A volunteer group was paid £75,000 by the taxpayer over three years to carry out work on the island’s walking routes.

A Freedom of Information request response reveals that the contract was awarded by government without a competitive tendering exercise being carried out, as would normally be the case with a contract of that value.

An FoI request asked the Department of Infrastructure to set out its arrangements with, and funding of, Footpath Friends, a group led by Bill Dale BEM, founder of the charity Beach Buddies.

The DoI stated in its response that it had a three-year contract with Footpath Friends, which it said was paid a total of £75,000 at a rate of £25,000 a year.

However, Mr Dale disputes this figure - saying that the contract was £65,000: £20,000 for two years and £25,000 in the third, an unexpected increase which he said was made ’because the DoI could see we were struggling with the cost of buying equipment’.

Mr Dale told the Examiner that the DoI funds had gone towards ’a whole pile of kit, something in the region of £15,000 worth’, which included a ride-on mower and hedge strimmers.

The rest of the money went towards transportation costs associated with operating their own vehicle, and the running of events with the courts probation service.

He stressed that it had cost the group ’miles more than £2,000 to run it [the programme]’.

He said that the volunteers were given a list of tasks to do by the DoI, with the work (done about twice weekly) mostly involving cutting back overgrown footpaths during the summer growing season, as well as repairing sections of path and fixing wooden steps.

Mr Dale also explained that the group Footpath Friends had been established following this as a separate (non-charity) entity to Beach Buddies, ’to avoid confusion’.

A waiver from the usual requirements to go out to tender was approved in February 2018, which allowed the appointment of the three-year volunteer management contract.

But it is clear from the waiver that the contract was with Beach Buddies and not Footpath Friends.

A hand-written waiver dated February 12 that year from the then DoI chief executive Nick Black, released with the FoI response, said: ’No other island charity has experience on public space clearing coupled with significant volunteer support.’

And director of highway services Jeff Robinson noted: ’There appears to be little opportunity on the island for a competitive situation between credible alternatives.’

FoI requests do not include the identity of the person who requested the information.

According to its Facebook page, Footpath Friends was set up as a group of volunteers as recently as February 2020 to protect and maintain the hundreds of miles of Manx footpaths, walking and hiking trails.

It says it is partially funded by the DoI, and the Community Service programme is involved in its work around the island.

The DoI said the contract has now expired and so no funding was made available this year, the FoI response said.

It said Footpath Friends had carried out work ’agreed with the department and targets and timescales monitored on a job-by-job basis’.

overgrown

The Manx Footpaths Conservation Group recently criticised the condition of footpaths, including the flagship Raad ny Foillan coastal footpath, saying they were overgrown. A hotelier said his guests had been disappointed in the state of footpaths.

It is understood the DoI has recently employed an officer to look after footpaths, as it did in the past.

Tynwald this week will be asked to support the setting up of a committee investigation into the merits of creating a single government agency in charge of footpath maintenance.

A motion by Douglas South MHK Sarah Maltby, chairman of the Manx Labour Party, calls for a select committee to consider, consult and report on the petition of David Buttery which was presented at this year’s Tynwald Day ceremony.

Mr Buttery’s petition states that the island’s public footpaths, bridleways and green lanes are a prime driver of tourism but he claims that many sections of the network of public rights of way are ’poorly maintained, badly signposted and in many places dangerous and impassable’.

He points out that currently the network falls under the DoI, the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture, Manx Utilities and some local authorities but that these have ’different priorities and agendas, resulting in inconsistent levels of maintenance’.

Mr Buttery argues that a single government agency should be created with sole responsibility for all of the island’s public rights of way.

The Tynwald motion calls for the select committee to publish a report on its findings by April 30, 2022.

Beach Buddies also receives an annual payment, believed to be £30,000, from the DEFA, for carrying out work around littering.

Mr Dale confirmed to the Examiner that he receives a salary from Beach Buddies for his position as chief executive officer of the charity, but declined to quantify it.

The charity is currently undertaking a tour of Scotland to establish links with environmental groups there.