A man who has been repairing damaged footpaths in his spare time has been praised by Infrastructure Minister Ray Harmer for his volunteer work.

Gary Smith, from Peel, starting by repairing some coastal paths in the west of the island which has made accessing two beaches far easier for walkers.

The footpaths provide access at Lynague, which had been closed for some time due to landslide, and Whitestrand.

His project began in collaboration with the highway services team at the Department of Infrastructure at Lynague last June on a path leading down to the beach.

This saw Mr Smith trimming back vegetation and building steps and railings in his own time.

His work included accessing a partnership the DoI has with Beach Buddies - which sees the charity receive funding to help trim and tidy some routes - to buy timber and other materials needed to complete the work.

Mr Smith said: ’In the summer 2018 I decided I would try to open the footpath to the beach at Gob y Diegan (Lynague) as it had been closed for a couple of years.

’I sent a message to Ray Harmer, minister at DoI, to ask what I needed to do to be able to do the work. He was very helpful and put me in touch with Bill Dale from Beach Buddies.

’I had a meeting with Bill as Beach Buddies had been given funding to repair footpaths. I told Bill what I needed and he arranged for me to be able to sign for the wood at the saw mills and I started work.’

Infrastructure Minister Ray Harmer said Mr Smith’s work in ’helping the community is really commendable’.

He added: ’I thank him for his hard work, and for working so effectively with the department to make things happen in the right way.

’Our teams do a terrific job around the entire island and by working with groups and individuals who are willing to help means we can do even more to improve our surroundings.’

Mr Smith has also worked to clear the steps at Ballagyr Lane which lead down to the old railway line as it runs north towards Ramsey.

And he is part of a team working to clear a former railway station at Poortown.

They say they aim to ’clear and restore the platform, cut back the ivy on the back wall of the old station and add a bench and signage’.

The team, including some help from Isle of Man Heritage Railways volunteers such as Mike Buttell, are clearing decades of overgrowth from the Peel Road station.

This is important to Mr Buttell, who has hosted heritage railway walks for a number of years. In that time, he has seen how some of the former stations have become so overgrown they werehardly noticeable.

For Mr Smith however, he walks his dog on the old line and ’had been thinking it needed doing for years’. So he contacted Mr Buttell and the two agreed it should be cleared.

Armed with a volunteer workforce of Gary’s son and his friends, they were hard at work into the evening on Tuesday this week.

For more information on Gary’s work or to volunteer, search ’Western footpath repairs iom’ on Facebook.