Annual General Meeting Outputs 2025
Date: 17 November 2025
Location: Christchurch Ilkley
1. Attendance
Chair: Colm McCann
Secretary: Neil Shearer
Treasurer: Ronan Carnally
Committee Members Present: Mark Jeffcott, Nick Dybeck
and guests
2. Agenda Recap
- Welcome – Neil Shearer (Secretary)
- Executive Summary – Colm McCann (Chair)
- Financial Summary – Ronan Carnally (Treasurer)
- Workstream Updates – Workstream leads
- Election of Officers for 2025-2026
- A.O.B
- Social – Drinks
3. Executive Summary – Colm McCann
Successes:
- Expanded Team
- Anna Dixon / Bradford PROW Stakeholder meeting
- Practical volunteering started
- Ilkley to Addingham progress
- Yorkshire Dales Partnership support
- Monitoring proposal funded
- Otley Golf Club (Sustrans work)
Challenges:
- Funding
- Access permissions
- Political landscape / engagement
4. Financial Summary
| Opening Balance | £740.56 |
| Closing Balance | £657.72 |
| Spending | £82.84 |
- Another stable year for the finances
- Normal overheads and venue hire
- Paid to attend the Otley Green Fair
- No grants this year but received £186 in corporate and individual donations
- Further funding may be required next year for path improvement materials
- We are looking at obtaining a handheld card reader to take donations at events
- looking at possible software options to support the re-launch of memberships
5. Workstream Updates
A presentation from each workstream lead on what has happened over the 2024-2025 year and any plans ahead.
Practical Volunteering – Nick Dybeck
- 2 practical volunteering events in 2025 conducted by FoWG to see how the go before advertising for external volunteers for future events.
- Look at sourcing materials and funding opportunities in 2026
- Path user traffic survey instruments to be installed in 2026 at key locations to gather number of users
Route Planning – Mark Jeffcott
- Read and reviewed all previous planning documents
- Produced slide deck for highly sucsessful meeting with Anna Dixon MP
- Completed an initial draft of the business case (WYCA template) to circulate for comments
- Look to present the business case early in 2026
- A number of walks with various stakeholders has resulted in promising outputs for route planning
Engagement – Neil Shearer
- Facebook followers 1749 (up 39)
- X followers 95 (down 18)
- Instagram followers 121 (up 25)
- Bluesky followers (30) – joined 2025
- Website Jan 1st – Nov 9th – New users 2.5k
- Increase in the creation of blogs on the website to advertise what we get up to, shared on social media
- Attended various events over the Spring/Summer
- 2026 campaign called “Greenway Ready” aim to post once a week focusing on getting ready for business case/funding/design
- also focusing on schools access to get children out of cars and promote active travel
- Looking at the possibility of joining TickTok
Finance – Ronan Carnally
- We have not had many costs in previous years other than insurance, printing, venues, gazebo etc
- As we step into using volunteers for improvemtns to the path, we may require the purchase of some materials and tools – having something specific to fundraise for will increase ability to ask for donations
- We are looking at obtaining a handheld card reader to take donations at events
- Ongoing work to seek out free grants from national organisations and local councils to support FoWG work
6. Election of Officers
As part of the governance process, the current officer roles were formally dissolved. This step ensures compliance with the organisation’s constitution and provides an opportunity to refresh leadership for the coming year. The outgoing officers were thanked for their dedication and contributions, which have been instrumental in advancing the objectives of Friends of Wharfedale Greenway.
Following this, the election of new officers was conducted in accordance with the agreed procedures (see below). Members present nominated and voted for candidates to fill the key positions, ensuring a fair and transparent process. The newly elected officers will now take responsibility for guiding the organisation’s activities and delivering on its strategic priorities for the year ahead.
Committee Roles 2025-2026
| Chair | Colm McCann |
| Vice Chair | Nick Dybeck |
| Secretary | Neil Shearer |
| Treasurer | Ronan Carnally |
| Social Media / Content Creator | Neil Shearer/Rosie Fivian |
| Events Coordinator | Randal Metzger |
| Design & Planning support | Mark Jeffcott/Martin Higgitt |
| Practical Volunteering | Nick Dybeck |
Town/Village Reps
| Pool-in-Wharfedale | vacant |
| Otley | Randal Metzger |
| Menston | Tommy Knowland |
| Burley in Wharfedale | Emily Corbett |
| Ben Rhydding/Ilkley | vacant |
| Addingham | Colin Waterman |
A.O.B
None