Liz Cordle to report, including details of the Carrington and Sherwood Walk Launch on 12th January 2019 at 10.30am.
Minutes:
Liz Cordle introduced the update from the Walks Sub-Group with contributions from Ian Bussey and other members of the sub-group and Forum.
The following points were highlighted:
(a) Thanks to Ian the Sherwood to Carrington Linear Walk (Walk 5) leaflet has now been published and the walk will be launched on Saturday 12 January at 10.30am from outside St John’s Church and is expected to last approximately 2.5 hours, ending at the Vale Pub in Daybrook. Several people have offered to help steward the walk and have been asked to familiarise themselves with the route and talk to people along the way;
(b) The walks are trying to encourage people to get out and see the interesting things in their area which they may not be aware of. The leaflet has several stopping points of interest and takes walkers into the Sherwood Council estate but there is interest there in that Jesse Boot lived there temporarily to test the houses;
(c) On the day of the Walk 5 Launch, there will be 4 stops at different points and walk leaders will be careful not to say too much. Points of interest are not just historical but also about the national history of the area. The walk ends at the Vale pub which is a listed building;
(d) Local networks have been used to advertise the walk and this information can be shared with Matt;
(e) Other walks are in development including a first draft of a Bestwood Walk, and routes proposed for Aspley, Bilborough and Leen Valley by Steve Rhodes, St Ann’s and also the City Centre by Hilary Yates and Chris Thompson;
(f) Inclusion of the Nottingham Enclosure Walk which is led annually by Friends of the Forest could be considered for inclusion in future promotional material, along with the 100 years since women got the vote, a few months ago Nottinghamshire Women’s Group put on a suffrage walk;
(g) It is important to continue to promote the existing walks and not just the new walks;
(h) A City Centre walk which could also be wheelchair accessible, to include buildings of interest which are covered by preservation orders, listed, or included in the Local List, would be welcomed;
(i) As part of a local event there have been 2 ‘walk and talk’ walks led in Basford which were very popular and well attended so it would be good if such walks could be co-ordinated with NLAF;
(j) There are several formal groups such as the Ramblers and Nott’s Guided Walks which could provide more information, including the historical element. There has been an recent initiative launched called ‘Active 10’ which could also draw on the work to date if there was a proposal to bring the information together or just offer to have links to organisation’s websites on the LAF website of social media if organisations were happy with this. ‘Active 10’ (active for 10 minutes) is one of the initiatives supported by the Obesity Forum which, with the support of Ridewise, has the loan of cycling equipment at 4 locations every week from April to October and would be interested in guided cycle rides or activity with a physical base;
(k) Some walk focused funding such as that for the ‘Best Foot Forward’ Nottingham City Health walks scheme is now coming to an end but there is still interest and groups meet most weeks and attract citizens for all sorts of reasons such as to help with physical activity, combat social isolation and mental health difficulties by improving social connectivity. Age UK, which currently co-ordinates the walks with the support of volunteers, is discussing options to enable the scheme to continue in some form;
(l) Development of a ‘Programme of Walks for 2019’ could be considered and could include re-walking previous walks;
(m) The next meeting of the Walks Sub-group is proposed for Thursday 31 January at 6:30pm in Sherwood Wetherspoons.
RESOLVED to note the update and applaud Ian Bussey for finalising the Sherwood to Carrington Walk and thanked Jack Ross for creating the Launch Poster.