THE 51st annual general meeting was held on October 21.

Rambles secretary Alex Koscica said anyone completing all the year's walks would have covered 250 miles and taken roughly 400,000 steps.

The policy of walking fairly close to home through the winter months had paid off and resulted in good turnouts on our rambles. This policy will be repeated in the coming winter.

The Cotswold Way was completed on September 19, when members had their photograph taken with the Royal Crescent in Bath as a backdrop and then toasted their success with champagne by the side of the bus.

Jean Nokes had been the chief organiser of the Cotswold Way stages, as she had been for several other long distance walks over the years.

The baton now passes to Alex, who is planning the next effort, which will be the Three Choirs Way - roughly Gloucester to Hereford to Worcester to Gloucester - beginning in April.

Next year, Jean will be concentrating on organising walking weekends and walks further afield. Under consideration are trips to Hadrian's Wall and Alicante on the Costa Blanca.

Secretary Jill Hitchcock said the past year had been successful, with increased attendance at meetings and new members joining.

The group has tried to organise five events each month - three rambles, one meeting (generally covering a countryside issue) and one social event.

It is planned to continue ringing the changes - in May, for example, Roy Winter, former chief landscape architect of Redditch Development Corporation, will lead a coach tour of Redditch, with a couple of short excursions on foot, while he explains the thinking behind the town's prize-winning landscaping.

It was decided the Arrow Valley Countryside Group website, which is now ready, will go live in the next couple of weeks.

Officers elected for the year were chairman Alan Hitchcock; secretary Jill Hitchcock; treasurer Pat Hodgkinson; rambles secretary Alex Koscica; webmaster Keith Christie; committee members Jean Nokes, Lyn Fraser, Carol Quick.

Anyone interested in taking part in future activities or would like to receive a copy of the programme can call Jill Hitchcock on 529716.