Shotley Open Spaces Annual Report

Shotley Open Spaces Annual Report 31st March 2017

Shotley Open Spaces was involved in early consultation with Kim Thirlby, lead advisor for Natural England's Coastal Access Delivery Team. Kim visited Shotley Gate in April 2016 along with Martin Williams, Suffolk County Council's Rights of Way Officer.

This is the third year of production of a Shotley Calendar with photographs submitted by the public. The theme was 'What Shotley means to it's Community'. 400 Calendars produced and all sold.

September saw the start of the journey to rebrand. Our group Committee grew to 12, with our Constitution changed to take account of a widened role in the community.

SOS was invited by Babergh's Communities Team to join the 'Shotley Peninsula Tourist Action Group'. SOS agreed to look into Shotley becoming an accredited Walkers are Welcome village. The first two page editorial about SOS's bid to become a WaW village appears in November 12th edition of the East Anglian Daily Times.

SOS reveals it's new brand identity and campaign logo's in December, with professional marketing advice from local lady Alex Rawlings. Along with our new identity is the launch of our very own website, www.shotleyopenspaces.co.uk. The website is updated frequently and contains loads of information – we set out to be open and transparent in everything we do and have nothing that we can't share with the public. Our annual maintenance schedule for the Heritage Park is clear for all to see, as is the original 'Heritage Park Business Plan' and 'Mudflat Management Plan'.

We successfully achieved National Accreditation for Shotley to become the first WaW village in Suffolk, and we have been out to Hadleigh and Woodbridge at the request of Suffolk County Council to help them with their applications. Another full page spread in the EADT on 18th March when our application had been submitted, and another on 30th April after it had been announced we had got it. Bill Bawldry did a superb job in the East Anglian of describing a circular walk around Shotley, which is helping put Shotley forward as a first class Suffolk walking destination.

The local launch and celebration of Shotley WaW went ahead at the village hall on 13th May, and was attended by many locals from our community, along with Babergh and Mid Suffolk district council staff and Suffolk County Council staff. Newly elected County Councillor David Wood also managed to join us. We must say a great big thank you to District Councillor Derek Davis for getting us involved with the Tourist Action Group, and for his guidance towards this successful achievement. Our work continues with WaW, as we have to report back to WaW national team on what we are doing to warrant us keeping the accreditation year on year.

Not content with celebrating WaW on the 13th May, this was the start of the 10th anniversary of the Suffolk Walking Festival. Geraint Pugh and Jane Leach led a party of 33 walkers around Shotley Gate, and this was the first of our three official walks around Shotley for the festival.

Ian Peters, Jane Leach, Geraint Pugh and Gary Richens attended a 'walk leader training day' in March with Suffolk County Council, which qualified us to lead these organised walks.

In November 2016, The Peninsula 'TAG' was looking at putting together an Arthur Ransome festival to celebrate 2017 being 80 years since he wrote the childrens' novel 'We didn't mean to go to Sea', and 50 years since his death. SOS volunteered to set up a formal Arthur Ransome Walking Trail from Pin Mill to Shotley, following the story in the novel. We applied for just short of £10,000 of funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund. We were successful in this, and have worked with Babergh District Council to create 8 bespoke Arthur Ransome information boards to be installed at various locations on the Peninsula.

Special Arthur Ransome waymarkers have been installed by SOS all along the trail and a brand new high quality leaflet produced that is available at shops, pubs and restaurants on the Peninsula.

SOS took the initiative to obtain a definitive map of the Parish from Suffolk County Council Rights of Way Team. Tony Lawford-Randall used special Apple software to overlay on the map the three circular Shotley walks and the Arthur Ransome Trail.

The Parish Council paid to have the map printed on to boards and Jane Leach, Geraint Pugh and Gary Richens installed them on the Village Hall and Bristol Arms outside walls. They certainly attract a lot of attention from locals and visitors.

We have continued to work with the Community Rehabilitation Company through the year maintaining the Heritage Park. Apart from a period between December 2016 and April 2017 when, due to matters beyond our control, the Heritage Park started to deteriorate, we have contributed a total of 847 man hours of labour. At a wage rate of, say, £8 per hour, we have contributed over £6700 of unpaid labour this year alone.

As a group we have also done maintenance work down Marsh Lane, Bristol Hill and the paths leading up to the primary school. Finally, SOS has been assessed by Suffolk County Council's Rights of Way Officer and is now an accredited installer of waymarker posts, footpath finger posts and for other general repairs on it's network of public rights of way.

All in all a very busy though sometimes challenging year of Volunteering for our Community.

I would like to thank members of the SOS committee for their help and support throughout this challenging year.

Particular thanks to Geraint Pugh for stepping up as Hon Secretary, and for Pat Scholfield for keeping our record of volunteer hours spread sheet up to date.

Of course thanks to Marian Pugh for pulling together our major fundraiser for the year, the annual Wall Calendar, which keeps us 'afloat' with funds to do the things that we do.

We look forward to continuing to deliver great things for our community, and to the new challenges that undoubtedly we will face in the future.

Gary Richens, Chairman SOS.