You might have noticed how overgrown some of our local footpaths have become. A combination of overhanging weeds from verges and encroachment of the verges themselves reducing the walkable portion of the path down to a foot width, to single file walking. Now single file walking might be fine and dandy for social distancing but weed growth is unsightly and can be a slip hazard for our older residents (like me!). So while a number of us locals are moaning about the state of our footpaths Barnby Moor Parish Council decided to do something about it. I attended a demonstration given by the Parish Council this morning which showed how our local footpaths might be cleared to their full potential, a clear weed free width of 4 foot. The venue: North Road heading east, that stretch of footpath from The Coppice towards Retford. The personnel: Chair Councillor Chick Fraser and Councillors Steve Pashley and Mick Ing.. The equipment: Kersten UBS Hydro 14 with a weed brush attachment and sweeper attachment. The outcome: a footpath that is now restored to full width and weed free. A very impressive demonstration that was sufficient to prove to this observer (and later to Nottinghamshire County Council) that this equipment and indeed local know how could be used to restore footpaths across the district. You will get the idea from the images above, a classic “Before” and “After”. To get more information of how your local footpaths might be cleared, get in touch with the team at Barnby Moor Parish Council through the contact form on this website. Video attached (no sound) shows a first pass on RHS path to be followed by LHS pass and brushing to clear.
