SUMMARY OF THE THIRTY SEVENTH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
OF
THE MALVERN HILLS DISTRICT FOOTPATH SOCIETY
held in Lansdowne Church Hall at 7.30p.m. on Wednesday 24th March 2010.
- Seventy-one members plus four guests attended. Sue Hood was re-elected as Chairman. Six other officers were re-elected. John Barr joined the General Committee as the new General Secretary, David Hughes as Treasurer, Jim Bullett as Walks Member and Eugene Colwell as an Elected Member. Jim Noon continues as Chairman of the Rights of Way Section, John Allsopp as Chairman of the Survey & Mapping Section and Sybil Heeks as Chairman of the Social Section. A minor change to the Society’s constitution was also approved.
- The retiring General Secretary, Mike Everitt, reported on the volunteering work carried out during the past year, on a third successful carol service, on progress on the boundary walks, on the installation of a memorial bench and on some unrecorded footpath claims. Mike also reminded the meeting of the constitutional aims of the Society which include protecting and maintaining the footpath network as well as walking it.
- The retiring Treasurer, Ted Baldock, presented the accounts noting that there had been a surplus on the year’s activities and that with annual membership subscription now increased to £7 he was forecasting that the Society would remain ‘in the black’.
- The Membership Secretary, Wendy Barr, advised that the current membership figure was 154 but there were also 79 members who had yet to pay their subscription.
- The retiring Walks Secretary, Shirley Willcox, reported that a programme of two walks each week had been offered throughout the year although there had been some cancellations during the bad winter weather. She specifically mentioned the boundary walks, the carol service walks and the Hopper bus walks. As always, more volunteer leaders would be welcome.
- The Leisure Walks Secretary, Rosemary Knight, said that the leisure walks continued to be popular with between 12 and 28 walkers participating. A highlight had been David Longley and Sue Nuttall’s pub supper walk.
- The Publicity Officer, Beverley Shrubb, advised that the Malvern Gazette continued to be the main publicity outlet, both in the weekly newspaper and on its website. The Society’s website at www.mhdfs.org.uk was averaging 400 ‘hits’ monthly including many from the USA and was regularly updated, maintained and improved by Jim Bullett.
- John Allsopp, Mapping Section, noted that a great deal of work had been done by Anne Colwell on the adopted walks and by Ted Baldock on checking on the latest status of many previously reported obstructions.
- Roy Haycock of the Rights of Way Section noted that over the past 14 years he had been consulted on 199 Diversion Orders and over 500 planning applications. Robin Whittlestone, also of the Rights of Way section, advised that the Society had walked over 1800 miles during 2009 in Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire and had reported 957 problems. These figures indicated that in Herefordshire a problem occurred every 3.7 miles, in Gloucestershire every 2.6 miles and in Worcestershire every 1.6 miles. Robin also noted that a review of some 2700 old reported obstructions indicated that about 17% had not been resolved. Robin concluded by seeking further help for the very time-consuming task of investigating evidence of unrecorded footpaths before 2026 when they would be lost for ever.
- The Social Section Chairman, Sybil Heeks, reviewed the social activities that had taken place during the year including country dancing, a slide show and the annual dinner. Outings had included a walk on the Ridgeway, a breakfast walk from Pewcroft Farm, and a Christmas walk and lunch. Successful holidays had been held at Harrogate and at Selworthy. A few new ideas for social activities would be trialed in 2010/11 and, holidays were already planned for the Lake District in May and Derbyshire in October. However, volunteers were now urgently needed to organise Society holidays in 2011 .
- Tracy Sutton of the Worcestershire County Council’s Public Rights of Way Department briefed the AGM on how the County dealt with maintenance problems and about the use and importance of volunteers. She advised that the department was being restructured in order to cope with budget reductions and significant staff losses.
- Will Steel of Amey Herefordshire talked about the contracting to Amey of Herefordshire’s Public Rights of Way tasks and some of the priorities Amey had been given.
- Lyn Everitt advised that the voluntary collection of small change during each walk over the past year had raised £531.80 plus an additional £45 donated in memory of Don Hood, all of which would be donated to the Midlands Air Ambulance. The AGM agreed that the charity collections should continue into 2010/11.
- During AOB Eugene Colwell reminded the AGM that the Society would reach its 40th anniversary in 2013 and perhaps some thought should be given to planning a celebration.
Sue Hood brought the formal meeting to a close at 2100hrs
Prepared by Mike Everitt
29th March 2010