EAST SURREY WALKERS’ AGM 2023 REPORTS
CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
So, another year has passed – my second as Chair of ESW – I have one more to go (unless I’m voted out of course). This year our new King was crowned & we’re all getting used to saying “King Charles” & “His Majesty” after so many years with Queen Elizabeth II at the helm.
I have now done one walk with ESW since pre-Covid… My ankle is pretty much back to normal now, but I seem to have other things on & so haven’t been out walking with ESW – I do quite often (probably not often enough) go out early on my own. Although as winter comes, the mornings are DARK, so walking early isn’t so good.
It seems to have been a funny summer, warm, but not hot (except for a few days) & overcast, but not very wet. Fortunately, we weren’t hit with the incredible heat & wildfires that plagued a lot of mainland Europe, nor the terrific rain & floods that others had. As I write this, it’s overcast, but really very warm for the beginning of October, which is great, but boy could we do with some rain for the gardens…
This year is the 40th anniversary year of East Surrey Walkers & we had a walks festival back in April, which went quite well even though we didn’t have brilliant weather & the anniversary lunch at Bletchingley Golf Club was attended by about 80 people, who all seemed to have a good time.
I’d like to take this opportunity to once again thank all the walk leaders for everything they do, but especially for the extra effort put in for the walks festival & give extra thanks to Helen McDonnell, our outgoing Walks Co-ordinator, for not only cajoling the walk leaders to put on these walks, but also for organising the lunch. Thanks Helen!
As mentioned, Helen is stepping down as Walks Co-ordinator as she has done her 3 years in post, as has our Membership Secretary Janette Ruiz & our Secretary Arthur Darby. Thank you all for you’ve done in your time on the committee – I believe you’ve all done 5/6 years on the committee, having each done 2 roles.
With these departures, we now have some vacancies on the committee. We have had volunteers step forward for the Membership Secretary & Secretary roles, but at the time of writing (2/10/23) we have not found anyone to do the vital role of Walks Co-ordinator. Without someone stepping forward, there may well be a shortage of walks, so please, think about whether you could do this. Ideally, we would like a walk leader to take on this role, so perhaps, if you’re not already a leader, you could become one & become Walks Co-ordinator as well! Anyone interested in the role, please speak to Helen McDonnell or Nigel Poulter. We have also had a couple of members step forward to be “members without portfolio” which does mean that we have a decent sized committee, albeit with no Walks Manager (hint!) We also have a Footpath Secretary vacancy (which can be split to more than one person). Please speak to Tony Pearson for more information.
As well as the walks festival, we have had our normal run of social events, with the return of the New Year’s Lunch, the Cream Tea at St Andrews in June, the Summer Buffet in August & the upcoming Skittles & Lunch at the Limpsfield British Legion in November. Helen also organised a coach trip to Faversham, which was well attended & enjoyed by all I think. Thanks to everyone who helped organise/run these events, especially Sue Halsey, Angie & Doug Horrigan, Helen & Amanda Whiteley, all the “washer-uppers” & Christine & Ian Scott for allowing us to use their garden again for the Summer Buffet. Sadly, I wasn’t able to attend either the Cream Tea or Buffet as I was away, but the New Year’s Lunch was great!
Provisional date for your diary – New Year’s Lunch 21st January 2024
Within Ramblers
This year has seen the removal of the old Ramblers website & GWEM (Group Walks and Event Manager) & the launch of Walks Manager (WM). This transition was not as straightforward as Ramblers would have liked, with the launch date put back a couple of times & then quite a few teething problems to sort out. WM seems to be sort of working now, but some Ramblers groups around the country have decided to do their own thing rather than use it, so there may be some Ramblers group walks that do not show on the main Ramblers walks map/database. Therefore, if you’re planning a holiday & wanting to walk with the Ramblers group local to where you’re going, I suggest you look at the local group’s website rather than rely on the main Ramblers site.
Ramblers have an EGM in November, to launch the “New Strategy” for the Ramblers. Currently it’s all a bit of a secret, but they are focussing on “Access for all”, although quite what that means is shrouded in mystery, but you may have seen the results of paths research that revealed just how valuable paths are to our health in England & Wales (who’d have thought it…) I attended a Zoom meeting for groups with Ross Maloney (CEO) & he ran through his presentation & then we went into smaller Zoom rooms. What came out of that was that it doesn’t matter where in the country you are, we all have the same problems – difficulty getting Walk Leaders, lack of public transport to get to walks for those that don’t drive, etc., etc. One lady from Cornwall thought it was only Cornwall that had a lack of buses – Surrey, Kent & Lincolnshire all told her that wasn’t the case!
