Corona virus and Fix the Fells

The current UK-wide lock down and social distancing requirements caused by the corona virus have stopped the Fix the Fells Rangers and volunteers from being able to work in the Lake District fells.

All path repair and maintenance work in the Lakeland fells has been suspended to ensure we stay within statutory guidelines and minimise the risk to our staff and volunteers. This is likely to continue during the period of lockdown which was announced by the UK Government and effective from 23 March 2020.

Although we’re all allowed to do some exercise each day, travelling to and visiting the fells is discouraged by the local police and mountain rescue teams, who don’t want people to congregate in car parks or cause emergency services to be distracted.

As the situation is changing rapidly at the moment, we’re keeping in regular contact with our Rangers and volunteers to discuss developments and plan ahead. With everyone confined to home, we’re all developing new ways of working and video conferencing is becoming the new norm!

Joanne Backshall, Fix the Fells Programme Manager, said, “The whole Fix the Fells team is keen to get back to repairing the upland paths and landscape as soon as possible. It will be interesting to see whether lower numbers of people in the fells allows some paths to recover, or whether the lack of repair and maintenance by our Rangers and volunteers results in increased damage – I suspect we will see both, depending on the location, as well as a huge increase in use when life returns to normal again.”
In the meantime, we are really grateful to everyone who continues to support us in any way and we look forward to working with and for you again in the fells in the future.