PARISH lengthsmen could once again become a feature on roads and footpaths in South Lakeland, carrying out minor repairs for the community, reports Paul Duncan.

Cumbria County Council has been examining the prospect of devolving some responsibility for highway maintenance to parish councils, which could include reviving the tradition of the lengthsman, a person with local knowledge contracted to maintain roadside verges, road drainage and pathways.

"Cumbria County Council had been looking at the opportunity for parish councils to take greater, devolved responsibility for roads in their own area and also looking at what sort of work could be handed over, especially with regards to minor maintenance such as grass-cutting, sign-cleaning etc," said South Lakeland area engineer Nick Raymond.

However, he said that if parish councils wanted to employ lengthsmen it would be down to them, as the Highways Authority would not incur any "financial drain" from the scheme.

Lancashire County Council re-introduced and extended the concept in 1998 as a pilot project in the Forest of Bowland and, due to its success, there are now 15 parish lengthsman schemes operating in 40 parishes throughout Lancashire.

Colin Davies, of Outgate, has been acting as voluntary lengthsman since he moved to the area in 1995, repairing the drains on the two-mile stretch of road near his house.

He was a member of the Lake District National Park Authority as the county councillor for High Furness and, during this time, he was asked by the local ranger to become their first voluntary lengthsman.

His tasks vary throughout the year and include raking out leaves from the drains to prevent them becoming blocked during autumn, and in spring cutting back vegetation from the sides of the road.

According to Mr Davies, the fact that he lives in the area in which he works means that he knows when and where problems are likely to occur.

"The main thing is that I have in-depth local knowledge and can anticipate what sort of problems there are likely to be with the road, and when and where they are going to occur," he said.

"I spend around ten hours working on the roads each week, although a lot of it is ad-hoc. I might be out on a walk to Black Crag and I'll spend a bit of time doing a few running repairs on my way. This can often stop a bigger job developing," he added.

If an emergency does arise which is too great for him to deal with, he lets the authority know and they deal with it.

He believes the lengths-man system is good in that it means that repairs get done even if there is no funding in place for the authority responsible to carry them out, and he also gets a sense of pride from his duties.

"It is very rewarding to keep the lane open and usable and it is also satisfying that people get pleasure from walking along the lane which is much better than it used to be."