Newsletter 142 December 2016

Chairman’s Comments 2016 Welcome to another interesting and varied programme of walks. Let’s hope that the winter season is not too unkind and we don’t have the sort of waterlogged paths we sometimes encountered last year. Nevertheless we rarely cancel walks: remember there is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing! Now is a good time to make sure that paths are kept clear. Some of us have started carrying secateurs on walks. Obviously we cannot undertake major clearances, but if it just a problem with brambles and other mighty weeds a few moments cutting back can make a difference: ‘every little helps’. If we wait for the landowner or CC to clear paths things will only get worse. Thanks to the six members who recently spent a morning clearing the Smith Way in . Some eight bags of rubbish were collected. We have plans for other clearance activities. We hope you can join us as often as possible on our walks to enjoy the delights of and surrounding areas and help to ensure that our local footpath network remains available to all to use. Do try to spread the word to friends and family. Happy walking! Footpath news We continue to report obstructions, blockages or other difficulties with footpaths. We would still like individual walkers to report problems as LCC might respond more promptly if the are several complaints about a particular problem. This can be done through an email to [email protected] or by using Lancashire’s MARIO interactive on-line map. Please see later for some notes about this. Problems can also be reported to the relevant Parish Council. Look on the West Lancashire Borough Council website to find the list of parishes and contact details for the Parish Clerk. Some parishes do have their own footpath group. (continued p.2)

Website e-mail www.westlancsfootpathgroup.org.uk [email protected]

Note that some paths in Aughton, and have a temporary closure order for a period of six months because of a major pipe-laying scheme. These are shown with a black and yellow dashed line on the Mario map. Our recent walk in Bickerstaffe used the path from Road to Graveyard Lane which is one of the closed paths. At present, apart from some splendid new fencing, there appears to be no problem with using the path, and there are no notices barring access. Presumably such notices will appear when the actual work is being done. A report has been made to LCC about FP121 where it joins Red Cat Lane. There is a double stile with insecure steps. Access is a problem because of high horizontal bars which makes it difficult for those with shorter legs to cross. Peter.

Membership Matters Thanks to members (nearly half of you) who have already renewed their subscription for this year. I would appreciate it, if the rest of you could please follow suit John.

Committee Contact Numbers

Peter Fletcher Chairman and Footpath Inspector 01704 542661 Post currently vacant Secretary Ann Robinson Rambles Secretary 01695 571303 John Partington Membership & Gift Aid Secretary 01695 421408 Karen Jennings Treasurer 01695 570349 Doreen Bird Footpath Inspector 0151 526 5625 Roger Eastham Committee Member 01695 576227 Christine Hill Committee Member 01772 816486 Tommy Wadkin Committee Member 01695 735785 West Lancashire Footpath Group Rambles 2016-2017

Date Walk Leader Meet

DECEMBER 2016 BANKS, New Fleetwood PH, junction of Sun 11th Dave Church Rd & Hoole Lane, 1.30pm PR9 8BD, GR391209. , St James School car park, Sat 31st Ann School Lane, L40 6HL, GR442077 1.30pm Post walk drinks in Prince Albert PH.

JANUARY 2017 Sun 15th AUGHTON, St Michael's Church, Geoff 1.30pm Church Lane, L396SA, GR391054 Tues 31st HILLDALE, Village Hall, Chorley Road, Alan 1.30pm WN8 7AL,. GR494121

FEBRUARY Sun 12th BARTON BRIDGE, Station Rd. Barton, Roger 1.30pm off A5147, L39 7JN, GR357089 Tues 28th RUFFORD, “Hesketh Arms” PH Christine 1.30pm L40 1SB, GR461155

MARCH Sun 12th UPHOLLAND, Pimbo Garden Centre, Tommy 1.30pm Pimbo Lane, WN8 9QQ, GR508036 Tues 28th ALTCAR, St Michael and All Angels, Lord Peter 1.30pm Sefton Way, L37 5AA, GR320065

Daytime rambles are approximately 5-6 miles and easy/moderate rating. For further details on any of the above walks contact Ann Robinson on 01695 571303 or Mobile 07443533354 Website: www.westlancashirefootpathgroup.org.uk Registered Charity Number 511764

MARIO (Maps & Related Informtion Online)

This is an interactive map based on the Ordnance Survey covering the whole of Lancashire, which you may find useful. It can be reached through mario.lancashire.gov.uk or by putting anything like Lancashire Mario into Google. There is also a direct link on the Lancashire County Council Website under ‘Public Rights of Way’: ‘Reporting a Problem’. Probably the easiest way to get to it is from our website (www.westlancashirefootpathgroup.org.uk). Simply click on the bottom entry on the right hand side bar. This will take you straight to the Mario Home page where you will find several alternative ways of showing the map – from clicking ‘open mario’ to entering a postcode. Then use ‘Zoom In’, ‘Zoom Out’ and ‘Move Map’ to get to where you want to go. To find footpath numbers, tick ‘Countryside & Waste’ on the left side bar, followed by ‘Public Rights of Way’. These will then be shown as purple dashed lines. If the numbers are not showing you need to zoom in to get a larger scale. Each Parish has its own code, so 8-3-FP1 means footpath 1 in , 8-18- FP121 means footpath 121 in Burscough. To identify a parish, tick ‘Local Government Information’ on the left, followed by Parish Boundaries. The parishes are shown with green colouring and a black boundary with the name of the parish in a box. Changing the scale will give you the overview you require.

For details of West Lancashire Ramblers local walks please visit :- www.ramblers.org.uk/west-lancashire or contact Geoff Wright (01772 812034).