Doncaster Ramblers
Minutes of the AGM November 2021
7:15pm 16th November 2021
Committee: David Gadd, David Horne, Lisa Edwards, Brian Milne, Peter Rowsell, David Binnington, Tony Marsh, Norman Lewis, Peter Gravestock
David Gadd opened the meeting a little after 7:15pm and thanked everyone for coming.
Apologies: Tony Liversidge – resigned from the committee due to his limited ability to walk at the moment, Charlie Pratt and Angela Gibson.
Attendee’s: Kim Binnington, Keith Staines, Hilda Levine, Angela Nicholson, David Nicholson
DG – introduced Lisa Edwards as the new secretary.
1. Minutes of the 2020 AGM
These were approved
2. Matter arising from these minutes
None
3. Chairs Annual Report
David Gadd read the annual report
· The pandemic has inevitably dominated the activities of the Doncaster Group during the past year. Our printed walks programme, produced but abandoned from Summer 2020, has yet to be resumed and, at the moment, it remains impossible to predict whether walks programme for Summer 2022 will be produced in a printed version.
· Nevertheless, the number of walks we have been offering has been high, with a combination of the usual Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday walks being supplemented by many Friday walks. The great majority of these walks have been within DMBC, including many of our longer walks, with car-sharing being considered unwise for much of the time. More recently, walks in Derbyshire, the Lincolnshire Wolds, etc have resumed, as has car-sharing for many members. Numbers on walks have gradually been increasing, with one or two ‘old faithfuls’ resuming walking. A recent Tuesday walks near Wakefield had 24 participants.
· We are indebted to a relatively small number of people for putting on a high number of walks, foremost of these being Peter Rowsell, who has planned and led more walks than any other member during the pandemic. The Tuesday programme has been full, but the Saturday programme has had a few occasions with no walk offered. This has also happened to the Thursday programme at times. On the other hand, the Friday was are in addition to anything we’ve offered before.
· The higher than usual number of short walks that we have provided has undoubtedly been the main reason for the significant number of new members who have joined us during the pandemic. On 1st October 2017 we had 208 members, in 2018 we had 230, in 2019 we had 225 and in 2020 we had 228. Our current figure is 234.
· Our programme of walks for Doncaster Carers resumed in May this year with a walk in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. These walks are intended to improve the health of carers and cared-for people and as such we usually offer a ‘long’ walk of about 4-5 miles, a shorter walk of 2-3 miles and a very short stroll around the venue. Funding by the Stepping Out organisation, which covers all transport and lunch costs. The walk at the YSP was notable for the appalling weather. As we started the long walk it started to drizzle and as we continued the drizzle became more pronounced. Our inexperienced walkers were not properly dressed for such conditions and by the time we returned to the centre many were very wet. Stepping Out subsequently paid for a set of ponchos. In addition to wet walkers, we had a very heavy electric wheelchair to deal with, its owner underestimating its ability to cope with sloping wet grass and the power in the battery.
· In June we had a much more successful day with the carers. None chose to do our long walk of about 5 miles only a handful chose to do the 2–3-mile walk, the great majority deciding that walking within the gardens of Chatsworth House was the better option. In July we organised two walks from Brodsworth Hall, the long walk a linear walk from Hooton Pagnell and the short walk around the grounds. Another group organised a walk for the carers in August and we ended the series for this year with a stroll around the Yorkshire Wildlife Park. Thanks are expressed to the members who have supported these walks.
· Finally, I would like to thank everyone involved in the running of Doncaster Ramblers, to everyone who volunteers to in any way whatsoever - to serve on the committee or fulfil another non-committee administrative role, to be part of the maintenance team, the ‘square-checkers’ team and, of course, to lead/back-mark walks. Any members who would like to join the committee or to volunteer in any other way would be very welcome.
There were no questions or comments.
4. Rights of way Report
Tony Marsh read Martin Wyman’s report.
