THE RAMBLERS
EAST DORSET GROUP

Walk Leaders

On this page

Start points

If you are an East Dorset Group Leader already, or wish to become one, our start points page might come in handy.

Send in a walk

Please ask the Programme Co-ordinator whose email address is given in your programme for information on how to send in a walk.

Village Hall car parks

An alternative to leaving a lot of vehicles parked along the narrow roads of a village is to contact the manager of the village hall and ask if we can use their car park on a certain day in return for a small donation. Add the requirement for a donation to the Comments box on your event form. If you don't find you collect enough for a £5 (say) donation to the hall, ask us, and our Treasurer will provide the difference.

Walk cancellations

Once in the programme, walks should not normally be cancelled. If you are unable to lead a walk you have added to the walks programme, you should notify the Leaders’ Co-ordinator as soon as possible and he will endeavour to find a relief leader who can lead the walk for you.

If a leader is intending to cancel his or her walk, that leader should still attend the location of the start of the planned walk at the time specified in the Programme. The leader must then explain to any members present that the walk has been cancelled and the reason for it (usually very bad weather). The only exception to this arrangement is that if the conditions are such, eg ice or snow, that would put the leader at risk travelling to the start. Please contact the Leaders’ Co-ordinator and the Group Secretary by telephone as soon as you know that you are unable to lead a walk for this type of reason and if there is time, a notice will be put on the web site.

Rain by itself is not usually sufficient reason to cancel a walk but the leader can cancel the walk at his or her discretion if there might be safety issues for instance.

In the case of the leader failing to arrive at the start of a walk, say because of a traffic hold up or a car break-down, the members present may decide to select a suitable volunteer from those present to lead a walk. In practice this may well be another of the Group’s leaders who is present or another member who knows the area. In such circumstances, the substitute leader would not be obliged to take the route planned by the intended leader and the walk may be shorter than planned but must not be longer. In such circumstances the walk will still be covered by the Ramblers’ insurance company.

Contact the police

If your problem does not merit a 999 call, police can be contacted using 101 instead.

Car parks

A member of the group has recently (2009) done some research on Dorset car parks, especially those found in the Isle of Purbeck. Here is a copy of his findings.

Leaders might be interested in this chart of New Forest car parks. Be aware that some of these are not open all year.