Area Footpath Secretary
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MANCHESTER AND SALFORD Manchester and Salford Local Group Newsletter (M & S Ramblers) No 45 May 2020 Whilst we can’t meet up to walk in the way we would like to during the covid-19 lockdown, we wanted to keep in touch so are doing extra online newsletters. We hope you are staying well and safe. Whatever activity you do to keep up your walking fitness, we are sure you are sticking to the Government guidelines to protect us all. We can still roam for leisure, health and happiness at home, in our outdoor spaces and within our daily exercise. Staying active is more important than ever, for our mental and physical health, and getting moving feels great! In case you haven’t already done so it is worth checking out the information on the national website not just for the guidelines but to see what other Ramblers around the country have been doing during lockdown. https://www.ramblers.org.uk/go-walking/roam-sweet-home.aspx. This webpage also has links to Ramblers national Facebook, twitter and Instagram accounts and a request for members to send in your photos and stories to [email protected]. Some of us joined in the national walking quiz on 24th April which was good fun, done through Facebook. They may do more. You can also get a weekly inspiration and updates from Ramblers nationally click here to register Our group has been keeping in touch through our own Facebook posting photos of our local walks and news, so please join the group if you are not already a member click here. If you have any other ideas of ways to keep in touch please let Mags or me know. Margaret Your Ramblers Group needs you! We would like to invite you to join us in running the group so that we can share what we do and make sure there are volunteers for the future to keep it going. If you would like to help in any way but are not sure what to do, give Salle a ring 07523871475 or email her [email protected] Our website has been much improved and updated. Thanks to Rachel Fernley, Alan Manning and Cath Fernley. Check it out if you haven’t recently. https://www.manchesterandsalfordramblers.org.uk/ The Lost Ways Campaign See two of our MAD Walkers on BBC TV speaking about it a few months ago. Well done Oli and Charlotte. The clip is on our Facebook page, sorry but you have to scroll back to 14th February to see it. click here. The staff at National Office are now reviewing the first stage of the campaign and will be sending information out on the next stage in the members newsletter. Our Campaigns go on: Our walks maybe on hold at this troubled time, but the campaign work goes on; looking to the future we have made a submission to the current consultation on the issues that a new Manchester Local Plan should seek to address. Local Authorities produce “Local Plans” to set out how they will meet the needs of their area in terms of housing, commercial, public and private development, including transport infrastructure, along with protection for the local environment. This plan for the area is the starting point for determining local planning applications, and is therefore a key opportunity for the Ramblers to seek to ensure that all new developments are required to protect the existing public footpath network and to actively promote walking and active travel. Manchester City Council has begun the process and invited views on the issues that the plan should address and we have responded. We strongly endorsed the need for action on climate change as a key issue and we have called for a new Manchester Greenspace standard, with the objective that everyone in our towns and cities should live no more than a 5-minute walk or 300m from a quality green space, the current crisis has emphasised the importance of this need and the inequalities that exist across our city. For the full submission see this link.. The next stage will be later in the year with the production of the draft Plan and at the moment it is envisaged that the public consultation will be held over next winter. At that point we will need to make sure that we lobby effectively for the things that are important to Ramblers – let us know if you can help in this work. We have also been active in consultations about some of the latest Bee Network proposals. In February we had the proposals for a new walking and cycling route through the Northern Quarter from Piccadilly to Victoria Stations. We welcomed many of the measures and argued for clear linkages and connections with the wider network of routes and rights of way, in particular: the Green Trail, the Irk Valley and Chapel Street East and the Salford Trail. For the full submission follow this link. In April we considered the plans for a new walking and cycling route from Redbank and the Green Quarter to Ancoats and New Islington. We have made a short submission focused on what we believe would enable more people to use the route by ensuring that it is connected with the existing and developing network of traffic free and quiet routes and public rights of way. For full details follow this link. Redisher Wood Steps I thought our members would be interested in this work that Bury Ramblers have been involved in. It is in an area we often walk, on the route going down south from Peel Tower, Holcombe Moor, Ramsbottom. As you can see from the before, during and after photos there is a real improvement. It was a collaboration between East Lancs Long Distance Walkers Association Bury Council and the Ramblers with funding from all three organisations. In Redisher Wood Nature Reserve there is a 1 km-long footpath, referred to as 19RAM, which connects the Moorbottom Road with the path through Redisher Wood and is a popular route for walkers. The southern end, at Redisher Wood, is steep and often muddy and slippery, making it difficult to descend, with the potential for falls. The path is also towards the end of the annual Two Crosses event, organised by East Lancs LWDA. The work was commissioned by Bury Council, and was completed just in time for this year's Two Crosses event. Once the current Coronavirus crisis is over, Bury Ramblers intend to organise a walk to showcase the path improvement. Other groups, including East Lancs LDWA, will be invited to participate, and we hope to obtain some media publicity to highlight that collaborative efforts of this kind, improving our invaluable of Rights of Way, can succeed.’ Written by Ed Husband Bury Ramblers Manchester Green Trail. As everyone knows now, the launch of the MGT has fallen victim to the lockdown. We were due to launch this on 9 May as part of the G M Walking Festival – but that is now history. The launch was rescheduled for sometime this autumn, but we will have to wait and see how the lockdown is progressing. After much difficulty getting the maps redrawn to incorporate our revisions, we now have a complete set of revised maps thanks to Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) who came to our rescue when our original cartographer let us down. We will be uploading the maps to our website and the Manchester Active website, so that everyone can have access to them. In this difficult period when getting out for a walk can be difficult, the maps provide ready made routes for people close to where they live and identify green spaces which are so important for physical and mental wellbeing when we are under stress. 2 of the routes have been way marked, see below, and the rest will have to wait till people can get out and put up the signs. This project would not have been possible without all the volunteers who have modified routes, checked routes, led walks along the route and put up way markers. Thank you to all of those volunteers – too many to name. This project has been an excellent example of collaboration between the Ramblers, TfGM and Manchester City Council, and such work is important Walking Elsewhere. Our Tour de Mont Blanc – Part 1 France and Italy. The Tour is a 170 km high-level walking route that circles the Mont Blanc Massif. Mont Blanc is of course Europe’s highest peak and the Tour passes through France, Italy and Switzerland. We didn’t set out to do the TMB, we had a holiday in 2008 walking from hut to hut in the alps above Chamonix, and at the end of the trip I realised that we had in fact covered most of the French section of the Tour and thought that it would be an idea to try to complete the rest of the route – and we did, but it took us two more very enjoyable trips! Tramway du Mont-Blanc, Near to the Croix du Bonhomme Mont Blanc from the Col de Fours St Gervais les Bains We began in the summer of 2008, arriving in the small mountain town of St Gervais Les Bain in the Northern French Alps. We had travelled on a very comfortable overnight train from Paris and just crossed the street for the Tramway Du Mont Blanc, a small rack-rail train that took us up to the Col de Vosa at over 5,000 ft.