MELTHAM WALKERS ARE WELCOME - MINUTES OF MEETING
DATE & LOCATION: Thursday 23rd January 2014 at Deacon Close Community Centre
PRESENT: Ann, Christine, Martin, Tom, Richard, Edgar, Graham, Wendy & Guest Andy Gardner –
Kirklees PROW Projects Officer
Apologies: None
New members or Resignations: None
1. Welcome & introduction - Andy Gardner was welcomed to our meeting
2. Apologies: None
3. Minutes of last minutes – Agreed
4. Printing of Maps/Walks – These were discussed with Tom and agreed on end of February
date to get them finished. Richard has prepared a letter to pass on to Morrisons to ask
them to cover the cost of printing 100 off each of the 6 remaining route maps. In exchange
for the money we would include a photo and strapline in Examiner. Richard will send copy
of letter to Ann for her to send as Treasurer. Ann will enclose a copy of a previous map as
an example.
5. Website: It was agreed that we would pay for this quarterly from our WAW fund instead
of from Edgars account. We need to add route maps onto the website for people to
download. Tom to create these and add to website.
6. Walk Programme: Walks for April May & June discussed. Agreed April could be a family
friendly walk (possibly an egg hunt in the park) and a Route up Royd Edge was discussed.
Need to firm up details at next meeting. Proposed date of this walk Sunday 27 th April at
11.15am. Richard proposed Ivy Café as a good venue for post walk meals for next three
walks. Need to see if we can incorporate the family friendly walk with this. Date for May
walk Sunday 18th May at 10am – Route 5 – Mills Hills & Wills. Proposed date for June walk
Sunday 15th at 10am – Wessenden Way. Edgar mentioned that someone had requested
some walks on a different day to Sunday i.e possibly an evening or Saturday. We will
discuss a future meeting.
7. Report from Andy Gardner on walking routes: Andy confirmed that changes are under way
at Kirklees and very little money would be available for looking after footpaths. There are
currently two groups at Kirklees a) Strategic which is his area working with volunteer
groups and b) Streetscene run by Rob Dalby to do general repairs. There are currently
some volunteer groups to assist in repairs such as BTCV, NHS Groups, Countryside
Volunteers. Rob Dalby is holding a meeting in early Feb at the Town Hall to advise groups
of the changes and look at schemes such as Adopt a Path. We need some representatives
to attend this. There are currently three WAW groups in Kirklees. Andy wants more
people involved to assist in footpath maintenance and will supply tools & materials etc. He
has currently walked all our routes and has made a spreadsheet showing what is needed
along with highlighting approximate costs involved. As a group we need to prioritise the
repair work and then raise funds to get this done. We decided that one of the cheapest
options to start with would be to provide way markers on all our routes. Tom is going to
design a waymarker sign and pass it to Wendy to obtain some estimates. Once estimates
have been provided we can look at raising funds and organising getting them around the
walks as a volunteer working group. Andy said the basic route signs are around £4.50 and
suggested Metro Signs as a possible source. Approx 200 would be required we thought.
Andy has some names of people we can approach for funding and will pass these to Ann.
8. Facebook: All members to keep updating with photos, news etc to keep interest going.
Please like and share any posts to keep getting word around.
9. Finance: Ann confirmed we have £666.83 in account. She will organise a transfer to pay
for website quarterly.
10. Any other business:
a)Richard had received a letter from the Rotary Club saying they are taking over the Open
Market in Huddersfield on Sunday 22nd June at 9.30am and were inviting all local groups to
take a stand for £5. It was agreed that we would take a stand along with Meltham Memories
and Meltham Christmas to promote Meltham Community. We need to agree what we will be
doing on the stand and how we promote ourselves at this event.
b) We also agreed to have a curry night to raise some funds and Ann will approach Pink
Elephant Persian Lounge and Meltham Balti to see what they could suggest for an evening in
March. Discuss at next meeting. Car Boot Sales and a Quiz were also suggested as possible
fund raisers.
c) Meltham Area Committee are discussing footpaths and bridleways at a meeting on 6 th Feb
at 7pm in the Church Hall in Meltham. We agreed that Meltham WAW need to attend this
meeting to promote our group and outline what we are doing.
11. Date of Next Meeting: Thursday 20th February 2014 at Meltham Community Sports Centre
at 7.30pm