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Friends of the Lake District
The only membership organisation dedicated to protecting
and enhancing Lake District and Cumbrian landscapes
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  • open-day-and-annual-general-meeting-2022
  1. Get involved
  2. Open Day and AGM 2022

Open Day and Annual General Meeting 2022

Friday 8th July 2022: Coronation Hall, Ulverston, Cumbria LA12 7LZ

All members and non-member visitors welcome


Come and hear about our work in the local area. Meet the team of staff and trustees who represent your views and catch up with other members over lunch. Our guest speaker is Debbie North. If you can’t join us in person but would like to attend the Keynote Speech and AGM remotely, please get in touch with Clare Hucknall ([email protected]) or phone the office by 24th June.

Copies of the 2021 Annual Report and Accounts will be available to all members attending the AGM, or can be downloaded using the links below along with the draft Minutes of our 2021 AGM.

2021 Annual Report and Accounts

Draft Minutes of the 2021 AGM

If you wish to nominate yourself or another member to serve on the Executive Committee or to nominate a proxy please contact the Company Secretary by Friday 17th June. Further information on the AGM will be sent out nearer the event to all those who have registered, and any updates will be posted on this page or be available from the Company Secretary, Clare Hucknall on [email protected]

Non-members are welcome to attend, but only members are eligible to vote at the AGM.

Election of new trustees

The AGM will be electing new Trustees. This year we have 3 nominees from a list of over a dozen candidates, and two existing Trustees standing for re-election.

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Nominees for election

Laura Doan
A native southern Californian, I taught twentieth-century English literature at universities in Florida and upstate New York before moving to the University of Manchester in 2002, directing a research centre in gender and sexuality studies.  We now live between Waberthwaite and Ravenglass, on the edge of a farm where my partner grew up.  Last year we completed the Wainwrights (not in six days and certainly not running).  When we’re not fell-walking and Wainwright-bagging, we’re in the garden.  I spend rainy days working on a book that explores how we think about what’s “natural” and “unnatural” in the modern age.

I want to serve as a trustee for Friends of the Lake District (FLD) because I care passionately about protecting and enhancing the natural landscape of this stunningly beautiful part of the world.  FLD is currently involved in multiple campaigns, and I want to contribute to this endeavour over the coming years by representing, especially, the concerns of Copeland, where we live, but also the wider community.  My years of serving in higher education have, I think, provided me with the transferable skills to contribute to the Friends in meaningful ways.  Working with my fellow trustees over the past year has taught me a lot, and I look forward to continuing in this role to help achieve our aims.

Robin Forrest
I was born and grew up in the North-West of England and, having graduated with a degree in Russian & French, have lived and worked in London since 1993. My career has been spent in the finance industry, initially in banking with JPMorgan and for the past 15 years as a fund manager for Ashmore Group, a specialist investment firm focused exclusively on Emerging Markets. Most of my recent career, therefore, has been focused outside the UK and has involved extensive travel in new and exciting developing countries.

My wife and I have owned a home in Cumbria for 20 years, initially in the Eden valley and more recently in the Ullswater Valley. We spend most school holidays there with our 3 teenage children (and selected pets!) and endless visitors. Aside plenty of fell-walking as my oldest son works through his Wainwright list, we also sail and kayak frequently and I am a keen road cyclist.

My professional skills revolve around financial matters, analysis, problem-solving and team leadership; I hope combining these with a passion for the Lakes, and also a dual perspective of feeling both very close to but also distant from Cumbria can benefit FLD and our members. 

Antony Vaux
I have worked in charity management for thirty years and lived in Caldbeck in the northern Lake District for the last twenty. I am closely involved in local farming issues and am a Commoner at Caldbeck. I have published a book on the Caldbeck area and am deeply involved in local history. I hope that my knowledge of such issues and my challenging style will help to stimulate debate and development of thinking in Friends of the Lake District.

I hope to contribute to trustees role in providing strategic leadership and in particular focusing our work more tightly around a limited set of aims relevant to the current challenges which we face in the Lake District. Most of all I am interested in the crisis faced by hill farmers having to adjust rapidly to new forms of government support and the need to balance food production with environmental concerns.


