Our strategy

The Ramblers' priorities for promoting walking up until 2013 are contained in Aim 2 of our strategy document, Fresh Air Firm Ground, under the heading 'Making walking accessible to all.'

We want to do much more to spread the positive message about walking, ensuring that those who do not currently walk very much have access to the pleasures which walking can bring.

We will:

• Deliver our current healthy walking programmes and develop further similar initiatives, taking advantage of events such as the 2012 Olympics and the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
• Give a higher priority in our work to those who currently have the least opportunity to walk, working with other organisations, both public and private, to make urban and rural walking accessible to all.
• Campaign to ensure that the leisure potential of the countryside is readily enjoyable by all sections of the community.
• Re-examine our own activities, to make sure they are as socially inclusive as possible.
• Provide in our own walks programmes a diverse range of options, including short as well as longer walks.
• Support our walk-leader volunteers, helping them where appropriate develop their skills, so our walks are of a consistently high standard.
• Promote walking in daily life as an alternative to car-use for short

  journeys.

• Promote the fun of walking to children and young people.
• Campaign with others to enhance public transport facilities in walking destinations, and to encourage the use by walkers of public transport where possible as an alternative to car use.

Read fhe full strategy including our priorities for the walking environment (PDF).

Promoting walking to a wider audience

In 2006, as part of the strategic development of our work promoting walking, we carried out a survey of Ramblers volunteers in our Areas and Groups to find out what work they were doing beyond the traditional areas of footpaths, access, countryside protection and led walks aimed at members. The survey found a wide range of projects which are summarised in the final report.

Read the final report (PDF).