Rob’s Volunteering Story
There are over 6120 kilometres (roughly 3800 miles) of Public Rights of Way across Somerset. These include Public Footpaths, Public Bridleways, Restricted Byways and Byways Open to All Traffic. The network is managed by Somerset Council’s Public Rights of Way team which works hard keeping our Rights of Way open and available for everyone to enjoy. The Rights of Way team also maintains and promotes the Somerset long distance trails. These are the England Coast Path, Coleridge Way, River Parrett Trail, West Somerset Coast Path and Neroche Herepath.
Our team of Rights of Way Volunteers help us enormously to manage this incredible network of paths. This ranges from proactively reporting issues to cutting back vegetation and helping survey the network.
Jenny Oliver of the Central Volunteer Team spoke to Rob to chat about his experience of being a Rights of Way Volunteer. Rob has been volunteering for nearly 2 years as a Parish Path Liaison Officer (PPLO) and has more recently taken on an additional role as an Ease of Use Surveyor.
What does your volunteering role involve?
My role as Parish Path Liaison Officer involves monitoring the footpaths in Ilminster, regularly walking them, highlighting any issues, and reporting back through the website we use.
My Ease-of-Use role does take me out a little further, about a ten-mile radius of the town. My roles encourage walking and talking to new passersby when I’m out and about.
Why did you start volunteering?
I retired not long before I started volunteering, I really enjoy walking and my volunteering roles give me focus and objective combining the two elements.
It gives me a reason and a purpose while I am out, and I explore new paths that I haven’t explored yet. I also know that I am doing something good for my local community.
What keeps you volunteering?
In my role I know that I am taking action and getting things done, not just talking about them, I can see the benefits and progress that I am making on my journeys. With just a little bit of effort I get to see the results. It is also very good for both physical health and mental wellbeing, overall, a win-win situation!
I also enjoy the encouragement I receive from members of the public I meet along the way. I usually talk to quite a few each month and they tell me what a good job I am doing. I look at the footpaths that I have helped to mend and keep open and safe, for example styles or blockages that I have either sorted out myself or reported. I know that if it hadn’t been for me, people may not have been able to walk that path.
What is your favourite thing about volunteering?
Just giving something back to the area that I live in, keeping paths open to people I know and to my community.
What difference has volunteering made to you? For example, making new friends or enhancing your skills.
My volunteering roles have given me a new objective and plenty of healthy exercise, especially now that I am retired. Taking up these roles means that I am still contributing and that I still have a role in life which is great for my self-esteem. My Ease-of-Use role involves working with computers, so it also keeps my computer skills going.
It’s also so good meeting new people when I am out say cutting back brambles. People stop and chat to me and I learn about them while they learn about the footpaths. I always get good feedback from my managers at the council and from my service.
I have another hobby as a photographer, and my volunteer roles have given me new opportunities to do this too. I also utilise my photography skills and report sightings of plants and wildlife, such as butterflies and insects, on iNaturalist. Some of the photos I have taken during my volunteering have been published in our local Ilminster Free Press.
So, lots of aspects of what I love come together in my roles. I have certainly seen lots of nice things!
What would you say to someone who has never volunteered?
If it’s walking you enjoy and you do it anyway, then this role would suit you well as it is both flexible and you can incorporate it into your everyday life. You do get a warm feeling when people say nice things and you know that you are making a difference. It is very satisfying.
Ceri, who is my volunteer manager, is very responsive to emails and is also always very appreciative. In our last newsletter she mentioned me personally and she really appreciates me and the work that her team do. It is all really good for your self-esteem, and it is a very good team to work for.
Can you think of a good strapline to describe your volunteering?
Good for the community, good for you!
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Without us doing these roles the work just wouldn’t be done. There is no budget and I imagine with what councils are going through now there will be even more emphasis on volunteers.
I feel that being visible as a volunteer in my community shows that people care about the local community. This role is something visible that people can see, clearly demonstrating that the council does things that are beneficial to them. All my work is appreciated and acted on, I, and others, can really see the differences made to where we live.
The beauty of my PPLO role is that you look after your own patch, where you live is where you volunteer. You give back to your community and everything I do benefits who I live with in Ilminster, such as my friends, neighbours, and all the new people I meet.
I enjoy my roles so much that I am undertaking the Strimmer Scheme volunteer role soon!
If you want to join the Rights of Way Team as a volunteer, you can find more information on the roles in this service and others here.