Three experts from Durham have been nominated for accolades in the inaugural Right Way awards.
The Right Way awards mark achievement by rights-of-way professionals
The trio, from Durham County Council, put the authority at the top of the list in the new national awards organised by the body representing rights-of-way professionals. Victoria Lloyd, Audrey Christie and Stephen Ferguson will be up against 16 others nominated for the ‘gongs’, to be presented later this month.
The Institute of Public Rights of Way Management (IPROW) will announce the winners at its conference at Llandrindod Wells on 23 and 24 September.
IPROW executive officer Geri Coop said: “Rights of way work is, by its nature, a highly critical and contentious area and its officers on the front line face a lot of flak. That doesn’t always reflect the enormous strides that IPROW and its members are making in the drive to raise standards of access management for the benefit of the public and landowners and in making sure that professional standards are driven even higher.
“This year we’re changing all of that and the Right Way awards are the perfect opportunity to showcase the achievements and initiatives that contribute the most to improving access to the countryside or help to drive up standards in our profession.”
Apart from the County Durham trio, those nominated are: Will Steel and Jenny King of Bath and Somerset Council; Emma Noyce of Hampshire County Council; Bob Fenton and Rosalinde Shaw, Hertfordshire County Council; Carol Ramsden, Birketts solicitors in Ipswich; Ian Baugh and Graham Rusling from Kent County Council; Sue Rumfitt of Bedford-based Sue Rumfitt Associates; Ian Blomeley, Monmouthshire countryside services; Penny Stoddard and Richard Barron, Stirling Council; Roy Hickey, from Public Rights of Way Services, Cheltenham; Michael Fowler, Newport City Council; David Goode, David Goode, countryside mapping manager, Worcestershire County Council; Tom Bindoff, of the Access Company.
The nominations were received from both inside and outside the institute and cover work ranging from information packs for patients improving health by taking local walks to countryside access plans.
alan.sloman
09 September 2008I see no-one is in there from Cornwall. That county must rank as the very worst for signposted rights of way. On my LEJOG last year the sigenage was virtually non-existant at roadsides. Stiles had been removed by farmers. Virtually every account I have read on-line concerning LEJOers in Cornwall mentions this. There should also be a 'name and shame' category. Stick and Carrot usually does it. [smiley=think]