It is an excellent idea (Your Council Matters, 17 November 2020) to install a handrail on this slope [on the footpath between Bircham Road and Ollands Road, Reepham], which can be very slippery through leaves during the autumn and snow/ice during the winter.
If Norfolk County Council won’t do it, then I suggest that maybe a group of local people could get together and install one. It would only take a few hours and cost peanuts.
Also as important is lighting the footpath: on dark nights it is so easy to walk into the fences on the bends in the path.
To help this, the lamp mounted on the post at the Bircham end could be turned 90 degrees on the top of the post so it partly illuminates the path.
And now that solar-powered lights are readily available and cheap, perhaps one could be installed by the corners on the path, mounted on the fence posts.
We have also recently noticed that some local dog owners are letting their dogs foul the path without clearing up after them.
This is not restricted to the Ollands Road/Bircham Road footpaths – it happens all over Reepham.
In addition, there seems to be a growing occurrence of dog owners clearing up after their dogs, only to then throw the bag in the verge or hang it from a tree.
We have noticed this along Marriott’s Way and Bar Lane, and on Booton Common.
Bryan Gostling, Bircham Road, Reepham