Chairman's Introduction

It has been a busy first year for me as Area Chair. The function of Area is to help support and coordinate the work of the local Groups and provide a first point of contact with local government, other local charities and the local offices of national bodies such as Natural England, as well as a link with Central Office. This has included amongst other activities this year Public Rights of Way, publicity to increase awareness of Ramblers and promote walking and working to try to improve the effectiveness of Central Office.

As most Public Rights of Way (PRoWs) are managed by Kent County Council, activity in this area is generally coordinated at Area level. This should ideally be done by the Public Rights of Way Manager, but this position is currently vacant. We did manage to find a volunteer for this key role briefly last year, but unfortunately due to other commitments this did not last. Until this position is filled Robert Peel and I are doing our best to look after this work. We are fortunate that Glynis Clifton has continued as PRoW Admin Officer managing the allocation of the many developments (some of which are very large) that affect PRoWs to the Local Footpath Officers (LFOs) to consider, supported by the three Sector Coordinators, including Maura Pell who during the year has taken over from Roger King in East Kent. We also have a network of Parish Footpath Observers (PFOs), who are monitoring the condition of the paths in their parishes and reporting any issues encountered, supported by Groups.

Another PRoW-related activity is the "Lost Ways" project to identify potential new PRoWs, which I am co-ordinating in Kent Ramblers (including Medway, Bexley and Bromley). Originally this had a deadline of the end of 2025, but during the year the Government importantly decided to remove this restriction. Potential new routes were identified by my predecessor (Neville Machin), surveyed on the ground by a band of volunteers and then analysed by me to decide if these merited further work. Those that did were sent to KCC for further analysis, most of which has now been completed. The next step is to try to gather supporting historical evidence. Robert Peel and I visited Kent County Archives to learn how to do this and I am currently in the process of planning how best to manage this potentially time consuming work.

The Area has also been involved in a number of publicity activities to increase awareness of Ramblers and promote walking, recently including a podcast with Ed Byrne for South Eastern Railway and providing help for BBC South East Today's Pudsey's Gravesend Pier to Eastbourne Pier challenge. I have also recently been photographed and interviewed for "Walk" magazine for a feature on "Don't Lose Your Way" and attended a CPRE dinner.

I am very keen to try to improve the effectiveness of Central Office in order that they better support all Groups and members. Activities undertaken this year have included meeting the new CEO Ross Maloney on the launch walk for the White Cliffs Walking Festival, proposing a motion at General Council to improve communications and actively engaging with the new Walks Department and Regional Engagement Team. After a period of several years of instability and many CEOs, I hope and believe that the new CEO will lead to a more focused and professional Central Office team to address the issues of concern (e.g. risk assessments and IT systems).

Finally I would like to thank all volunteers for their continued help and support, in particular Area Vice Chairmen Tony Bristow and Mark Lavenstein, Area Treasurer Hilary Adams and especially Area Secretary Robert Peel.

Colin Sefton, Area Chairman