There have been no meetings of the Public Rights of Way Forum in 2021, although members were asked if they would like to participate in a Windows meeting but there was no follow-up.
To date we have received no updates on Orders, Claims and Diversions/Creations/Extinguishments, though some details are shown on the DMBC website.
It disappointing to report that there has been no progress with our two Footpath claims, Nursery Lane in Sprotbrough and Broad Oak Lane in Tickhill.
Despite all the difficulties associated with Covid, our volunteers have still managed to check 410 RoW so far this year.
DG expressed the Group’s thanks to Martin for his work re Rights of Way and, in addition, his ongoing work as Webmaster.
Footpath checking
Our network of footpaths within DMBC consists of just under 600 individual paths of varying length, spread throughout some 29 areas. Our present team of 22 volunteers walk each path in their respective area every year, reporting any issues which they encounter to Doncaster's Rights of Way Department. The reports are then collated, and action taken either directly by the Council team, or by our Maintenance Volunteers who work alongside the RoW Department.
Despite all the problems associated with the Covid 19 virus a number of our square walkers have continued check and report on their respective areas. Nevertheless, this means that some areas will have problems which remain unreported, and which need identifying as soon as we are able to do so.
With 29 areas to cover and only 22 volunteers, some are covering more than one area, which in one instance involves checking 60 footpaths!! In short, we simply need extra volunteers to reduce the present workload.
In recent months a number of our group have decided that it is time to stand down, leaving a huge gap in our team and some 140 paths needing cover. We also have three particular areas which have too many footpaths for one person to check and need subdividing. They are: -
· The Moss, Norton and Askern 'Square' which has 60 paths.
· The Thorne, Fishlake 'Square' which has 49 paths.
· The Clayton, Hampole and Hooton Pagnell Square which has 40 paths.
Our thanks to those retiring who have been checking RoW for many years and also to those who have stepped in to help in recent weeks.
If anyone is willing to become a 'Square Owner' or walk and report on just a few footpaths in any of the above areas, will you please contact Tony Marsh (
Footpath Maintenance Volunteers
Our last maintenance session was in February 2020 when we erected way-mark posts at Wellingley near Tickhill. Since then, our spades, loppers and wheelbarrows have remained on standby as the pandemic prevented any form of maintenance work. Unfortunately, the backlog of outstanding repairs has grown and is still growing!
As the situation eased in mid-2021 we had hoped to restart our maintenance work, albeit on a limited scale, but for a number of reasons this has not been possible. All this has been very frustrating, not only for our maintenance volunteers but also for some of our team of 'Square checkers' who have managed to continue reporting on their paths throughout the lockdown. It is very frustrating when problems are reported, and nothing seems to happen!
In June this year an email was sent to all our volunteers to check how many would be able/willing to continue once it was possible to restart our activities. As you can see from the previous item, we have lost a sizeable number of our team of footpath 'checkers', but fortunately, apart from a small number who do not wish to continue we have enough 'maintenance volunteers' to be able to carry out regular repairs. Needless to say, additional volunteers are always welcome, and we have spaces for the skilled and semi-skilled, for those who think they are skilled and even for those who just want a morning out! Training in all these categories is available!!
We are very much dependant on Doncaster RoW who need to liaise in advance with farmers and landowners, as well as providing transport for all the materials needed. Our first session for many months was arranged for Wednesday October 20th at Hatfield, where 8 volunteers were ready to carry out work replacing two stiles with kissing gates and do repairs to a third stile. Unfortunately, we had to cancel at the very last minute because of difficulties with the transport needed to get the materials on site. Extremely disappointing and frustrating for everyone involved.... but we will get underway, eventually!
Footnote. We now have a firm date of Wednesday 1st December to carry out the work in Hatfield. We obviously hope that all goes well this time.
DG expressed the Group’s thanks for the incredible amount of work that Tony does re footpath checking and organising the maintenance sessions.
