Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from County Councillor Cosima Towneley, Arthur Baldwin, Paul McKeown, Lorraine Mellodey and Paul Withington.

(Minutes attached)

The minutes of the meeting held on 16 January 2018 were agreed as a correct record.

Michael Prescott stated he had not received an invite to the meeting of the Coastal Access Working Group on 12 December 2017.

(Kerry Rennie and Dai Parry from Natural England)

The Chair welcomed Kerry Rennie and Margaret Caddick from Natural England, to the meeting.

They gave an update to the resolved proposals for public access at several locations on the Silverdale to Cleveleys stretch of the coastal path. Proposals would be published in May 2018 with an eight week window for objections and representations. All information would be available on the Natural England website and a copy would be held at local venues as notified on the publication day.

A small amount of progress had been made on the coastal access from Cleveleys to Pier Head, Liverpool, including Natural England's conclusions which would form part of the report about the three estuaries on the stretch. The three estuaries were the Ribble, the Alt and the Mersey. A big part of the Ribble Estuary was difficult to access. Natural England was holding discussions about the nature conservation concerns within this stretch with all the relevant bodies.

It was pointed out to the Forum that Natural England needed to work in partnership with others if a new bridge was to be built and the possible locations for this had been discussed.

There was an issue raised about possible motorbike use near the proposed site near Galley Hall Farm and the concern was forwarded to Danny Moores from Natural England.

(Tim Blythe, Countryside Service Manager)

Tim Blythe, Countryside Service Manager, provided a report for the LLAF. LCC was retaining all its 90 countryside, open space and forestry sites and would be managing them in a way that allowed for continued free and open access. Following 80% reductions there would be no countryside rangers. This would mean there would be no environmental education or guided walks. The sites would be retained for continued public use.

Although the sites were being retained LCC was looking at new ways of managing them. Local management arrangements were being looked at, perhaps with parish and town councils, local groups and other interested parties. As part of the reductions the Countryside Service had now only two members of staff, an Asset Manager and a Countryside Sites Maintenance & Volunteer Coordinator.

LCC Countryside Service planned to continue to provide a range of opportunities for volunteers to be involved in its sites. The key aim was to provide variety and flexibility for volunteers whilst providing the maximum support with the limited resources the service had at the present time.

This was a new era for the service and as such there would be a period of learning and development going forward.

The service would continue to use posters on sites, social media applications and the volunteer hub to inform and attract new volunteers. All new volunteers would be expected to undertake a short introductory period where they would need to undergo an induction and shadow other experienced volunteers until confident and competent to undertake duties alone. Polo shirts and fleeces would continue to be supplied to volunteers.

It was also proposed that the service would offer training days for all volunteers to cover competencies such as dealing with the public and emergencies, basic first aid and health and safety.

(Minutes attached)

The Chair, Richard Toon, informed the Forum he had attended the meeting of the Yorkshire Dales Access Forum on 30 January 2018. The meeting had been informative and useful. One of the interesting topics at the meeting was on waymarking.

It was stated that there was a strong need for waymarking in areas where you could get lost.  The Forum felt that waymarking was treated as a low priority. Waymarking was a guide to those who did not know the path to help them avoid accidentally committing trespass. It was essential that waymarks guided people on the line of the path as shown on the definitive map. Once happy with the positioning of waymarks permission must be obtained from the landowner and the local authority. One of the main objections to walkers was when they strayed of their legal route.

The waymark served two purposes. The disk or other mark indicates that you were on a right of way and often showed the status of the route. The arrow, if this was the type of waymark used, pointed in the general direction to be followed from that point.

David Goode, Public Rights of Way Manager, presented a slideshow to the Forum showing works completed by the Public Rights of Way Team.

There were no items of Any Other Business.

(Dates to be confirmed)

Dates of Future Meetings were as follows:

·  Tuesday 3^rd July 2017

·  Tuesday 9^th October 2017

·  Tuesday 15^th January 2018

·  Tuesday 9^th April 2018