Harthill with Woodall Parish Council
The Parish Council was set up in 1950 to support the local community. The council, which is ran entirely by a small team of volunteers, works hard to improve their village by supporting local groups, running events and activities and ensuring that community assets such as the Harthill Village Hall and the Leisure Centre can keep their doors open.
Funding of £780 from the Loscar Wind Farm Community Fund has enabled the latest improvement to the village to be completed. Information and signage has now been installed for walks around the village of Harthill.
The new signage includes 29 coloured posts, with the different colours indicating the different walks that can be done and how long and accessible they are. The posts have been made by local community organisation, Harthill Workbench,
another group supported by SYCF funding. As a final touch a board mapping out the walks will be installed at the start of the routes to help people find their way.
We are very lucky to have the Harthill Ponds, which have been there since the 1700s. There are four different footpaths around the ponds which with the new signage are more accessible to locals and people visiting the area. We improved one of the footpaths a few years ago so it was suitable for wheelchair and pushchair access. The other three unfortunately aren’t as accessible but all of the walks are suitable for every level of ability. Now somebody can turn up and thanks to the information board and coloured posts they will know where to go and how long it will take to do the full walk which they have picked.
Chairman of Harthill with Woodall Parish Council, Ian Lloyd
The posts were installed in March 2019 by volunteers including members of the council, people from the village, 18 members of the local ramblers association and representatives from the Canal and River Trust and Rotherham MBC Footpaths.
What has been really fantastic about this project is that it has been a real community effort and we have had so many people involved. Since we announced the new signage going in we have had some fantastic feedback from the community. This has definitely been one of our most successful community projects so far.
Chairman of Harthill with Woodall Parish Council, Ian Lloyd
Harthill with Woodall Parish Council works continuously to improve Harthill Village. Their efforts planting around the village earned them a Gold award in the 2018 Yorkshire in Bloom awards, which they hope to repeat again this year. Now that the improvements to the footpaths have been completed, its on to the next project for the volunteer council members.
Our next AGM will decide on what village improvement will be done next but our Leisure centre which is run by a community organisation needs a shelter for the bowling green and so we will likely be working with them to get that sorted out.
Chairman of Harthill with Woodall Parish Council, Ian Lloyd
Find out more
The Loscar Windfarm Community Fund may provide your group with the opportunity to turn your project dreams into reality, visit the grants page to check our eligibility criteria and application guidance.