissing gates but as it was near the end of the financial year the council had run out of money and small gates! Slides 15R1 – 15R12 7 no Radbrook The third local project was during May in Radbrook. A path much used by walkers, dog walkers and Walking for Health groups was cleared of 100 metres of well overgrown trees and brambles. The whole path was then hardcored and we manufactured a wooden kissing gate at the end. We thought the big problem would be the brambles, but the flies and mosquitoes took our minds of the bramble ripped arms and legs. Note to self – Do not do P3 work wearing shorts. We have also had some interesting jobs. We have had some farm gateposts to install. These are very big and heavy and need to go a long way into the ground hence the holes have to be quite large. When one of these holes was being dug next to a village church we got strange looks from a funeral entourage that arrived at the church. Slide Q1 1 no We never found out why this kissing gate was installed where it was.
So to summarise our work this year Slide T1 Of the app rox 60 P3 groups around the county we work 1 in 7 of the county’s total hours. Slide T2 In the year to Nov 2018 Shrewsbury P3 has worked on 49 days clocking up 1619 volunteer hours which is over 1 man year and slightly more than previous years. Slide T3 We have installed 42 metal and 2 wooden gates compared with 35 last year and only 12 stiles – 20 last year. I think that will please many walkers who are not as agile as they used to be. Also 27 stile steps have been repaired and 41 marker/finger posts erected. Slide T4 The length of paths brushcut and cleared was 2550 metres- over 1 ½ miles, compared with 710metres last year. In addition we have revetted 93 metres and hardcored 299 metres of path. Slide T5 Finally we have installed 7 bridges and 109 steps – most of them at Goughs Coppice. I know some walk leaders have already used some of the paths we have worked on. As you see we have done a lot of work so any walk leader who is stuck for somewhere to go, there are plenty of good paths around Church Stretton, Wenlock Edge and Craven Arms. I would like to congratulate our P3 team who work hard under sometimes adverse conditions. I hear of other voluntary organisations whose members are unreliable but the volunteers of Shrewsbury P3 team always turn up when they say they will. This year we have all sorts of weather from ‘the beast from the east, to blazing hot days. And still they keep smiling and coming back for more. Peter Knight
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