The build-up to the spring launch of the Wales Coastal Path has now begun, with a record-breaking walk, special training and a new smartphone app all planned to celebrate the first complete national coast-perimeter walk in the world.

The Big Welsh Coastal Walk, organised by Ramblers Cymru, will be the major nationwide event for the path’s opening on 5 May, and, so far, around 12 Ramblers groups along the coast have signed up to lead a series of walks. National health referral schemes and more than 20 charities are also keen to be involved with walks on the day, including Diabetes UK, Wildlife Trusts and an osteoporosis charity. And there are also plans to break the world record for the largest mass walk, with the help of hundreds of Scouts and Girl Guides groups.

To meet the extraordinary demand, Ramblers Cymru has teamed up with Plas y Brenin National Mountain Centre to offer coastal-walks-leader training to all those who need it. While a new smartphone app, due for release in January, will help people increase their daily walking and get in shape for the celebrations on the big day.

“Ramblers Cymru is pleased to be taking the lead on what is going to be the walking event of the year,” says Angela Charlton, director of Ramblers Cymru. “We are inviting everyone to join us and thousands of others on our 870-mile coast path walk with the best sea view in the world.”

England and Scotland will support the Welsh celebrations with their own ‘Coast for Most’ walks, urging support for better coastal access across Britain.

To find out more about all these events, visit www.ramblers.org.uk/wales

Since it launched in 2002, the Walks Finder has been one of the leading ways of attracting new members. It’s also enabled existing members to take advantage of their right to walk with any group around Britain and choose from a wider selection close to home. Over the next two years the system is set to improve even further with a major overhaul.

For more about promoting your walks online, visit www.ramblers.org.uk/volunteer/groupwalksfinder.

Bath Ramblers has succeeded in getting a crucial part of the Limestone Link route restored along the River Avon in Batheaston. Having suffered from years of flooding and erosion, it was deemed unsafe by the local council. Now, following the persistent efforts of local Ramblers footpath secretary David Waterstone and a threat to serve a court order, the council has provided the funds to reopen this idyllic stretch of path using traditional local materials.

Thirty people have contributed to the Isle of Wight Ramblers’ Donate a Gate scheme to replace inaccessible stiles since it started 18 months ago. Meanwhile, its footpath working party is busy helping the cash-strapped council install 300 fingerposts and replace boardwalks across the island.

Norfolk Ramblers has spent more than £7,000 to have a boardwalk laid along a boggy part of the Nar Valley Way to keep walkers’ feet dry during their winter strolls.

Edinburgh Young Walkers joined the Friends of Nevis for a day building and maintaining footpaths atop Britain’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis, following a successful litter-picking exercise earlier in the year.

Walsall Ramblers has added its voice  to a 999-signature-strong petition against a proposed wind turbine in a Green Belt beauty spot by Rushall Canal.

Congleton Ramblers has helped open a new, more scenic footpath to the popular high outcrop of rocks, known as The Cloud. The group is lobbying for several others nearby.

“Over the last five years, Get Walking has brought tremendous benefits to residents of Birmingham, London, Sheffield and Manchester,” says Simon Barnett, the Ramblers’ head of walking programmes. “Our aim is to create a culture of walking, working with employers, community groups and volunteers to get people active and keep them that way. We are delighted that increasing numbers of local authorities are appreciating how the Ramblers can help promote all kinds of walking.”

An independent study of the project found that nine out of 10 participants on the 12-week programme said their mental health had improved, with 57% going on to be more physically active every day as a result. Those living in the most deprived areas showed the biggest improvements, and the study estimated there was an almost four-fold return for every pound invested in terms of the benefits to society, the economy and the environment.

For more about Get Walking, visit www.getwalking.org/video.

Image: More than 100 people joined former pop princess Sinitta for a walk around London’s Bushy Park as part of national Walk4Life Day. On 25 September, the Ramblers and its Get Walking Keep Walking projects attracted thousands on to short walks across seven cities. Thanks to everyone who came and helped make it a day to remember!

Email the mayor with your support for the campaign at www.livingstreets.org.uk/take-action

Burnley and Pendle Ramblers is also celebrating after its founder received the Lifetime Achievement Award in the local mayor’s community awards scheme. Sylvia Franks joined the Ramblers in 1954 and helped set up the Pennine Way with Tom Stephenson.

And there was an OBE for former head of Ramblers Cymru, Beverley Penney, in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to the charity over 27 years.

Proposals for two major developments in Scottish countryside further threaten the country’s reputation as a place of great natural beauty, warns Ramblers Scotland. The UK Government recently announced plans for a new military training area in southern Scotland, and more than 200 turbines are proposed in three new windfarms on the hills around Loch Ness, adding to the controversy about the scale of Scottish onshore windfarm development.

“There will come a point when people will say, ‘Don’t bother going to the Loch Ness area because it has been industrialised’,” says Ramblers Scotland’s director, Dave Morris. He called for a change in the financial incentives so that only small-scale developments are encouraged on land, with giant turbines restricted to offshore locations. He also wants a meeting with the UK Government to get a clearer idea of their plans for a military training area, as well as assurances about the future of the RAF Mountain Rescue service.
For more on Ramblers Scotland’s wild land campaign, visit www.ramblers.org.uk/scotland

Image by Ben Buxton.

“There is enormous potential for communities to reap the economic benefit of sustainable tourism if the community engages with its stretch of coast and provides visitors with additional walking opportunities to encourage them to stay,” says the report’s author, Andrew Morgan.

To find out how well your local authority did and to sign up as a Mystery Walker for the next set of results, visit www.ramblers.org.uk/campaigns+policy/mystery+walker