More than 20 parishes in Shropshire will have their paths restored and access improved as council teams look at miles of rights of way routes as part of a major project.

The Parish Access Project, run by Shropshire County Council, has been given funding for a sixth year to look at another 22 parishes. When completed, the project will have worked on more than 2,000km – out of a total network of more than 5,500km.

The work will include replacing many old stiles in the county with gates. But some parishes have said the work is not necessary.

Eric Plant, chairman of Acton Burnell Parish Council, whose paths will be examined this year, said members had expressed “some disquiet” about the project being carried out.

He said there were concerns raised as work was actually carried out about four years ago as well.

Councillor Plant said: “They are going to do some work on the area, but only three or four years ago a lot of work was done with new bridges over the stream on the footpath.”

Richard Knight, access maintenance team leader for Shropshire County Council, said the idea of the scheme was to clean up paths and replace stiles with gates where this was possible.

He said: “Some work was done in Acton Burnell but this is a complete overhaul and Acton Burnell is one of the parishes we are doing this year.

“There are 22 parishes we are hoping to do up to April, 2010. It is a chance for us to make sure every right of way in the parish is looked at.

“We are about to finish five years of the project and have been plugging away for a good long time.

“Over the six years, we are hoping to have done about 90 parishes.”

There are about 200 parishes in total in Shropshire.

“The rest depends on funding but the parishes we have selected are the ones we know need a lot of work,” added Mr Knight.

“We will start with overgrowing and replacing stiles with gates to encourage access for all.

“We do that through negotiation with the land owner.”

Mr Knight said that members of the community could also get involved through the parish path wardens scheme.

He said: “We always try whenever we can to see if anyone wants to act as our eyes and ears in the parish.”