Finally, I’d like to thank all the people within ESW who do stuff behind the scenes so that you, the members, can enjoy your walks. Barbara & Ken’s Krew, for keeping the paths free(ish) of brambles etc, but more importantly, for replacing stiles with gates & installing steps etc. You’d miss them if they weren’t there, even if you don’t know what they do! All the committee members, the footpath secretaries & footpath wardens, the various people mentioned above for organising the social events, Nikki for keeping the Facebook page up to date, Nigel P for sorting out the walks planner etc. & Brian for looking after the website & all the others who just do “stuff” for ESW. Thank you all. Your efforts are very much appreciated!
Deb Skinner - Chairman
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TREASURER’S REPORT
General
ESW’s General Funds stand at £1,390 year end, with £500 having been transferred to the Kissing Gate Fund during the year.
Our main source of income is from Ramblers HQ and this year our requested budget of £1,120 was approved and paid in quarterly instalments. We continue to receive £250p.a. advertising revenue from Ramblers Worldwide Holidays (RWH) and HF Holidays, for adverts placed in our Quarterly Walks programme (printed or PDF version).
ESW also received £100 in rebates from RWH; £10 a time paid for members who have booked direct and quoted ESW as their registered Group. This is an increase from last year (£20) no doubt reflecting upturn in holidays taken. This is a nice easy earner, so please can I remind anyone taking a holiday with RWH to nominate ESW when booking.
Expenditure was primarily Practical Work. This year we purchased a further stock of engraved plaques, which advertise the work that has been undertaken by Ken’s Krew (KK). Added to the Practical Work figure in the accounts are volunteer expenses donated to the Kissing Gate Fund, which amounted to a further £143 and were spent within the year on Kissing Gates. Volunteers should note that the Mileage Rate paid was increased by HQ to £0.45 per mile earlier this year.
Other expenditure went on Hall Hire for the AGM, Prizes, Gifts and Zoom costs.
I requested a budget of £3,070 for the coming year, which included £2,000 on top of our annual spend to top-up our Kissing Gate Fund. [Last year we did not request any monies for Kissing Gates, as we had a healthy £5k credit.] However, this request was declined by Area Office and we are being allocated £1,120 for the year; same as last.
Kissing Gates Fund
Price of steel, and therefore cost of Kissing Gates, has increased significantly from £350 to £510 per gate. We have purchased 7 gates this year; total spend £3,570. Two gates were installed (and paid for) earlier in the year and two have been earmarked for installation with the remaining five being stored by Surrey County Council on our behalf.
£500 was transferred from our General account prior to year end; leaving £1,160 in the account which will purchase a further 2 gates only. With it looking unlikely that we will be provided funding for Kissing Gates in future budgets, and our Fund balance significantly reduced (although we have those 5 Kissing Gates put by currently) we need to consider other methods of raising funds particularly, as you will hear, there is a lot of positive activity going on with KK.
Social Fund
This year ESW held our New Year Lunch, Autumn Social, Cream Tea and Summer Buffet; all of which made healthy profits. Our overall profit made during the prior financial year (£276) was used to subsidise our 40th Anniversary Lunch, and surpluses this year total £345.
Holiday Fund
At the beginning of the year ESW paid out the monies received for Hayling Island and held over the year end. We have a similar situation this year, where final payments from members for our Suffolk holiday (in November), have been received but were not paid to Woods Travel until after year end. There was also a day coach trip to Faversham in September.
Ken’s Krew
A cash float is maintained by KK organiser, Barbara Bulman, to reimburse travel expenses for volunteers and was topped up by £100 this year, with volunteer expenses donated (and paid to KG fund) at £143.
Karen Holdsworth – Treasurer
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MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY’S REPORT
Members at 30th Sept 2023= 456 active (plus 8 pending payment). 6 affiliates
30th Sept 2022 = 471 active (plus 7 pending payment). 4 affiliates
As can be seen over the year active membership has declined by 15 members.
New members
We continue to attract new members on a regular basis with not a single month going by without someone joining. The Rambler’s database is showing we had 53 new members plus a handful of members who have transferred from other groups.
