Doncaster Ramblers
Minutes of committee meeting: 21st January, 2019
Present: David Gadd, David Horne, Sue Robertson, Steve Robertson, Bob Carlisle, Tony Liversidge, Peter Rowsell, Tony Marsh.
- Apologies: Martin Wyman, Dave Binnington, Dennis Neal, Steve Saddington, Peter Gravestock, Jim Elvidge, Norman Lewis.
- Minutes of the meeting 19th November 2018.
Minutes confirmed as accurate DG/TM
- Matters arising:
TM said that a press release for the Bradfield Ancient Ways Improvements (BAWI) was about to be released.
Thanks were expressed for the information provided by DH re queries raised at the previous
meeting.
DG agreed to phone the NUR restaurant re their missed advertisement in the last walks
programme.
- Additional activities:
4.1 Walking Festival. A suggestion had been made to Hannah Wild, DMBC’s new Public Health
Improvement Officer (Walking & Cycling), that the local authority organise a walking festival, with
many walks submitted by us. However she has shown no interest in this, probably because her
remit is to improve the health of very unfit people and our mostly 10-mile walks do not fit this
category.
4.2 Carers walks. BC suggested that it would be better if one/two people co-ordinated these
walks. DG agreed to ask members before the start on tomorrow’s walk. (Nil response so far)
4.3 Thursday walks programme. After a considerable discussion we agreed to introduce 2 - 2.5
hour walks on Thursday’s providing that NL can fit them into the Summer programme. We also
discussed offering these walks for the DMBC website, producing the Thursday programme as a
separate document, etc.
4.4. Get Doncaster Moving. This is the programme introduced by DMBC as a consequence of
receiving money from central government because Doncaster has one of the least fit population’s
in the country. They have organised a meeting on 30th January at which we will be represented.
We have submitted 6 walks for the summer programme.
- Financial report. The financial statement had previously been circulated. DH briefly went
through it, pointing out that the carers walks were funded externally. It was that our balance was
lower than in previous years.
- Publicity report. PR said that we had had fewer items in the DFP over the Christmas period,
although more recently we had had two consecutive full page articles and photos.
We recently had a request from the Tourist Information Office for more programmes but we have
very few left. We are hoping to print some lists of the final couple of months walks. We agreed to
increase the printing from 400 to 500 copies for the summer programme.
- Walks Programme up-date. The Tuesday walks continue to attract 30-40 people and the last
two Saturday walks, reasonably local, had attracted large numbers including a number of new
people. PR read out a very positive Facebook message he had received from a new person
following a recent Saturday walk.
Tuesday’s walks for the new programme have been sent to NL. The Saturday programme is full
and will be sent soon.
The new Thursday programme will obviously take some time to complete but we anticipate that it
will be in the Summer programme.
- Rights of Way report.
All 591 paths in DMBC were inspected by our square walkers for the third consecutive year.
Three 'Squares' have changed ownership:-
- 50 NE from Ian Mcquade to Martin Vincent;
- 60SW from Wendy Atkinson to Bob Carlisle & Dave Binnington;
- 60 NW from Owen Evans to Neil Thornton.
New maps will be issued including small maps based on the Row maps. The latter can be
inspected on our website and they show clearly the Parish, the footpath number and,
importantly, where the path starts and finishes. They are up-to -date. To access these,
go to doncasterramblers.org.uk, select 'Volunteers' from the main Menu and then
'DMBC Walking Map' from the drop down menu. You can also zoom in/out.
Problems continue with certain footpaths. Thorpe in Balne 2 needs considerable improvement. It
was walked before Christmas by MW & TM and comments/photographs were sent to the RoW
Dept. A few relatively simple changes would open up this path considerably.
- The RoW Committee met on 4th January 2019 to discuss various issues.- The DMBC
Walking Map', variations in the workload for Square owners, and the possibility of square
owners 'suggesting' suitable circular routes, in and around their square.
- MW was not present so there was no update on the November PROW meeting.
Volunteers
- Since the last meeting the Volunteers have been in action on 4 occasions:-
November 28th .... 10 volunteers carried out repairs to five stiles on Moss1, 8, & 9.
December 5th .... New posts erected on Norton 6 and 29. Clearance work on
Sprotbrough 16 and repairs to the handrail on Sprotbrough 18 also done in December.
January 9th .... 4 volunteers carried out improvements to a much used stile in Tickhill and
replaced a nearby rotting waymark post.
The date for the next work party will be on Wednesday 13th February 2019 and not the 6th Feb.
as shown in the Walks Programme. Location pending. MW to be asked to put this on the website.
The rights of way committee consists of Martin Wyman, Chair, Tony Marsh, Peter Rowsell and
Alan Elvidge, to whom and RoW problems should be referred as soon as possible. An example
was given of a serious problem being noted in the Sykehouse area, which will be fixed before a
planned walk in a few months.
- Social report. The Christmas walks and lunches both went well. Suggestions for next year’s
events are welcome. We briefly discussed the possibility of organisation a Christmas event in
Derbyshire but agreed that it was not worth going to Derbyshire, bearing in mind the extra cost
and that it would only be a short walk.
The coach has been booked for the trip to Pateley Bridge on 22nd June. DB/BC will lead the long
walk and PG will lead the medium length walk. A volunteer to lead the short walk would be
welcome.
- SR said that there had been two new members recently, plus one re-instatement.
Central Office have introduced a new dashboard for membership secretaries. This is excellent,
giving a huge amount of information to membership secretaries. Unfortunately SR has been
unable to access it yet. DG, as Area membership secretary, has been able to access the
dashboard.
- AOB
PR said that he had been contacted by a lady on FB about researching Lost Ways. DG suggested
that she be advised to email him.
Betty’s card, thanking members for the gift of a remembrance rose and sympathy cards sent, was
read out.
SR said that some Groups use a generic email address for committee positions (ie
secretary@doncasterramblers). He agreed to investigate how this was done.
DH gave the amount advertisements raised for Doncaster Ramblers in a year.
TL said that he would organise a long weekend in the Chilterns in September 2020.
The meeting closed at 21.08.
Future meetings: 18th March
21st May
15th July
17th September
For information.
The committee’s decision to introduce a full Thursday walks programme was explained to
members on next morning’s Tuesday walk and was well received. During the walk Lee Welsh, who
co-ordinates the six 7-8 mile Thursday walks, agreed to co-ordinate the shorter walks as well. That
evening he sent an email to members asking for walks and DG put the information on the website