ANNUAL
REPORTS,
(as
presented to the Group AGM on
GROUP
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
In an active Walks Programme during the last twelve months,
we had the pleasure of hosting two neighbouring groups. Stone Group joined us
for a Sunday walk in June on the Pauper Trail, and Bilston Group walked with us
on the
The annual “Children
in Need” sponsored walk in November was attended by 40 members who raised the
considerable sum of £761. A sunny Christmas walk on Sunday 3rd December was
enjoyed by 41 members. This was followed by an excellent Christmas Meal with
the usual carols at the “Old House at Home” in Blakedown.
The regular walks
programme was supplemented by three weekends away at Salcombe in May, the Lakes
in July and Brecon Beacons in September. The Lakes event has been running for
13 consecutive years and still attracted 46 members. It may be something to do
with the warm welcome and excellent entertainment we get each year at the
Keswick Conservative Club!
An enjoyable ladies’
weekend led by Eileen Hedley was held at Clun YHA in April and was attended by
16 ladies. The local pub in Clun has never had it so good on a Saturday night!
A successful
innovation this year was the Derbyshire Triangle back-packing long weekend
organised and led by Peter Figg, assisted by Cliff Farnell. The group were
fortunate to have excellent weather.
The Social Programme highlights for the
year were the Christmas Dinner
Dance, a Barn Dance, the New Year Party, a coach outing to Gloucester Docks,
and a Joe Brown concert, all of which were extremely well supported.
We are so fortunate
to have a team of members, to whom we are extremely grateful, who are prepared
to organise and lead the walks, weekends, and host the social events.
You will notice however, from the note included on the Winter Walks Programme,
that we are offering less walks than used to be the case. We do urgently need
more members to volunteer as walk leaders. If you have never done it, please
consider having a go. Help, assistance and training are readily available from
Peter and experienced leaders.
John Scott, Chairman
GROUP FOOTPATH/ACCESS/COUNTRYSIDE
SECRETARY’S REPORT.
During
the twelve months under review, I have been involved with the following:-
1 - Sandwell Rights of Way
Improvement Plan (RoWIP).
My main involvement
with regard to footpaths during the last twelve months continued to be with the
draft Rights of Way Improvement Plan for Sandwell.
The revised draft RoWIP has
been presented to and approved by the Local Access Forum, and is to be
presented for adoption by the Council’s Cabinet Members on
2 - Forums and Committees.
I have represented
the Group at meetings of the following:-
- Walking in Sandwell Strategy
Forum (
- Council Scrutiny Committee on
- Sandwell Valley Trails Group (16/11/06,
A new map showing the trails in the Valley
should be available shortly.
- Leisure Dept Audit Meeting
(representing Sandwell Valley Trails Group) on
- Sandwell Stride Leaders’
Meetings (
John Craxford, June Newman, Joselyn
Latunji and Margaret Pritchard are Stride
Leaders. Peggy & Julian Desorgher
are Walsall Leaders. We could do with a few
more from the Sandwell Group.
- Sandwell Borough Local Access Forum(4/10/06,
10/1/07, 18/4/07, 17/7/07, 2/10/07)
I was re-appointed as Chairman of Sandwell
LAF for year 5 of the Forum at the
AGM held on 17 July 2007.
3 – British Waterways,
I attended a special meeting at Fazeley with Tony Harvey, General Manager and
Sally Phipps, Operations Manager on
A number
of letters and emails were received as this closure attracted national
attention.
I represented the Group at a Users’ Meeting on
4 - West Bromwich Pauper Memorial and
Trail.
The date of installation of the Paupers’ Memorial has been delayed due to late
completion in
News of the Memorial and Trail (believed to be the first such project in the
Country) has spread and I have received several requests to lead walks. I have
generally resisted these until everything is complete but did lead a Group from
Stone RA (along with some of our own members) on
5 - Staffordshire Area.
I have represented the Sandwell Group at Staffs
Area Council meetings at Penkridge (
The Chase Line Railway walks trial was completed with 4 walks which met with
mixed success due to various reasons. I have suggested to Area Council that we
should look at this again when the new Company, who is to operate the line, is
up and running.
Thanks
to the 23 members who supported Sandwell Group (yet again by far the largest
contingent from an individual Group) at the Staffs Area AGM and morning walk at
Sandwell Group is to host the 2009 Area
AGM and plans are in hand to find a suitable venue large enough to
accommodate 130 plus people and close to
6 -
I attended and
represented the RA at the initial workshop meeting on
7 -
I have been involved with Steve Spencer in representing the views of walkers
and cyclists in the draft Strategy which when implemented, will take seniority
over the Unitary Plans for the Boroughs of Sandwell,
8 - www.sandwellramblers.org.uk. I have continued to maintain the
Group’s Website, which includes the updated Winter Walks and Social programmes,
as well as a Notice Board. Once again, several people have joined us this year,
via this route.
John
Scott, Footpath Secretary
(updated 26 November 2007)
To return to opening page - click contents.html
To go to Introduction & General information
- click intro.html
To go to Walks Programme – click walk.html
To go to Social Programme – click soc.html
To go to Officers & Contacts – click contacts.html
To go to Notice Board – click notes.html
To go to Sandwell Stride Health Walks – click stride.html
To go to Walking in Sandwell Strategy – click strategy.html
To access Ramblers’ Association national web
site
– click www.ramblers.org.uk
To access R.A.Staffordshire Area web site
– click http://homepages.tesco.net/~staffsra