The countryside officers running the project are keen to hear from anyone who is interested in helping out.

Preliminary work began last September following the appointment of two countryside officers who are employed full time on the project.

Keith Pennyfeather, a senior countryside officer with the commission said: 'Much of the restoration being carried out on the Pennine Way inevitably occurs at remote sites a considerable distance from the nearest road.

Peter Dawson, senior countryside officer at the region's Countryside Commission, has admitted problems exist just days after Countryside Minister David Maclean praised the scheme as 'an effective way of increasing public access'.