Nigel Nicholas, West Wales

“I’m part of the Wales Coast Path team – on the ground there are five of us. I cover the Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire and Powys sections, 170 miles. We each walk our sections in full once a year, making sure the path is safe and up to National Quality Standards. Everything is recorded and photographed on a tablet – it’s a slow process so we only average six miles a day. Cliff and path erosion is an ongoing problem – sections most prone to slippage are walked once or twice a month to assess risk.

“The path is high maintenance and I still go out to do repairs and improvements with colleagues, local contractors and a wonderful team of volunteers. We’ve now replaced all of the stiles in Ceredigion and Carmarthen, driven by the Equalities Act – we work to the principles of least restrictive access. People think of wheelchairs, but it makes a difference to all sorts of people. A friend with cerebral palsy walked the South West Coast Path and said that the biggest challenge in the 630 miles was the stiles.

“I’m a Pembrokeshire boy, grew up on a farm, and didn’t know a thing about footpaths – I used to walk around the farm and up the Preseli Mountains. I got a seasonal job before uni with the Pembs Coast National Park and have been working on coastal paths ever since.”