A STATEMENT FROM THE NEC CONCERNING NUMBERS ALLOWED ON SOCIAL WALKS BY THE REGIONAL GOVERNMENTS

The Ramblers have today confirmed that they have reached agreement
with the Department of Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) to allow
group walks for up to 30 people in England and Wales. In Scotland,
walking in groups will be limited to 15 people, from 5 households.

After consultation with our groups, the LDWA felt that our focus
should be with submitting an application to the DCMS to allow us to
hold challenge events in a safe and secure manner. It is important to
note that even if we get this approval, challenge events will be
different to how they looked before, in terms of social distancing and
checkpoints, but we are keen to help groups start their forward
planning.

However, this still means that LDWA social walks will continue, for
the moment, to be limited to 6 people in England.

We are monitoring and reviewing the current situation and we ask that
groups continue to offer feedback to us about what they feel safe and
comfortable with offering to members. We will hold another Zoom
meeting with representatives from groups and details of this will be
announced shortly. We will continue to consult on social walks and
keep members informed on our application to hold challenge events.

We are working closely with the Ramblers and will monitor and learn
from their rollout of social walks with larger numbers over the coming
weeks.

Individual members can liaise with their group representatives, who in
turn can liaise with the NEC. We will contact groups shortly about the
dates of the next Zoom meeting to discuss social walks.