Leavers
Inevitably each year there are members who for whatever reason choose not to rejoin us. Some move out of the area and transfer their membership to another group whilst for others walking is no longer possible. However, it has been quite noticeable the number of members who leave after a year. Analysis of membership data in one quarter showed that half the leavers in that period had been members for a year or less. This is something the committee is hoping to address.
Deaths
Sadly during the year we lost 3 of our members.
- John Lowrie who prior to lockdown had been a Wednesday walker passed away in April
- In the same month Paul Bradley who was an occasional walker died unexpectedly in his sleep
- Allan Jones a long time member & walks leader who enjoyed walking with a passion and when the longer walks became difficult for him never missed an amble sadly passed away very peacefully at home in June.
Our thoughts remain with their family and friends
Surrey Area comparison
Area membership as at 30 Sep 2023 6377 active
Area membership as at 30 Sep 2022: 6534 active
Area change in numbers: -157
Area percentage change: - 2.4%
Janette Ruiz - Membership Secretary
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WALKS COORDINATOR’S REPORT
I can’t believe I am here at the end of my 3 year stint as Walks Co-ordinator. As they say, time flies when you’re having fun & most of the time it is fun.
We have had another good year of walks. We can track how we have done compared to the previous year thanks to Nigel’s walks analysis data; interestingly slightly fewer walks but more walkers, so no dramatic differences. It would be nice, as always, to see more members opting to lead so we could up the walks provided but on the whole I feel we do pretty well with what we’ve got and members I meet on the walks are always positive & enjoying themselves. Can’t say a big enough thank you to our stalwart leaders though, several of who put in an astonishing amount of walks, I hope the membership appreciate them.
As mentioned, I feel more members have been walking again this year and we always seem to host walkers from other groups on our walks which is great too. We had a loose informal tie up with Reigate Ramblers this year as they had been struggling to put on enough walks so there has been interaction there.
Main event this year would be the Walks Festival to celebrate our 40 years of being in operation. We held 9 days of at least one walk every day, including specialist walks, afternoon & evening walks. The weather did not start well but got better & we culminated in an Anniversary Lunch at Bletchingley Golf Club which was very well supported & enjoyed.
Then latterly I ran a coach trip to Faversham to include a long walk, a short walk and general sightseeing. The coach trips are always popular and this one was as well.
So this is the end of my tenure. Working with Nigel has been a joy, he does all the hard work & we are so lucky to have him! I am not a PC literate sort of person, I like being out there meeting people and getting my hands dirty so Nigel does all things IT. At this point in time no-one has stepped forward to take my place. A real shame as it is a breeze & as I say Nigel is doing all the hard work.
Fingers crossed for the next year.
Helen McDonnell - Walks Coordinator
ESW Walks data can be viewed here.
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FOOTPATH SECRETARIES' REPORT
We are pleased to report that resources at Surrey C.C. for rights of way work have improved during the past year, the reporting database is being cleaned up and outstanding defects are being tackled.
Our Volunteer Path Wardens have continued to deal with path defects that can be dealt with individually, e.g. small scale vegetation clearances, installing waymark discs, checking the state of particular paths etc. Some of these tasks are allocated out by the Local Footpath Secretaries, some are just dealt with as VPWs walk in the area. Also a lot of checking reported defects has been done by our volunteers to clean up the Surrey C.C. database. All of their work is much appreciated.
We are now left with just four volunteers who are authorised to do bi-annual inspections of a random selection of local rights of way under the auspices of Surrey C.C. We need at least another two, training can be provided locally. The latest exercise in May indicated that 83% were “easy to use” for Surrey overall.
During the past year the ESW Gates Fund has been used to acquire 2 gates on FP 248 Tandridge, which goes from Tandridge Lane, with 2 other gates being funded by Tandridge Parish Council and Surrey C.C., all being installed by Ken’s Krew..
We obtained funding from Titsey Rotary to replace a stile at Oxted Mill (FP 100 Oxted) with a wooden kissing gate.
We are awaiting SCC to progress negotiations with landowners to enable us to fund a gate at Stocketts Manor (FP105 Oxted) and another at Tandridge Lane (FP243 Tandridge).
Stiles have been replaced by gates on the Vanguard way in Woldingham, funded by Vanguard Way Association with Ken’s Krew helping with the installations.
FP 78 Limpsfield (between Detillens Lane and Granville Road) - The Parish Council has recently funded and installed 2 mobility gates.
