A GRANT from The Westmorland Gazette's parent company has helped to boost the work of volunteers carrying out repairs of key Lake District paths.

The £3,000 funding from the Gannett Foundation was handed to the landscape charity Fix the Fells at the start of the year.

Since then it has helped support the work of more than 80 volunteers who have so far spent 704 days of 2018 looking after footpaths in south and central Lakes.

This has included 179 'drain runs' which involve volunteers venturing on to the fells in all weathers to clear the drainage channels in the paths. The work ensures damaging water is shed from the path surface so that erosion is reduced.

The volunteers have also undertaken 55 'work parties' to repair sections of path, contributing over 380 days of hard, physical work.

This involves stone pitching paths, building drains and re-landscaping erosion.

The paths they have maintained and repaired include those around the Langdale valley, in the Coniston area and around Grasmere. They have completed some repairs to the path up Sourmilk Gill near Grasmere and also to the popular path up Wansfell from Ambleside. The Wansfell path repairs took 15 visits and 109 days of volunteer effort.

Fix the Fells volunteer lengthsman Jon Whiteley, who completed 13 of the 15 work party days, said: "It's been great fun working up there, starting in the frozen ground and finishing in summer heat. Best of all, we've had so many positive comments from walkers."

Programme manager Joanne Backshall said: “The Fix the Fells volunteers do an amazing job of repairing and maintain the Lake District fell paths and landscape. Millions of visitors to the Lakes each year are taking their toll on the fragile mountain environment and without Fix the Fells and the help of the volunteers, the upland paths would continue to deteriorate into ugly erosion scars.

"We are extremely grateful for the generous donation from the Gannett Foundation which is invaluable in contributing to the travel costs of the volunteers as they go about their work in the South Lakes every week of the year.”

For more information about Fix the Fells, visit www.fixthefells.co.uk