MORE than 20 organisations have joined forces in Dorset to orchestrate the smooth running of the Sailing competition and associated events for the London 2012 Games.

Key contacts are bringing insight to their activities through a weekly column in the Dorset Echo and online at dorsetforyou.com /Sailing2012.

Here’s Dorset County Council’s John Hayes, senior ranger with Dorset Countryside, who wants to celebrate some of the projects the Coastal Ranger Team are involved in that will connect people with the natural environment throughout this summer’s Games...

THE build up to 2012 Games time is providing plenty of opportunities for the Coastal Ranger Team.

We have been working with Natural England on the delivery of Coastal Access between Rufus Castle on Portland and Lulworth Cove.

The eventual aim is to create a continuous Coast Path around England – and this is the first stretch of coast in the country to have the new rights introduced.

Along with providing an improved alignment in several places, such as the north-east of Portland, the Coast Path around Weymouth Bay can now ‘roll back’ in response to erosion.

New waymark stones, fingerposts, gates and steps along the route are now all in place.

As television cameras pan around the coastline this summer, beaming pictures into millions of homes around the globe, they will show the recently restored Osmington White Horse.

The Coastal Ranger Team have worked with the Osmington Society and others, including hundreds of local volunteers, and King George III can now look down proudly from his hillside upon proceedings in Weymouth Bay thanks to everyone’s hard work.

To help manage more rural sections of Weymouth Bay we have recruited a team of volunteers.

Our fifteen 2012 Volunteer Coastal Rangers will ‘adopt’ sections of coast for the summer.