Stan Warren, long-time area footpaths officer has passed away. He was like a Jack Russel with a rat in its mouth on causes he believed were right.

He had been paralysed from the waist down and in a care home for several years but finally succumbed to heart failure after struggling to breathe with pneumonia.

He had campaigned for and assisted the Charnwood Forest project from its inception and they have suggested that a good way to commemorate Stan's life and contribution would be to create a Stan Warren Way. Early days yet but we are exploring the practicality of this and one suggestion is that the route from Leicester to Charnwood might be a suitable option. Another might be the path from the school to the church in Groby as he spent 12 years fighting for that, twice getting the Secretary of State to overule the County Solicitor and in the end had to conduct the 3-day hearing himself.

Stan lived alone, never married or owned a car and as such had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the footpaths in the East Midlands, second only to his knowledge of bus routes and timetables.

He will long be remembered.

His funeral will be at Gilroes at 10.30 on October 31st with a wake afterwards at the Railway Hotel Glenfield.

Image shows Stan completing the Last Square in Leicestershire in 2007.