Lengthsman funding bid (From Bridport and Lyme Regis News)

Lengthsman funding bid

12:00pm Thursday 27th September 2012 in News

Bridport councillors are set to lobby Dorset County Council to keep funding for the popular and successful lengthsman scheme.

The lengthsman is a modern take on the traditional concept of a local person contracted to maintain roadside verges and drainage, public open spaces and pathways, now expanded to include small-scale projects in the town and neighbouring parishes.

A review of the Bridport scheme, which started in 2010 and is currently due to continue until March next year, showed that the lengthsman had undertaken more than 100 tasks in the last financial year for Bridport and three parish councils.

Members of the finance and general purposes committee heard that £10,000 is put towards the scheme by Dorset County Council, but no decision has yet been made on funding after next March.

Town clerk Bob Gillis said that all the evidence showed that the scheme had been hugely successful.

“We get a lot of praise for the work he does.

“This has been a great success,” he added.

Chairman Coun Martin Ray said the town council needed to face the fact that they may end up getting less or no money from the county and to keep it going may have to pay for it themselves.

Coun Maggie Ray said it should be pointed out how cost-effective the scheme had been.

“If the county had to send people over here to do some of this work, it would cost them a lot more,” she pointed out.

The cost of the scheme for 2011/12 was £24,675 for which the town received £16,555 from the county and parish councils paying for the lengthsman’s service.