Lincolnshire Ramblers Groups
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RAMBLERS LINCOLNSHIRE AREA Annual Report & Accounts for the year 2019 – 2020 The Ramblers' Association is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales. Company registration number: 4458492. Ramblers Charity England & Wales No: 1093577 Scotland No: SC039799. Registered office: 2nd floor, Camelford House, 87-90 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TW. AREA OFFICERS Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 Hon. President: post vacant Vice Presidents: Tony Parker, Phil Jacklin, Colin Smith Chairman: Geoff Mullett Vice-Chairman: John Beavan Secretary: Stuart Parker Treasurer: John Atterby Membership Secretary: Mary Ball Minutes Secretary: post vacant Area Footpath Officers: North Lincs: Sid Mill South Lincs: John Beavan Publicity: Stuart Parker Webmaster: Geoff Mullett GROUP CONTACTS 2020 Boston: Patrick White 07944 451958 Gainsborough: Douglas Barr 01724 846340 Grantham: Judy Hulland 01664 464065 Grimsby & Louth: Lesley Bailey 01472 591830 Lincoln: Gill Enderby 01522 535399 LWG 20s & 30s: Tracy Robinson [email protected] Scunthorpe: Lyn Martin 07731631276 Skegness & Horncastle: Mike Casey 01205 480466 Sleaford: Melanie Fisher 01529 415860 Spalding: Judy Chapman 01775 680404 Stamford: Richard Siddaway 07519 376992 NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING All members and affiliates are invited to attend the 2020 Annual General meeting of the Ramblers Lincolnshire Area to be held on: Saturday 16 January 2021 at 10.00. Venue to be advised AGENDA 1. Apologies for absence 2. Minutes of the AGM 2019 3. Matters arising 4. Annual Reports & Accounts 5. Election of Officers, including delegates to 2021 General Council * 6. Motions ** 7. Any other business 8. Date, time and place of the 2021 Annual General Meeting * Nominations may be made at the meeting, but it is helpful if names are given to the Secretary beforehand. ** Notice of Motions must be given in writing to the Secretary at least two weeks prior to the AGM. Hon. Area Secretary: Stuart Parker 129 Broughton Gardens Lincoln LN5 8SR Tel: 01522 534655 email: [email protected] 1 AREA CHAIRMAN In my report of September 2019, which was left out of the printed booklet, I wrote about the tasks I’d undertaken in what seemed a busy eight months. Sadly, this report is more of a list of what I haven’t done, or more accurately what I couldn’t do due to the ongoing pandemic restrictions. I had hoped to focus on the Area’s falling membership, and to that end, I offered to lead some walks for two of our Groups who said they were short of leaders. This was before the shutdown that came in March, but neither Group bothered to respond, so instead, I put my name down to lead walks for the North Kesteven Walking Festival. I also devised a series of evening walks for the Lincolnshire Coastal Country Park and started to produce a set of walks based on a pub in Mumby, all with the idea of publicising the Ramblers, but of course, all that was put on hold. For these non-Group-specific walks, such as Council-run walking festivals and the Ramblers Festival of Winter Walks for which I’d planned to lead a set of walks, I’ve been given access to the Groups Walks & Events Manager (GWEM) and a notional group ‘Lincolnshire’. Using this, any member who wants to lead a walk that doesn’t fall under their Group’s umbrella (such as day, walk length, an alternative to a coach trip etc), can add it to GWEM to be visible to the public and all members. In this financial year, the rate of membership decline in Lincolnshire is still well above the national average, so we need to work together to reverse this. Remind people that National Parks, access to open countryside, waymarked and cleared footpaths are all due to Ramblers efforts. Another event cancelled was the 2020 General Council scheduled for Bristol in April. However, a basic AGM was conducted on 15th September using Zoom (how many of us had heard of that before the lockdown?). More details of that at the end of my report. I responded to a number of local newspaper reports where the term ‘ramblers’ was being used indiscriminately whenever someone complained of a problem with walkers. The days of proper journalists working for provincial newspapers has long gone, now replaced by compilers of stories and letters submitted by the public, with little or no checking of facts. I was also interviewed over the phone by a couple of Lincolnshire-based radio stations, though the reasons completely escape me! With many emails and newsletters pouring forth from Central Office, there were always going to be a number of confusing and mixed messages regarding what Groups could and couldn’t do. Staff working from home can’t have helped the situation as I found the answers to questions depended on who I asked. Hopefully, the staff, who