The East Cheshire Ramblers Footpath Committee protects and improves the local walking environment by surveying public footpaths, addressing obstructions with the council, undertaking practical maintenance projects, and researching historic "lost ways" for official reinstatement.
Our core responsibilities include:
- Annual Surveys: Coordinating a team of around 40 volunteer Footpath Inspectors who walk and evaluate paths in specific parishes to track conditions over time.
- Issue Reporting: Monitoring and flagging problematic routes—such as blocked stiles, overgrown vegetation, or missing signs—directly to the Cheshire East Council Public Rights of Way Department.
- Practical Maintenance: Deploying a dedicated project team to clear heavy vegetation, install gates and waymarkers, refurbish stiles, and improve drainage on muddy or obstructed paths.
- Lost Paths Research: Investigating historic and tithe maps to identify old, forgotten rights of way and submit claims to add them to official definitive maps.
