Swavesey byways committee

Once a year in early February I drive up the M11 and leave behind the chi-chi world of Cambridge, with its ipads and its skinny lattes, to fulfil an obscure duty of South Cambridgeshire District Council.
I cross over through the mists and fog to the outskirts of the fen country, to spend an evening in a meeting room with a dozen Cambridgeshire farmers, who are accountable under the Swavesey Byways Act, 1984, for the upkeep of the drove roads around that village.
There is no public money spent on the upkeep, except some administrative time, and costs and labour are carefully husbanded by people who know the value of most things.
Decisions are made as to which droves need attention, and what needs to be put by in case of emergencies. Some gentle banter is exchanged about how things might be done on this road, as opposed to that, and, in recent years, the encroachment of the guided busway.
All who attend are urged to keep an ear to the ground for cheap supplies of the "planings", the raw ingredient skimmed from motorway repairs that keeps the drove roads accessible.

And then we close the meeting for another year.