Managing a volunteer work party project on public rights of way

By Phil Marshall Countryside Access Officer at Swansea Council

When designing projects on public rights of way, what should we be thinking about as outdoor officers in the most basic sense? To aid me in explaining I will use a recent bridge refurbishment as an example.

Works can come about in a number of diverse ways. We have complaints coming into the generic Countryside Access mailbox, we have people phoning in complaints, and we also have works that are generated by our own surveys of paths or promoted walking routes. Situated in one of the remotest areas of Swansea County, the bridge in question was found to be in a state of disrepair after a survey of one of our promoted walking routes, (the Cwm Clydach Walk). The bridge was installed approximately 15 years ago, and fortunately for us, when it was installed, we used a steel sub-frame clad in timber. This meant that we could strip off the old rotten timber back down to the steel sub-frame and rebuild from scratch.

I assume most local authorities / highways authorities are in similar financial circumstances, so value for money is paramount. This is why, over the past six or seven years, our team has begun a programme of replacing rotten timber bridges with steel sub-frame and recycled plastic designs. This is hopefully future proofing our stock of bridleway and pedestrian bridges and in the long-term saving money, which can go towards other PROW issues instead. We could have used a contractor to strip the bridge timbers, get the replacement cladding to site and to re-clad the bridge, but, due to the location, the cost would not have been economically viable. We also have access to a fantastic team of rambler volunteers, who have completed some fantastic work with us over the years, (including installing and refurbishing bridges).

After finding the most cost effective / affordable method of completing the works, we then had to work out the easiest way to site. After our initial survey discovered the damaged bridge, we had to clear the easiest route down, (the sunken lane) of about twenty fallen trees, (one of which still had someone’s chainsaw bar in it). This was a slow and laborious process as we would drive our quad about thirty metres and then have to stop for about half an hour to clear the trees, (rinse and repeat). This we completed a couple of months ago to allow us access to check on potential risks / hazards, look for emergency evacuation sites, take what3words references for various points, remove some nest boxes from the underside of the bridge, (so we didn’t disturb nesting birds when re-cladding), to check on the sizes of fixings we needed to order and the size of plastic for refurbishment and any other pre works.

Other things we had to get ready prior to the work party were; ordering and picking up the plastic to reclad the bridge, ordering and picking up the fixings for the bridge, ordering drills, (due to different sized fixings, booking our 4x4 and quad bike, (it is a shared resource amongst about 15 staff), ensuring that our rambler work party were available as we were completing the task a week earlier than their normal work party day, creating notices and press releases and getting them translated into Welsh to inform people about the fact that the bridge would not be useable for a two week period.

The week before the work party, a colleague and I took all the plastic to site. This took four arduous mile long treks down the sunken lane riverbed. We stashed the plastic on site above any potential flooding and removed some of the timbers from the bridge. All the timbers we could fit on the back of our Polaris quad were removed from site and taken back to our yard and disposed of. From loading up with tools, driving to site, driving the quad to site and driving back to the yard at the end of the day it took two of us about 9 hours.

The next day we were back again and stripped all the woodwork off the bridge. Again, removing what we could from site and disposing of it in our skip. Again, this was about a 9 hour day.

Finally, the day of the work party arrived. A glorious sunny spring day. Two colleagues, ten rambler volunteers and I reclad the bridge in approximately four and a half hours. This involved; drilling and fixings the posts, screwing down the deck boards, screwing the handrail and kick rail to the posts, re-installing the two nest boxes, removing all the old timbers and anything else from site and disposing of all the waste.

The work party day sounds remarkably simple because we have been fortunate enough to work with this group of ramblers for a number of years and because of all the pre-planning. Yes, we still have tool talks and yes, we still talk them through the site risk assessment each time. However, due to the number of hours they have put in, they all know what they must do to get the job completed, and they all have people they prefer working with on jobs they prefer to do. Some of the group have been ill and cannot manage as much physically as they used to be able to, so they have adapted to undertake different support duties. Others in the group started out not wanting to touch the power tools or have responsibility for drilling, but with some encouragement, have now taken over certain aspects of the job, which is one of the greatest pleasures I get from the job. It says everything when it is both the rambler work party and our team’s favourite day of the month. It is a cathartic, sarcastic day of social interaction that benefits everyone, provides long term improvements to the prow network and long may it continue.

More from Swansea Council