Northamptonshire Annual Report 1 October 2019 – 30 September 2020
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NORTHAMPTONSHIRE ANNUAL REPORT 1 OCTOBER 2019 – 30 SEPTEMBER 2020 Northampton Group celebrating their 50th birthday, 19th January 2020 The Ramblers promotes walking, protects rights of way, campaigns for access to open country and defends the beauty of the countryside. The Ramblers Association the charity for walkers. The Ramblers Association is a company registered by guarantee and registered in England and Wales, registered number 458492. Registered charity in England and Wales 1093577. Registered Office, 2nd floor, Camelford House, 87 – 90 Albert Embankment, London, SE17TW Contents Chairman’s Address General Secretary’s Report Area Treasurers Report including Area Annual Accounts Individual Group Annual Accounts Area Membership Secretary’s Report Area Footpath Secretary’s Report Northamptonshire Local Access Forum Lost Ways Committee Report Chester Farm Footbridge Greenway Project Walking for Health Website update Group reports Officers and Members of Northamptonshire Area Council 2019/20 Greetings from a Chairman in lockdown In last year’s Annual report I wrote about the loss of Maurice Tebbutt stalwart of the Northamptonshire Ramblers. In November 2019 Kate Ashbrook, Chair of the board of Trustees at the Ramblers and long time friend of Maurice’s came to the dedication of the gate in Maurice’s memory. There is a good photo (shown here) of Kate walking to and from this event with Bob Coles MBE and President of Northamptonshire Area Ramblers. A week after this event Bob Coles died at home. We shall miss him. Bob Coles, Kate Ashbrook and members walking to the Maurice Tebbutt memorial gate. In September 2019 to celebrate Bob’s 90th birthday Kate had dedicated a tree to Bob in the Woodland Trust’s Stoke Wood, the closest property to his home in Little Harrowden. The Northamptonshire Area Ramblers are in the process of procuring a memorial gate for Bob to replace a gate in the village of Little Harrowden that was installed at least 60 years ago and repaired by Bob since then. Bob’s son Mick has identified the gate (shown here) and the landowner has given permission for a replacement memorial gate to be put on their land. Since we started this process the world has changed as Covid – 19 has struck. This has caused many problems one of which is how we obtain a hard wood gate to last as long or longer than the current gate. Work on this is ongoing. What with periods of lockdown and members shielding and/or taking precautions to avoid the disease all our members have been affected by the pandemic with many group walks and whole group walk programmes and events cancelled. The Ramblers had organised to hold some training sessions for Walk Leaders in Gayton and Grendon village halls this year and these events too have been cancelled. With the Area and groups being advised by central office to hold all meetings and AGMs on line Area have now arranged a subscription to join Zoom. This is a first for most groups and after a few practice runs most meetings are taking place. For those members who are not IT savvy these meetings were not our first choice for a way to hold them but unfortunately in the current climate this is better than nothing. The Ramblers too postponed General council this year in the hope the Covid situation would improve across the country but in the end the AGM was held with delegates voting beforehand online and Kate Ashbrook and Michael Penny, honorary treasurer presenting all relevant paperwork electronically. The meeting was shown on line and is still available on You Tube. Let‘s hope we can all meet to walk together soon. Fiona Rawlings General Secretary’s report: this post is vacant so no report this year. Please consider volunteering to take on this important role. Support available if required. Treasurers Report The financial situation has obviously been very unusual this financial year. Most Groups have had vastly reduced expenditure due to the restriction placed upon operations as a result of Covid. As a result of the expected payments not being required for lost ways work in 2018/19, Area reserves increased substantially during that year and, consequently, no funds were requested for Area in the 2019/20 financial year. This has resulted in some reduction in reserves but, with the restrictions on what can be undertaken as a result of Covid, reserves remain high. Northamptonshire Area budget request covers both the Area and its Groups. For 2019/20, the Groups received the finance requested from Central Office. The requests made in August 2019 were based upon normal annual expenditure, driven largely by the production and distribution of walk leaflets and newsletters. For all except the 20s-40s Group the expenditure has been much reduced and consequently most Group reserves are high. For the 20s-40s, their main communication is by the use of internet based services such as “Meet up” for which costs have been unchanged from a normal year. No funds have been requested for Area in the 2020/21 budget request and, for the most part, Groups have accepted the base level funding proposed by Central Office for 2020/21. 