Policies

Wold Rangers Way – Accessible & Inclusive Tourism Policy

Our Mission:

Our mission is to develop and make available a progressive series of walks developed around Driffield and the Yorkshire Wolds with a historical background aimed at encouraging more people to take up walking as a healthy activity.

We aim to help develop the Wold Rangers Way for the long-term benefit of local people, the environment and travellers alike. The entire premise of our charity is to ensure walking events are created that are as accessible as possible, removing any barriers to entry (such as knowledge, equipment or cost) and to ensure we promote responsible events, thereby creating more jobs for local people, greater income for local businesses, increased benefits for conservation and a lower environmental impact, whilst at the same time minimising negative impacts on local environments and cultures.

Our responsibilities:

We take our responsibilities to the environment, local communities, customers and partners and very seriously and constantly review our policies and strive to make improvements where we can.

Every event organised by the Wold Rangers Way provides advice to attendees, specifically:

Accessibility of the event

Adherence to the Countryside Code

Personal safety and the recommendation to use What3Words

Advice on use of public transport

Advice on responsible parking

Litter picking and use of the Planet Patrol App

Accessibility:

We want the Yorkshire Wolds to be a place where as many people as possible choose to go walking, and where it’s easy and enjoyable to do so, whether in the countryside or in the more urban areas of Driffield. We work with partners including East Riding of Yorkshire Council and the Ramblers Association to identify and ultimately remove the barriers that may prevent many people from enjoying the benefits of walking.

The Wold Rangers Way supports work to make both the urban and rural walking environment more accessible to people with limited mobility and wheelchair users so long as this is done appropriately and sympathetically to the environment, avoiding excessive “urbanisation” of the countryside. We support the initiatives of other organisations such as the Fieldfare Trust, the Disabled Ramblers and statutory bodies to this end.

We are engaged with the East Riding Rural Partnership and local access forums to help ensure that accessibility and the needs of people with disabilities are taken into account when developing our walks and events. We endeavour to organise a range of walking events that cater for all needs and abilities.

Inclusivity:

The Wold Rangers Way welcomes and supports the diversity of the community wishing to use our series of walks and attend our events. Our trustees and volunteers are based in, and reflect the community in which we operate; and our policies, practices and procedures will reflect our constant striving for excellence. The Wold Rangers Way will do its best to integrate good equality practice in all that we say and do.

 

Wold Rangers Way – Responsible & Sustainable Tourism Policy

Our Mission:

Our mission is to develop and make available a progressive series of walks developed around Driffield and the Yorkshire Wolds with a historical background aimed at encouraging more people to take up walking as a healthy activity.

We aim to help develop the Wold Rangers Way for the long-term benefit of local people, the environment and travellers alike. The entire premise of our charity is to ensure walking events are created that are as accessible as possible, removing any barriers to entry (such as knowledge, equipment or cost) and to ensure we promote responsible events, thereby creating more jobs for local people, greater income for local businesses, increased benefits for conservation and a lower environmental impact, whilst at the same time minimising negative impacts on local environments and cultures.

Our responsibilities:

We take our responsibilities to the environment, local communities, customers and partners and very seriously and constantly review our policies and strive to make improvements where we can.

Every event organised by the Wold Rangers Way provides advice to attendees, specifically:

Accessibility of the event

Adherence to the Countryside Code

Personal safety and the recommendation to use What3Words

Advice on use of public transport

Advice on responsible parking

Where support is organised for longer, more challenging walks, we endeavour to ensure this is done with consideration to the environment and creates a minimal carbon impact. Measures taken include:

If required, use of fixed checkpoints at places where the footpath intersects with a road. This reduced the need for multiple support points and any off-road access

Use of 10-litre water containers to refill walkers own drinking bottles to reduce use of single-use plastics.

Our relationship with our walkers:

The Wold Rangers Way is not an exclusive walking club. The Wold Rangers Way series of progressive walks are available for anyone to walk at any time, whether as a group or as an individual. We provide free online maps together with electronic files for navigation devices and well written, clear step-by-step walking instructions and all routes are physically well marked. In addition to the on-line materials, we provide high quality walking guides which can be purchased at minimal cost.

We also devise and promote regular organised walking events which attract and bring together people from different localities and abilities enabling them to take part in walks in a safe and friendly environment.

Our walkers are invited to comment on their experiences whether taking part in an organised event or accessing the walks as individuals. Online reviews on Social Media and Google are regularly reviewed and all feedback is used by the trustees to develop the Wold Rangers Way.

Our relationship with our suppliers:

We have a policy of always using local suppliers wherever we can, so as to support local small businesses and retain as much income as possible in the local area.

Our Impact on the environment:

We design and promote the Wold Rangers Way and its events to actively reduce the negative impact of tourism on the local and wider environment - this is integral to what we do. We do this in a number of ways:

Provision of clear up-front information to walkers and event attendees

Through consultation and engagement with Town and Parish Councils along the route to ensure their views on potential negative aspects (such as parking or littering) are understood and if possible mitigated.

Close collaboration with the Countryside Access Team officers at local authorities with regular discussions and alignment about planned events.

We work under the principles of reduce, reuse then recycle. We are committed to continuous improvement in all areas within this policy and the education and training of trustees and volunteers in environmental issues and the environmental effects of their activities.

Planet Patrol:

We are working with Planet Patrol to reduce litter on the Yorkshire Wolds by encouraging our walkers to pick-up any litter they find whilst out walking and log it through the Planet Patrol App.

Planet Patrol believe that by working together and collecting evidence of litter found polluting the environment we can make Governments change policies and hold brands to account to stop them producing single use items.

Planet Patrol is redefining what can be achieved through collective action and people-powered data by placing power in the hands of the people to tackle environmental issues. Over the last six years Planet Patrol volunteers around the world have gathered almost half a million pieces of data that would otherwise be impossible to capture, building the biggest and most scientifically robust bank of evidence to drive lasting change from the top down and bottom up.

From September 2022, we are encouraging participants on all our organised walks to download the Planet Patrol App by adding information on our events page and through the Eventbrite ticketing platform. The system is easy to use:

- Simply download the Planet Patrol App to your Smartphone
- Photograph the litter (or scan the barcode if there is one)
- Count and categorise the litter and upload the photo
- View the images on an interactive map and see how you've contributed to tackle polution