During the week commencing 03.08.20, I have had several meetings with agencies in order to move LDWA events forward. Last Thursday 30.07.20, a statement was issues by the NEC after the Ramblers announced that they were increasing the social walk number in England to 30. At that time, and because the NEC has been sighted on an application to Sport England, there had been confusion on how the announcement could have been made.

This week I have met with:

1. Sport Wales
2. Wales Sports Association (WSA)
3. Ramblers
4. Sport England

In addition, I attended a conference call on Tuesday 04.08.20 hosted by WSA that had National Governing Bodies for a range of sports present. The conference was designed to listen to the needs of various sports in order that the WSA could then lobby the Wales Government Minister. I attended this conference and will do so every Tuesday for the foreseeable future in order that informed decisions can be made in relation to the viability of Y 100 Sir Fynwy.

The meeting with Sport England was particularly useful and as a consequence the NEC COVID sub-committee can now draft guidelines with knowledge that could not be obtained from the Government website guidelines. The information received means that both social walks and challenge walks could be positively affected. No LDWA decision taken is ever that of any one person and I am not going to presume as to the decision taken by the NEC COVID sub-committee. I will make recommendations based on what I have learned today.

Finally, I am genuinely sorry that some LDWA members have been concerned about the pace that the LDWA NEC has moved at in relation to the guidelines produced. It's important to note that the meetings held have all had to be schedules and the LDWA has been one of several organisations that have been seeking the assistance of the authorities that can provide the advice required. It's alo important to remember that the LDWA is a voluntary led Association and that all NEC volunteers that I work with have worked far harder than they might have expected to when they were elected to serve the LDWA. COVID has meant that the voluntary roles held have become far busier than when NEC life was 'normal'.

Finally, please understand that any guidelines produced will have been examined by either WSA or Sport England and their feedback accepted or otherwise the activities that we would like to see return might not do so as all activities have to be COVID safe.

Thank-you for your understanding and patience.

David Morgan
LDWA Chair