5. Publicity Report
Looking back only two years and Doncaster Ramblers barely received a mention in the local press. Today we feature in the Doncaster Free Press each week with our own column. The items are not always in chronological order, the images are often burred, and occasionally the text is truncated but overall we gat a huge amount of free publicity.
Coverage in the four other local publications
· The Gazette – a free print and on-line broadsheet printed fortnightly
· The Today Magazine – a free letterbox delivery local interest magazine printed monthly
· The Arrow Magazine – similar to Today
· The Thorne Times – weekly broadsheet
has fallen off slightly in that we still get a regular mention, but no press releases as such.
The big success has been Facebook. Everything we do including occasionally, up to four walks a week is posted on our FB page and shared with up to 35 local FB groups. Almost all the comments, requests for information, joining details comes from this media. One response was “I’d love to join your group, but can’t afford the membership fee” but more common “Can I bring my dog?” and “How do I get there without a car?” In this case we have generous members offering a ‘Pick-up’ service.
So our Facebook presence remains constant,
· Reach 36.7k up from 15k
· Post engagements 6960 up from 1800
· New likes 17 down from 44
· Page visits 368 up from 363
· New followers 23 down from 48
· Audience 2990 up from 688
· Followers 3224
and has helped in no small way to maintaining our membership numbers.
DMBC have launched a separate website dedicated to walking and DG among others featured in a video clip. There is a link to Doncaster Ramblers, and we have asked several times for this to be updated.
Sadly, this year we did not get involved with a Ramble for Children in Need!
Finally, we gave an interview to local radio station TMCR about who Doncaster Ramblers are, the benefits of walking
Peter Rowsell
TM said that the Sprotborough Arrow does a regular slot for us. Tony also said that Peter does a tremendous job, to which all present concurred.
6. Treasurer’s report
David Horne gave out copies of the financial statement and went through the main points. Because of the pandemic we have had very few transactions and, with no printed programme, very few expenses.
All payments from SYNED are now paid via BACS.
7. Election of Officers
David Gadd said that since all of the outgoing committee, with the exception of Tony Liversidge, had indicated that they were happy to stand again, were members happy to re-elect the committee en bloc. This was agreed.
Thus the committee is: David Gadd (Chair), Lisa Edwards (Secretary), David Horne (Treasurer), Peter Gravestock (Programme Distribution), Norman Lewis (Programme Compiler), Dave Binnington, Brian Milne (Membership Sec), Peter Rowsell (Publicity) and Tony Marsh (Maintenance, Square checkers).
In addition, whilst not on the committee, Martin Wyman is Rights of Way officer and Webmaster, Trevor Jenkins is Saturday walks coordinator and Charlie Pratt is Tuesday walks coordinator.
Representatives on Area Council: 1 David Gadd 2 Vacant
Auditor: David Telford
8. Any Other business
DG made the suggestion that we should book and pay for a venue for our committee meetings. For the last few years we had moved from pub to pub, having been forced to move for reasons beyond our control. This was agreed and we agreed to try the parish rooms in Finningley for the next meeting.
HL asked whether the committee intended to return to printed programmes. The points were made that the pandemic had made it impossible to look far ahead with regard to compiling a programme but the subject of what we will do was under review. DB suggested that perhaps a hybrid would be a good solution, with a slimmed down printed programme every, say, three months, being available to members who wanted it, with other members happy to continue using the website. The subject will be discussed at the next committee meeting.
DN raised the vexed subject of risk assessment. Central Office have introduced risk assessments for all walks and this is causing disquiet throughout the membership, with a considerable number of experienced leaders deciding not to lead and, in fact, leaving Ramblers altogether. DN said that if we are to have risk assessment, then members should be offered training. Insurance is connected with risk assessments although the number of claims made by Ramblers is insignificant. DB said that it is reasonable to expect walk leaders to spend a few minutes describing risks on a given walk.
Meeting Closed 08:48pm