Trustees for re-election

David Felton
I first visited Lakeland at the age of 6 months in my parents’ baby carrier when I made my first ascent of Catbells. Since then my passion for the landscapes, heritage and people of Cumbria has built, leading to me moving to Cumbria in 2008. 

I am a small business owner running a publishing company from my home south of Keswick. As such I am sensitive to the tension between business interests and the landscape. That tension has felt out of kilter for too long, and I hope to offer some insight into how we can protect and enhance the landscapes of the county we love while also supporting high quality local jobs.  My wider business experience is in publishing, marketing and growing revenue. I have been a member of Friends since 2016, a corporate supporter since 2017, and have planted trees, removed spruce and helped build walls on fell care days.

As well as my work with Friends, I am a director of the charitable Threlkeld Coffee Shop, a committee member at the Lake District Folk Weekend and have been a Princes Trust business mentor for disadvantaged young people for a decade.

Lucy Hetherington
My Hetherington ancestors were Cumbrian reivers who raided across the border around Carlisle. Many generations later my family still has strong roots in the area; throughout my life I’ve spent most of my holidays in the Lakes. I grew up deeply attached to the landscape and with a love of fell-walking and open-water swimming. My family have long included members of Friends of the Lake District and I believe passionately in the work it does to conserve and enhance the landscape - an invaluable national asset.

As an executive producer, now freelance, I have been responsible for many high-profile television documentaries and current affairs programmes. I have many years’ experience of interrogating the facts, unearthing evidence, and holding those in authority to account through detailed scrutiny and robust questioning. In commissioning roles at the BBC I was responsible for assessing and monitoring the work of independent producers and rigorously ensuring they delivered on quality and compliance. As part of the senior management at BBC Current Affairs I ran large teams, had responsibility for a big slate of programmes, managed numerous high-risk projects, helped set strategy and lead on change management. I previously worked as a TV film-maker, which gave me the opportunity to travel the world, and to meet an extraordinary range of people. My programmes have won a number of prestigious awards and nominations including BAFTAs and EMMYs.

I live with my partner and daughter. They are currently competing with each other to be first to a full set of Wainwrights.


Current Trustees

More information about our current trustees>

Published: 20th May, 2022

Updated: 6th July, 2022

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Open Day and Annual General Meeting Schedule and Agenda

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9.45am Registration and refreshments 

10.15am Welcome from Chief Executive, Douglas Chalmers

10.30am Morning Events All events are free. Register your interest in attending online via the Booking and Registration section, call us on 01539 720788 or email [email protected]. 


Limited Numbers: Please be aware that the places on our morning events are limited in number so we cannot guarantee a place. We would ask you at this stage to register your interest in attending one of these events. We will be allocating places on a first come first served basis and contacting all of those who have expressed an interest in attending one of our three morning activities to confirm places in due course. 


 We invite you to select ONE of the following activities when booking your places at our AGM.

  1. Walk: National Park Southern Boundary Extension – the story so far
    A walk up the Hoad to the Lighthouse Walk begins from Coronation Hall at 10.30am. Access: A steady uphill walk with some steep sections, on good footpaths with benches along the way. Sturdy footwear advised. Join our Chief Executive Douglas Chalmers and Policy Officer Laura Partington to walk up to the Sir John Barrow Monument, to view the area proposed as the Southern Boundary Extension for the National Park.We will explain how the campaign unfolded, what our main arguments were and what we learned from this major campaign, and what we will do next. And the far-reaching views across the Bay and towards the fells are breathtaking!
  2. Rusland Woods Walk
    Bus leaves from Coronation Hall at 10.30am. Access: Easy to moderate, uneven ground, some steep slopes but no stiles. Walking boots needed. Come and spend an hour discovering our new woodland in the heart of the Rusland valley. Jan Darrall will lead the walk through Bull Coppice and Resp Haw, give an update on how the woodland is developing since we acquired it in 2020, and share our hopes for it as an ‘Atlantic woodland’.
  3. Planning and Sustainable Transport update and discussion
    A talk in Coronation Hall. Join Planning Officer Lorayne Wall and Policy Officer Kate Willshaw to hear about our recent planning work, issues coming up and about what we’ve been doing since the 2019 Sustainable Transport conference. There will be an opportunity for questions and discussion around both of these topic areas.

