VOLUNTEERS doing vital community work across Furness should not be scared away by new council ‘risk assessments,’ a meeting heard.

The county council is formalising activities on the highway to make them ‘safer and more organised’ and drawing up agreements.

But councillors warned people not to be put off from rolling up their sleeves and mucking in.

Many parish councils organise unpaid jobs such as litter picks, cleaning road signs, cleansing roadside gulleys and cutting hedgerows.

The county council started the process under its ‘Working Together’ project which involves those jobs being done on rural roads it is responsible for.

Council managers strongly insist they do not want to ‘block but enable’ more communities to get involved by giving them the go-ahead.

Cllr Anne Burns said litter picks by schools were very popular but she did not believe the county council had ever ‘risk assessed’ them, although schools did.

“What we don’t want is for this to create a major process where you have to do this and do that and there’s loads to go through. We absolutely don’t want to stop these groups coming forward,” said Cllr Burns, the Labour member for Hindpool.

Cllr Sol Wielkopolski said some people misunderstood what the council was doing. Cllr Wielkopolski, the Conservative member for Newbarns and Parkside, said: “Initially, I thought this was all just about corporate risk management. Actually it’s about helping and enabling even more people to get out and do these activities. We want to encourage people to get out and do this.”

County council officials appealed to local organisations, parish councils and schools to come forward. It pledged to help provide certain resources, including health and safety advice, protective equipment and certain tools.

Cllr Bill McEwan praised the work of groups such as Barrow community group Zest, while Cllr Ben Shirley said the work done in local villages like Askam and Ireleth provided a ‘great benefit’.

Kevin Cosgrove, a highways manager for the county council, said Cumbria was home to circa 300 parish councils but it wanted other groups to get in touch.

“There are other constituted bodies and residents’ groups out there and what we want to do is work with their area network managers to try and help them if these groups could come forward,” said Mr Cosgrove.