20s-40s have requested their normal budget. These requests have been approved by Central Office. I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of the group treasurers for their support during the year and providing timely responses to budgeting and reporting requests. I would also like to thank Ian Woods who has acted as the honorary examiner of the Area accounts Roland Rawlings Kettering Group 2019-20 Ramblers Association - Northants 20s - 40s Receipts and Payments for Period 1st October 2019 to 30th September 2020 INCOME EXPENDITURE Area Allowance - Q1 95.25 Lloyds Card Fees 36.00 Area Allowance - Q2 93.58 £3 x 12 Area Allowance - Q3 93.58 Area Allowance - Q4 93.58 Advertising - Meet Up 86.87 13/10/2019 Fasthosts Internet 23.98 08/11/2019 Fasthosts Internet 77.03 08/12/2019 Fasthosts Internet (Domain Renewal) 11.99 27/03/2020 Advertising - Meet Up 86.67 13/04/2020 Total Receipts 375.99 Total Payments 322.54 Bank Balance 01.10.2019 422.46 Bank Balance 30.09.2019 475.91 £798.4 £798.4 cross-check 5 cross-check 5 Summary of financial year for Independent Summa Mai Self-funded Tota Examiner Total receipts ry n 375.9 - l 375.9 Total payments 9322.5 - 9322.5 Closing cash balance 4475.9 - 4475.9 Net assets/liabilities (funds) 1475.9 - 1475.9 1 1 Having carried out procedures in accordance with the Area and Group independent examination guidelines, I consider the " NP50-Northants 20s - 40s Walking Group “ accounts to give a fair representation of the Signed: Date: Name of examiner: (Alternatively, if you do not wish to print off this sheet please send in a signed copy of your own Area/Group accounts to GB office). Membership Report The table below provides the data regarding members assigned to the NP area and the individual Groups. The figures are correct as of the Mid November 2020. Area & Group memberships as reported by Central Office Totals Northampton Daventry Wellingborough Kettering 20’s-40’s Oct 12 1084 466 138 251 165 55 Oct 13 1049 427 156 267 127 72 Oct 14 1021 411 114 261 161 58 Oct 15 1007 392 128 255 159 55 Oct 16 963 365 133 242 155 49 Oct 17 948 352 130 236 154 59 Oct 18 937 344 128 234 146 60 Oct 19 956 328 122 246 151 69 Nov 20 939 329 125 229 162 65 Members not allocated to specific group 29 The overall figures for the years shown in the table show a gradual decline although there was an increase in 2019. Overall figures show we are close to the 2018 membership level, this in spite of the difficulties in retention this year due to the constraints imposed by Covid. The latest report from Central Office indicates that since 1st October, 18 new people joined Ramblers and were assigned to our Area. This is repeated month on month and yet there is no overall growth to be seen. With people moving into and out of the county there is a continuing need to ensure the we are visible to the people interested in walking and identify how to recruit new members effectively and how to ensure their retention. R. Rawlings Area Footpath Secretary's Report First some good news. Thanks to the hard work of members of the footpath committee including Dr.Will Lovell and Chris Shaw as well as other members of the Northants Ramblers we have a County Council promise that the fire damaged bridge at Chester House will be replaced. Also during the past year, a new footbridge over the canal at Crick was opened on the 24th April (see photo). In the west of our County a replacement 8m footbridge was completed on the footpath between Eydon and Chipping Warden. This allows the removal of a long diversion of the Macmillan Way route between Boston and Abbotsbury, and restores a very useful inter-village link. The new bridge at The Island north of Elton en route to Nassington was completed in the summer. You will notice the left hand side of the steps up are covered in bitumen as a result of complaints by the Ramblers and others that the open structure is difficult for dogs and people with walking sticks. The west end of the bridge is in Northants the east end is in Hunts. The construction of the HS2 London to Birmingham High Speed Railway is proceeding.