Hampshire byway signs - volunteers to help put signs up

[stevent]

Volunteers wanted to help put signs up on byway fingerposts in Hampshire.....


Dear all,

After we saw off the proposed 9 month bike TRO on Cradle Lane last year, our club as well as Southern and Lodden Vale TRFs have been working more closely with Hampshire County Council (HCC).

One suggestion we made was that HCC improve the signs on byways. HCC agreed this was a good idea and have now designed and produced the signs, they show:

* when a route is a "byway open to all traffic".
* the symbols for all the different users permitted on the routes including trail bikes and 4x4 (where they're permitted).
* police contact number to report illegal activity.

We're now looking for a few volunteers to help with putting the signs up.

They're are about six or seven different designs showing the different rights, with some groups crossed out if they're not allowed e.g. 4x4s.

This follows the successful project in Surrey, which was led by our TRF Mike Wheaton, to put these signs on all routes byways in Surrey (you have probably seen them if you've ridden in Surrey). The Hampshire County Council signs are virtually the same as the Surrey ones.

The purpose of all of this is to educate all users and raise awareness as to the user groups that are legally permitted on a route.

Very often walkers and others don't have much of a clue on which users can use which routes and many will think, when they see a trail bike approaching, they think that we're there illegally, when in fact we're not. If people are aware we're there legally, they may be more likely to allow us safe passage without getting into a froth; or they make think twice and wait to take their half dozen dogs off their leads until they get to the start of the next bridleway (where they can harass the horse riders instead). Also, when you do come across someone who is ignorant on the legal status of the route, as I have on occasions, it is good to be able to point them to the council endorsed sign showing that you have every right to be there.

I'm now looking for some volunteers to help with this, main job will be:
- to go out and put signs up; and
- report back on where you've put them.

I'll try to co-ordinate our Surrey TRF effort, including:
- co-ordinating with HCC and with Southern and Lodden Vale TRFs;
- getting the signs from HCC to the signers along with more detailed instructions from HCC,
- keeping track of the lanes we put signs on;
- keeping track of reports that signs have been vandalised / removed. etc.

If you volunteer I would really like you to:
* actually go out and putting the signs up, I'd like to avoid trying to chase people people who say they'll do stuff and then don't, I've got better things to do; and
* be able to report back where you've put them up, its no good telling me that you've "done all the lanes near the great lane with the big splash somewhere south of the A3".
So just looking for a small number of diligent volunteers to help with this.

I reckon we'll be ready to start early next year - once this bad weather is past and the days are a bit longer. And I suggest going out and doing this in pairs.

It will be great if we can replicate the success that Mike made of this in Surrey. However this will be a bit different, as Hampshire is a bigger county, there are many more byways (we probably can't do them all); Parish Councils have been invited to help (thought I bet not many will, if any); also we overlap with the other TRF clubs so we need to co-ordinate with them as well. I will focus our Surrey TRF efforts on the routes we use, generally in the East of Hampshire, and initially at least, will be seeing how many byways we can do as opposed to trying to do them all.

So if you'd like to volunteer to help put the signs up please let me know.

Steven

[langley beta]

Steven, count me in I can do midweek.
Ron.

[kevpg]

Steve,
Happy to help, let us know when.
Kev

[Simon Watson]

Steven
I'm also happy to help.
Simon

[fallenmikethebike]

Me to please. I'm easy about any patch allocated to me. Some marker signs will need to be freed from the surrounding vegetation prior to the sign being put up, so a pair of secateurs in your back would be handy, and some heavy gloves.
Can we get a glimpse of the finished product before hand I had to, modify, the signs we got from Surrey so as to make them more installation friendly.
If the volunteers have sat/navs, or can read of a co-ordinate accurately that will be an advantage also. There are a lot of missing Byway markers in Hampshire, and the ROW department would like to know where the signs are missing from.
Stevens suggestion of teams of two would work best, it's generally fairly easy to install about 20 signs in a day and incorporate that into days ride out.
Mercifully, we don't have to indelibly mark these signs up with the O/S co-ordinates or the lanes name, which was the chore that took up the most time in Surrey.
Well done Steven for taking on the organisation of this task.
This really is a good way to explore a particular area, and find out the lanes very rarely used.
Mike

[gavinskii]

More than happy to help with this - just let me know the detail

[big yellow tractor]

I would be happy to help

[stevent]

Dear All
Thanks for your offers to help with this. I will let HCC know I have you all lined up. I still need to get a list of the byways including those with TROs, as well as the signs to distribute, I'll be in touch once we're ready to start. Thanks again.
Steven