At our request Limpsfield P.C. has also funded and installed 3 gates on FP 209 Limpsfield near Guildables Lane.
FP 130 Godstone - for some time the landowners at Leigh Mill Pond have sought to deter walkers from using the section of this path which runs past the pond, but the obstructions and signage have now been removed and two new gates have appeared along the RoW.
FP 138 Godstone - this path passes through an area of Godstone Farm which has substantial construction work ongoing, and until recently was very difficult to use, but following intervention by SCC Countryside Management team, the path has been temporarily re-routed and is now easily accessible again.
Our team of Local Footpath Secretaries presently comprises:
Richard Mascall:
Bletchingley, Caterham on the Hill, Caterham Valley, Chaldon, Chelsham & Farleigh, Tatsfield, Warlingham, Whyteleafe, Woldingham.
Roger May:
Burstow, Horne, Nutfield, Outwood.
Tony Pearson:
Crowhurst, Limpsfield
Ian Simm:
Oxted, Tandridge, Titsey.
Sharon Blake and Richard Aust
Dormansland, Felbridge, Lingfield
Since Ian will be leaving the area shortly, we still need a volunteer to take over his parishes.
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KEN'S KREW REPORT
As most of you will know, there have been massive changes at SCC RoW, following them withdrawing from working with the Ramblers groups for six months, until late October last year.
The new staff, and the rotation of existing staff, has resulted in a completely different way of working, with far more enthusiasm, and new processes.
Our new Volunteer Co-ordinator, Tom Chatfield is hugely qualified and experienced, and came with a jolly handy chain-saw licence. It did take him a while to appreciate how competent a team of retirees would be, his expectations were somewhat low, when he started working with us, but he has learned very quickly, and now appreciates our skills and abilities.
Adrian Riddle, our last Countryside Assistant is now tasked with contacting, and visiting landowners, to encourage them to understand their responsibilities for maintenance of PROW’s on their land.
We’re now getting much more work done and prioritising the tasks that make most improvement in footpaths access.
If any of you are aware of defects that need resolving, please do report them to SCC RoW via their reporting tool. I know most of you know how, but just in case not, do visit https://rightsofway.surreycc.gov.uk/StandardMap.aspx and attach photo’s, ideally using What3 Words, to ensure accurate location ID.
Tom has recently acquired a good stock of galvanised kissing gates, so we will be ploughing our way through the backlog.
RoW are now encouraging LFS’s and VPW’s to take a more active role in footpaths maintenance, including sending lists of defects reported on their CAMS database. James Emmett, SCC supervisor, has been drawing down reports from CAMS by Parish, and sending them out to LFS’s, for checking, to get a clearer picture of what is still outstanding, and what has been resolved. SCC had not been updating the CAMS system, when task groups resolved defects, for at least ten years. This will allow SCC to more accurately direct the volunteer teams and make better use of our time.
KK is now a fairly homogenous group, with regular attendances from the three SCC volunteers, as well as members from Reigate and Croydon. The SCC volunteers, and some KK members also attend Reigate Ramblers tasks. Sharing our skills, and ensuring adequate numbers to get larger tasks completed.
We installed six gates at Barrow Green Farm, Woldingham last month, to complete the In memoriam Graham Butler Mile on the Vanguard Way. There were volunteers from ESW, Dorking and Reigate. The ground was like iron, and quite steep. It took us three days, to install six gates, which we would have expected to do in one day, with a decent turnout of experienced volunteers.
Some of us helped a team of volunteers from Charlwood and Hookwood Community to learn how to install kissing gates. They had acquired funding from the Lottery for 11 gates. They installed eight on their own, completing all the related clearance too. How amazing is that?
What have we done over the past year? Some tasks took more than one visit.
Clearance at Mardon Park
FP reclamation Harps Oak Lane, Chipstead, and Warren Lane Hurst Green
Steps and handrails at Marden Park
FP clearance / reinstatement at Lingfield
Three kissing gates, one self closing gate and a bridge kit at Blackgrove Farm, Crowhurst
A wooden kissing gate and finger post at Oxted Mill
Finger posts, stile, bridge and clearance at Bowerlands
Kissing gate and clearance at Farm Lane Godstone
FP clearance at Bletchingley
Two kissing gates at Brightleigh Farm, Outwood, due 24 October 2023, after I wrote this.
Barbara Bulman - Ken's Krew
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