South Manchester LDWA Chair's Report 2024
South Manchester LDWA
Chair’s Report 2024
The year has been marked by a very active walks programme, creating and successfully staging a new Challenge Event, once again assisting at the Marshals’ Hundred.
Membership: The group has 287 members assigned to it by LDWA membership. Within that membership we have approximately 25 – 40 members known to the committee because they have led social walks, attended social walks, or assisted with the Challenge Event. However, this means that we have no idea how active the remainder of LDWA members are in attending LDWA events or walking long-distance paths. I propose to carry out a survey of our members in 2025.
Although we have a large nominal membership, we would like to attract more members, especially younger members, to become more involved in the activities of the group. The committee would welcome ideas for attracting younger walkers.
Financial Position: We have a healthy financial balance of £1718.69 thanks to the surplus from the Challenge Event (£747), a grant from the LDWA (£500) and a donation (£250).
Signpost Challenge: We held the inaugural event of the Signpost Challenge on 20th October, using the Senior Citizens Hall in Marple as the venue. Helen Grey was the principal organiser, and we owe her huge vote of thanks for all she did to make the event a success.
We received a grant of £500 towards the capital outlay for the new event from the LDWA. There were two routes of 24 and 18 miles taking participants over Werneth Low, Cown Edge and Chinley Churn returning via the Goyt Valley. The route was thoroughly recced and Helen wrote a Route Description.
We attracted 133 entrants of whom 104 braved the terrible weather forecast to participate. Despite Storm Ashley sweeping through in the morning we had only 3 retirements and the feedback suggests that the event was very well-received by the participants. Thanks to all who volunteered to help on the day. Next year the event will be held on Sunday 19th October.
Social walks: The group has had a very successful and active year with its programme of social walks. The numbers attending these walks has varied from 2 to 20, usually somewhere in between. We do not aspire to lead groups of more than twenty and regard groups between 5 and 15 as ideal. It is pleasing to welcome some new regulars onto our social walks. Our gender balance favours males, and there has been no progress towards greater ethnic diversity.
We advertised 48 events in Strider and on the website. Of these 4 were cancelled due to the leader being indisposed and two were postponed (12%). A rough indication of the length of events suggests that about 16% of our social walks were less than 10 miles (AGM, Christmas and evening walks), 45% were between 10 and 15 miles and 25% were 16 miles or over.
This approximate analysis suggests that we continue (as in recent years) to fail to offer enough long-distance walks (defined by the LDWA as over 20 miles). The length of walks on offer reflects the age profile of our regular walk leaders, which is to put it politely ‘elderly’. Among our ‘younger’ walk leaders are Helen Grey, David Wright, Michael Magee, David Clift, Mark Worrall, but we would like to attract more younger walk leaders.
John Braide has done an excellent job coordinating the walks programme and ensuring the details are on the website. In 2025, Peter Whitehead has offered to act as ‘reserve’ in case John is away when the programme needs to be finalised.
Speyside Hundred: Gareth Phillips coordinated a small group (Jerzy and Margaret, David and Avril) to provide breakfast on the Speyside Marshals’ Hundred. There were some problems with planning the route which led to a change of venue, but the group did an excellent job.
We made representations to the LDWA executive that the financial support offered to volunteers travelling long distances to enable LDWA events to go ahead was insufficient. They rejected our case because of the precedent it would set, but we did receive £500 towards expenses incurred travelling to Speyside (which is an increase on previous years).
In 2025 a group will run the breakfast stop for the Flowers of Suffolk Marshals’ Hundred. Thanks to Gareth for coordinating this activity.
Walk Registers and Risk Assessments on Social Walks: The LDWA has been struggling to arrive at a settled policy on walk registers and risk assessments. In the meantime, a small group of members devised a format for both forms which can be found on the website under Walk Leaders Advice. Thanks to Michael Magee for his input.
The official LDWA policy is now that Walk Registers are compulsory and walk leaders should ensure they collect the names and minimum details of all attendees on social walks and then send the information to the Chair (who will enter the names on the website). Walk leaders are strongly advised to carry out a recce of the proposed route for a social walk and complete the form available online to record the findings from the recce.
Walk programme in Church Stretton: A small group of members met in September in Church Stretton for two walks, one longish and one shorter, and a group meal. The longer walk tackled The Lawley and Caer Caradoc. The shorter walk ascended on to the Long Mynd.
We plan to have a similar arrangement in September whereby members book their own accommodation. This year the walks will be in the Sedburgh area and the dates (to be confirmed) will be in mid-September. Thanks to Jerzy for coordinating the away week. I hope more members will join us this year.
Christmas Walk and Meal: For the third year running, we enjoyed an excellent Christmas meal at the Dandy Cock in Disley. Dave Gosling, organised the meal and the walk inn Lyme Park. 21 members attended a very successful event.
Committee: The South Manchester Group of the LDWA continues to be active and well-organised thanks to the committee: Dave Gosling (Chair), Steve Osborne (Secretary), Bridget Knight (Treasurer), John Braide (Walks Programme Coordinator).