12 - 12.30pm Buffet lunch A delicious lunch from a local supplier. Please book and tell us about any dietary requirements when booking. Free, but donations encouraged on the day to help cover costs please. 

12.30 - 1.15pm Guest Speaker: Debbie North, founder of Access the Dales, will share how we can make the outdoors more inclusive and the importance of increasing diversity in the Lake District. For many, accessing the outdoors can feel daunting and unwelcoming. Debbie has been working to break down barriers and stereotypes to address inequalities for accessing the outdoors. 

1.15pm Chief Executive ‘Annual Achievements’ presentation
With a Questions and Answer session to follow

1.45pm Annual General Meeting Agenda

  1. Welcome and apologies for absence
  2. Confirm the minutes of the 2021 Annual General Meeting
  3. Chairman’s Report
  4. Election of President
  5. Annual Report and Accounts
  6. Questions
  7. Appoint auditors
  8. Election of Executive Committee members
  9. Any other business

Published: 20th May, 2022

Updated: 15th June, 2022

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Booking and Registration

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To attend our AGM or to take part in any of the free morning events you must complete an online booking form. Alternatively, please call us on 01539 720788 or email [email protected]

Limited Numbers: Please be aware that the places on our morning events are limited in number so we cannot guarantee a place. We would ask you at this stage to register your interest in attending one of these events. We will be allocating places on a first come first served basis and contacting all of those who have expressed an interest in attending one of our three morning events in due course. 

All bookings must be received by Friday 24th June.

Published: 20th May, 2022

Updated: 9th June, 2022

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Transport

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We strongly encourage you to travel by public transport if at all possible. Ulverston is very well served by buses and trains; the choice of venue was made with this in mind.  

The Coronation Hall is 5 mins from bus stops and the train station.  If you have time whilst waiting for transport, Ulverston town centre has a lovely range of independent shops and cafes – definitely worth a visit.

Buses

Bus X6 Barrow – Dalton – Ulverston – Newby Bridge – Grange-over-Sands – Kendal

https://www.cumbria.gov.uk/buses/X6/ 

Bus 6 Windermere – Newby Bridge – Ulverston – Barrow

https://www.cumbria.gov.uk/buses/6W/ 

Bus X12 Coniston – Torver – Greenodd – Ulverston

https://www.cumbria.gov.uk/buses/X12/ 

Trains

Trains available (direct in many cases) from any stops on the west coast of Cumbria as far north as Carlisle and from all stops between Ulverston and Manchester airport – including Lancaster (for intercity connections).

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/                                                         

Oxenholme station: Trains arrive at Oxenholme from Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Manchester and Liverpool. We can offer a minibus shuttle service from/to Oxenholme station. Please let us know if you would be interested in this. 

Community Transport

Where scheduled services are not available, please consider using community travel schemes. 

The Village Wheels service will get people into Ulverston from some of the Furness villages by 10am on a Friday https://cumbria.gov.uk/elibrary/Content/Internet/544/6320/6508/4219581354.pdf 

Alternatively, if you know of other members locally who may be coming to the AGM, please consider car sharing. 

Car Parking

There is no car park at the Coronation Hall.  If you require disabled parking, please let us know. For those travelling by car, details on car parking in Ulverston can be found using the following link:

https://www.southlakeland.gov.uk/parking-roads-and-travel/where-to-park/car-parks-and-parking-charges/ulverston-car-parks-and-parking-charges/ulverston-car-parks/ 

Published: 20th May, 2022

Updated: 23rd May, 2022

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Our aim is to:
Care for the scenic beauty, rich wildlife and historic heritage of our county’s landscapes;
 Ensure Cumbria's landscapes are passed on to future generations in as good or better condition than they are now;
Encourage people to appreciate our special county – everyone has a right to enjoy Cumbria’s magnificent landscapes

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Friends of the Lake District is now operating a mix of home and remote working. Our core office opening hours are Monday to Friday 10am to 3pm subject to staffing levels. Call 01539 720788 or email [email protected]

Friends of the Lake District
Murley Moss
Oxenholme Road
Kendal
Cumbria 
LA9 7SS

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