have been under considerable pressure, are now getting the support they need, and our Groups are now receiving clear instructions. Last December, I met with Alison Hallas, Ramblers Policy & Advocacy Officer for Countryside & Access, to discuss the proposed route for the Coastal Path where it passes through the grey seal pupping area at Donna Nook. We walked part of the route and looked at alternatives – necessary as there was no possibility of following the preferred path alongside the dunes between October and January when several thousand seals were on the path and which flooded at times of very high tide. We then met with the other stakeholders – Lincs Wildlife Trust, Natural England, the Parish Council and the MoD (over whose land the route passes). After much haggling, a route was agreed that left everyone happy, though it will be a while before this stretch of path is declared open – everything has been delayed as Natural England staff have not been allowed to work from their offices, though a progress report is due from them imminently. In January, we held our AGM at Bishop Grosseteste University in Lincoln. The Area Officers were voted in with just one change, John Atterby took over the purse strings as Treasurer, following the retirement of John Harker. Thanks to John H for the time spent keeping our accounts on the straight and narrow, and to John A, for volunteering to take over the role. A task I could undertake! With nobody rushing to take responsibility for the Area web site, I agreed to look at it and give it a re-vamp. The software used is far from intuitive and extremely user-unfriendly, however the new web site was completed in May and seems to have met with general approval. It’s still a work in progress though, as I’m currently re-walking and updating the routes around the county I first walked in 2009-10. As they are completed, they will appear on the web site for anyone to download. I repeat my earlier request for any members who have submitted a walk to Ramblers Routes, or have a favourite walk they would like to share, to send me the details. Finally, my grateful thanks to Colin Smith who looked after the previous web site for a number of years and also to all the volunteers who keep the Groups and the Area functioning. 2 Report on the Ramblers AGM held online, on 15 September 2020 This consisted of a short broadcast-only online meeting, with Council members having formally participated and voted in advance by appointing the Chair of the Board of Trustees as their proxy and submitting a proxy form ahead of the meeting. Over 100 people joined the online meeting and 103 Council members participated by appointing a proxy and voting on the formal business including Roger Bainbridge (Boston Group) and myself as delegates. Kate Ashbrook, Chair of the Board of Trustees, gave a short update on achievements in 2018-2019 and events on the year to date. The salient points were: Don’t Lose Your Way – this campaign has discovered 40,000 miles of unrecorded paths and 3,200 people have helped with this. Agriculture Bill – Ramblers are very much involved in lobbying, with the Minister stating that new payments could be made to landowners for the creation of new footpaths. Environment Bill – Ramblers are lobbying hard for the Government to guarantee that no one lives more than five minutes’ walk from green space, by requiring national targets for access to nature under the Environment Bill. The Environment Minister announced in September that £7.2m will be available for projects related to access; Ramblers played a big role in securing this funding. Regarding the nine Motions submitted by Areas for debate this year, with no possibility of meeting to discuss them, the Board of Trustees decided that these Motions would be remitted to the Board, who will review each Motion and prepare a response to be published on 16th October 2020. Areas can then decide whether they wish to resubmit the Motion for discussion next year. The recorded AGM can be viewed on the Ramblers web site HERE. Also, all the paperwork can be downloaded from the same page. Geoff Mullett September 2020 3 AREA SECRETARY What a year it has been. I have not known such a wholesale cancellation of our led walks programme before except during the Foot & Mouth outbreak in 2001. Of course, it was necessary that precautions had to be enacted by Government in an effort to try to bring this coronavirus epidemic under some control. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the timing of action, all activities were to be affected which included the cancellation of our complete walks programme, footpath protection work and meetings. However, one interesting benefit which has come out of Covid-19 is the discovery by many people of footpaths local to them as the restrictions permitted walking as an essential exercise as part of our wellbeing.