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Our general secretary Kate Ashbrook, who is also vice-president of the Ramblers and patron of the Walkers Are Welcome Towns Network, is to open the White Cliffs Walking Festival in Kent on Thursday 24 August.
The launch event is at 10am on 24 August at Walmer Green, next to the lifeboat station (postcode CT14 7DY, grid reference TR 377 514). Charlie Elphicke, MP for Dover and Deal, will also be speaking.
The festival runs from 24-30 August and offers 42 walks, with great variety and interest.
The festival launch on Dover seafront in August 2014. Photo: Nigel Cussans
Says Kate: ‘I am delighted to open the fourth White Cliffs Walking Festival, having launched the first one in 2014. It is a wonderful opportunity to explore the splendid Kent countryside and the new coast path and adjoining access land which have been opened as part of the England Coast Path project. Walk leaders will be able to show the walkers what has been achieved by organisations such as the Ramblers and Open Spaces Society, and the challenges we still face in making the Kent countryside truly accessible.
Cliffside path near Dover which the Ramblers saved from closure in 2002
‘As patron of the Walkers Are Welcome Towns network I am delighted that Dover joined our family earlier this year. Four years ago when I opened the festival I urged Dover to join Deal in becoming a Walkers Are Welcome town. I am sure it will soon feel the benefits of the accreditation.
‘I am looking forward to opening the festival and taking part in a walk on the first day,’ says Kate.
View to Folkestone