WE ARE…

 

Warwickshire Area is one of fifty-seven Areas of The Ramblers (RA) covering Britain. We work to further the charitable aims of the RA locally and also represent the views of our members to the organisation nationally.

 

Our boundaries mirror those of the old Warwickshire county and include Solihull, Coventry and Birmingham, (now West Midlands), where many of our members live. The Area contains some great walking country - amazingly there are over 1740 miles of public rights-of-way in Warwickshire alone.

 

OUR MEMBERSHIP…

 

We have over 3800 members in the Area, spread over 12 Local Groups. Our Groups work towards the charitable aims of the RA in different ways, but one thing they all do is to organise programmes of led walks for members. Many of these walks are listed online at the Associations WALKSFINDER pages and/or on the local groups’ own web sites.  

 

Nevertheless, many members do not join Group walks, preferring to walk alone or with friends and family. Whether you choose to walk with a Group or not, your membership is supporting the valuable work of the RA.

 

OUR WORK…

 

Across the Warwickshire Area, we are working to protect and improve conditions for all walkers. At the moment we are particularly concerned about lack of definitive maps of public footpaths in our two big cities, and the tendency of some Councils to gate-off public rights-of-way; in theory to control anti-social behaviour. There is a brief introduction to our work below, but members get regular updates and news through our quarterly Area newsletter, WALKER. Members can also find out more by attending our Area AGM. We’d be delighted to see you there.

 

We speak up on issues that affect people who enjoy walking in this part of the world. By coordinating the voice of our members, we can speak with a single, clear voice, whether to local decision-makers or to the media. We have taken the lead in a number of local campaigns, working with our Groups to achieve them.

 

- We resolutely campaigned to get Birmingham City Council to publish a Definitive Map of public rights of way in the City - in accordance with its legal obligation to do so under the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981.

 

- We strongly resisted Coventry City Council in its policy of gating some public rights of way - unnecessarily, we thought - in response to allegations of anti-social behaviour.

 

 

- Through our Area and Group footpath workers, we scrutinise all footpath Orders made by local authorities, to try to ensure that walkers are not inconvenienced by closures or diversions of public rights of way.

 

The Area is run by a Council of volunteer members. Some, such as the Secretary, Treasurer and Chairman, stand for election every year at the AGM, and some attend as Local Group representatives. But as an Area, we are more than simply the sum of our Groups. All the work carried out by us in the Area - including by our Groups - is planned, organised and carried out by volunteers.