The problem with going the Official Route is that in the past the Council have simply blocked off any area that has a problem. At any time thiis is an unsociable thing to do and then they often take months even years before the Council finally do anything about the problems.
Now in this time of Social Distancing we need to keep as many paths open as possible. I don't know who decided the Friends Groups had to close - there was a lot of ill considered decisions made at the start of the problem, but now the Government has recognised that Parks should be open, surely the work that they did could be done without infringing the Social Distancing Rules. There is also the possibility that others. such as those on furlough, could deal with some other problems such as clearing the drainage channels in Etherow Country Park before the rains turn the paths into quagmires again.