As Britain’s largest walking charity, the Ramblers helps everyone to enjoy the freedom of the outdoors on foot. In Mole Valley Ramblers we are committed to playing our part in protecting rights of way and access to the places people love to walk. We are fortunate in Surrey in having over 2,000 miles of rights of way, along with many areas of open access land managed by bodies such as the National Trust and Surrey Wildlife Trust. Surrey County Council (SCC) is responsible for maintaining rights of way, but with a major reduction to their budget for countryside work, they are dependent upon the help provided by Ramblers and other Volunteer Groups in maintaining footpaths, and alerting them to problems. Within the Ramblers this work is channeled through Footpath Maintenance Teams, and Volunteer Path Wardens.
In addition each Surrey Ramblers Group has one or more Local Footpath Secretaries, whose role is to work locally on rights of way issues, liaising with the local authority, acting as a channel for reporting issues with rights of way, and distributing relevant information to local volunteers. They also organize, with the help of other trained volunteers, twice yearly quality control surveys (BVPIs) on behalf of SCC, in which the condition of stiles, gates, signposts etc. is recorded on a random selection of paths.
The Local Footpath Secretary for Mole Valley Ramblers is Jayne Lindsell.
Volunteer Path Wardens
Surrey County Council has a legal duty to maintain and protect paths, but welcomes volunteers who can help out, particularly with tasks such as light vegetation clearance and way marking. Any member of the public, whether or not they are a Ramblers member, can volunteer to become a Volunteer Path Warden (VPW). They are provided with a half day training course, covering rights of way law, types of work to be carried out and safe working procedures; along with required tools and materials. VPWs are then eligible to carry out countryside access maintenance on behalf of SCC.
The Path Maintenance Team Leader is told of when training courses are available, and can provide further information for anyone else who would like to volunteer in this way. You can then either work on your own and/or join the Path Maintenance Team task days. There are currently 25 VPWs within MVR.
Path Maintenance Team 
Thanks to the efforts of Pauline Butcher, Path Maintenance Team Leader, we have re-established a team of Volunteer Path Wardens who assist with rights of way maintenance. Members from that Team meet once a month to do practical work on stiles, kissing gates, finger posts and board walks, to improve the quality of our local footpaths and bridleways. The financial squeeze on local authorities is continuing into the foreseeable future, so the work that this Team does to help maintain the rights of way that we all enjoy is going to become ever more important.
The Team normally meets monthly, currently on the fourth Thursday of each month. The Team Leader liaises with SCC as to the tasks that need attention each month, and we are provided with skills guidance, tools and equipment. Sometimes the Team will respond directly to reports from our members about paths in need of clearance.
Reporting problems
Our members are the eyes and ears for learning about problems with paths, be it fallen trees, broken fingerposts, missing way marks, bridge or stile decay, or paths being closed - and reporting or attending to them. If you do come across a problem please note the Grid Reference, and take a photograph if you can.
There are several ways of reporting problems:
- Members can report to one of our Local Footpath Secretaries by email
- If it is on a walk you are leading, include the details in your walk report
- If you are familiar with the SCC Countryside Access Management System (CAMS) you can log the problem on that computer system, https://rightsofway.surreycc.gov.uk There is a guidance note on the procedure here.
- If you are a VPW do contact Pauline directly if it is a task our Maintenance Team could attend to.
- If you have direct contacts with the landowner, you may wish to follow up directly with them.
