Monthly Archives: July 2020

Norwich Western Link Local Access Consultation Launches Today

Norfolk County Council has launched its Norwich Western Link Local Access Consultation today (27 July 2020), which will run for eight weeks.

The council said:

“Through this consultation we’re asking for views on the four local roads that cross the route of the Norwich Western Link and Public Rights of Way in the vicinity of the new road. We also want feedback on potential measures to support walking, cycling and public transport use across a wider area. In coming up with these proposals, we’ve had input from parish councils, walking and cycling groups, bus companies and others, and we’re now keen to see what everyone else thinks of them.”

The documents relating to the road project can be found at http://www.norfolk.gov.uk/nwl, with details on how to respond to the consultation. For anyone who wants further information relating to this consultation, or wants to discuss matters with the Ramblers, please contact Ken, the area secretary, at ken-hawkins@tiscali.co.uk.

Successful Area Council Zoom Meeting

Unfortunately, current events mean that we can’t meet together for our usual area council meeting. So, instead, we went on-line and used Zoom to at least be able to hold some sort of meeting. 17 members from the area went on-line and there were only a few technical issues.

I won’t use photos of everyone in the Zoom meeting as some people (well, primarily, me, Julian) need a hair-cut (that’s happening this week, woooo), but above is Richard May, confidently chairing the meeting.

We hope that we can return to normal in future meetings, but perhaps we can look at having an on-line element to them to allow for more people to engage with them.

It was great to hear today from groups that were embracing social media and WhatsApp, using this as a tool to attract new members. Lockdown has made more people think about exercise, and we’re ready to help people get walking and make new friends.

There was also discussion about things such as risk assessments, the less exciting side of these meetings perhaps, but important to show that we’re taking the safety of walkers and communities seriously.

We’re sending out a programme to members, to help them feel informed of what’s going on. We can’t list walks in this one, but we’ll be publishing a printed programme again as soon as walking is more back to normal.