Committee meeting synopsis

Meeting date: 4 December, 2017
2017 Christmas Card
  1. Next walk - 1 January 2018.
    This will start at 10:00 from the car park of The George Hotel (Swaffham Road, Dereham NR19 2AZ). The walk is about 5 miles, so we will return to The George between 12:00 and 12:30. The George has reserved the conservatory for us, and will be serving us cake and tea/coffee (to be refilled as required). The inclusive cost is £7 (walk, drink, cake), reflecting the provision of our own reserved space on a busy New Year’s Day. Booking is advised, as ever, and please make a note if you’re coming by car: we can use The George’s car park, but are asked to park close to each other and away from the Hotel so we are not putting off their other customers while we are away in the wilds.

  2. Recent decisions
    Litter
    At our last meeting of the year, we reviewed the outcome of our litter picking (we thought this was well worth doing, and, though it shouldn't need doing in the first place, everyone got a good feeling out of clearing up the rubbish, mainly from Footpath 14, but also from Footpaths 1/1a and 10, the area where Restricted Byways 30 and 31 met Swanton Road, and the top of Cherry Lane). We plan to keep monitoring the situation, and perhaps repeat the exercise in March next year.

    Money
    We noted our finances: we now have almost the sum we need to pay our standing costs next year (subscription to Walkers are Welcome, insurance, web costs, Annual Public Meeting costs and attendance at the national Annual Get Together - which in 2018 is ‘up the road’ in Cromer). As you can see, we still rely on making small sums from our walks in order to pay for (eg) more stickers and other publicity, plus other occasional incidental costs.

    Stickers
    Regarding stickers, we have now placed 20 in shops and businesses around the town, with more yet to be approached; soon however we will use up our original supply, so will acquire more (assuming we have the money to buy them).

    Christmas cards
    We finalised our Christmas card - see adjacent! We are printing only a handful, for the businesses and others who are supporting us.

  3. Survey
    We reviewed all 7 of the responses to our little survey. The combination of varying views and small number of responses has led us to believe that we are more or less doing what is wanted. Our plan is to continue with a basic pattern of Bank Holiday (therefore Monday) walks, but with some variations and additions. Current plans (for those who want to make diary notes now) are for 2 April, 28 May, a Sunday in June or July, 27 August, a Sunday in October (Garden Party or picnic), then Tuesday 1 January 2019. We are also expecting to have a presence at the Model Railway Exhibition on 24 February - come and see us there if you’re going.

  4. New walks pack
    We have been delighted to hear that we have been awarded the full £1390 we bid for from Tesco’s Bags of Help fund; this, together with £750 from Dereham Town Council has given us what we need to make up 3000 packs with 14 walks in them. We will be getting them printed and packed up as soon as we can, and if we have them in time for 1 January, will give some out then. We anticipate that the main outlet will again be Dereham Library, which has been telling us that enquiries have continued for the previous pack. We’ve also been in touch with all of the neighbouring parishes through which any of our walks run, and most of them have expressed interest in putting at least their walk(s) on their websites and/or taking a small supply of packs.

  5. Bus services
    It is part of the Walkers are Welcome ethos to encourage and support the use of public transport wherever possible. We have arranged our own public walks to start from locations served by public transport (accepting that these services are often poorer on Bank Holidays), and all of the walks in our pack can be completed using the bus or the train (Mid-Norfolk Railway). It seems possible that some of the bus services may be affected if Norfolk County Council decides to reduce or remove the subsidies currently given. Services which receive subsidy and which we are planning to use are Konect routes 4, 11 and 21. If this is of concern to you, may we suggest you comment accordingly (before 2 January) in the County’s consultation (opens in new tab).

May we wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year - but we would love to do that personally on 1 January!