Present: Peter Colley (Chairman), Terry Edgar, Roger Frankland, Kathy Fishwick, Iain Gerrard, Brian Gilbert, Stephen Langtree, Cynthia Radford, Elaine Smith, Tom Webster & Paul Thornhill (Didsbury Civic Society).

Apologies for absence: John Bedson, Paul Johnson, Gordon Sidery & Susan Spibey

22.1     Minutes of the previous meeting: Previously circulated, these were taken as read. It was agreed unanimously that the minutes be accepted as a true record.

22.2     The Chairman was reminded by Stephen that it would be necessary to officially co-opt both Terry Edgar and Roger Frankland onto the committee. This was proposed by Stephen and seconded by Elaine and agreed unanimously.

22.3    Matters Arising:None

22.4    National Committee Meeting This had been attended by Peter as the new Chairman. He displayed a draft document with the title of "Regional Associations and the Civic Trust" and said that much of the meeting had been taken up by discussions of governance and the relationship between the national body and local societies. He felt that though this was important it was not the most urgent issue needing discussion. He pointed to the recent concerns over Rochdale Civic Society which appeared to be on the brink of dissolution due to a lack of members willing to devote some time on its committee. He said he knew of other societies in similar difficulties, suffering because members or potential members had other interests, were involved in other societies with differing ends or with one-issue concerns. He went on to suggest that the Civic Trust nationally has an image problem; many people were unaware of its existence or what it stood for.
Kathy made the point that involving children, a sound idea in principle, was proving difficult or impossible because of health and safety legislation. She added that one-issue societies were springing up which were 'getting things done', in effect illegally, by not observing such requirements, risking possible problems and prosecution if things went wrong during their activities.
The Chairman agreed and added that the Civic Trust had lost out to such organisations as English Heritage and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. These were better funded, essentially using government money, yet were covering many of the issues covered by the Trust.
Another issue discussed at the meeting had been that of insurance necessary to cover individuals acting as trustees such as ourselves.
Stephen enquired if the document referred to above had been officially adopted. Peter said it had not and agreed that all members of the committee should see it. He said he would try to get more copies or get his copied for distribution. Iain pointed out that it was probably already in electronic form somewhere and could therefore more easily be distributed if the original file could be identified.

22.5     Autumn Gathering 2007Terry distributed a draft programme and design for the pamphlet front page which he then described in detail. He said that there would be free parking available at Westminster House, the Council Offices, within easy walking distance of the Wirral Museum. After some discussion on the pamphlet, Iain was asked if he could produce the final version of this. He said he could but would need more details of the hotels and bed & breakfast places available and also a list of entertainments for the Saturday night.
Stephen offered to do this and asked for address labels from Iain.
There followed a discussion on overall costs which despite all items not being finalised seemed to work out at about £15 per head. It was agreed that this should be the figure, the remainder being subsidised by the Association.
Iain asked to be kept informed of all details so that he could put these on the web; he also reminded the meeting of the need to let him have these no later than early the following week as he would be away for two weeks thereafter.
Brian proposed that he be the recipient for bookings as the cheques would have to come to him anyway. This offer was gratefully received.
Terry said much of the information for entertainment and places to stay was available on the web at www.visitwirral.com and within a pamphlet produced by the council. Stephen suggested he arrange for 100 copies to be sent to him so that these could be placed in the envelopes sent to all societies; this would contain in addition the pamphlet on the Autumn Gathering and a booking form.
Iain asked for a street map which he could use for the website and Cynthia was able to hand one over.

22.6     Heritage Open Days:Peter distributed a booklet produced jointly with English Heritage for the Cumbrian region. He said that copies had been distributed to all tourism outlets in Cumbria.
He said the involvement of the Civic Trust had been 'played down' in recent years and was often not mentioned at all. Reference was made in the booklet but only on the back page while the introduction was from English Heritage.
Stephen said he had emailed all civic societies in the region with his template, offering to get it printed if requested. He felt very disappointed at the poor response which had been mainly negative, with one positive reply from Elaine, but with no society actually requesting copies.
It was reported that Chester, Pendle, Lancaster & Blackpool were known to be producing their own versions.

22.7    Forward Planning:Peter said that preliminary discussions had already taken place amongst the Officers and said that he was concerned that a properly formulated plan be made for the future. He mentioned a number of issues, some already in hand but requiring completion and other new initiatives.
The Conservation Areas pamphlet, now in the hands of Paul Johnson, needed to be rapidly completed but due to Paul's absence he wasn't sure how near this was to publication.
The Conservation Areas analysis which he had started in 2003 was almost complete but could now be a little out of date. He intended to finish this soon and send copies to all the relevant authorities to check for its accuracy. Iain suggested that the societies local to the authorities be also sent a copy as he felt the planning departments might not consider it a high priority.
Peter referred to the Civic Trust Fact Files which had been proposed some time ago but didn't seem to have got anywhere. He said he would ask the Civic Trust what had happened and if the work was still in progress. Stephen said the Yorkshire Area had originally been charged with updating these but that they had been put on the 'back burner' because of the issue of governance. He said an approach to Peter Cooper of the Yorkshire & Humber Association of Civic Societies might be fruitful.
Peter proposed a 'rescue pack' to help failing civic societies which could be handed out at their meetings by members of the Association acting as ambassadors and giving advice on possible ways forward. Stephen offered to contact all the unregistered societies on our database to check if they still exist. Iain could then update the database by removing those which had become defunct. He also suggested that the Civic Trust could include a separate sheet in its 'starter pack' informing any new societies of the existence of the nine Regional Associations.
He mentioned the Civic Trust awards and the need for societies to be able to nominate works which were thought to be eligible without any cost to themselves, at least initially, until there had been some 'weeding out' of these. The Civic Trust had been asking for people to put their name forward as assessors, particularly as more would be needed from 2008 when the scheme became nationwide rather than divided between the shires in one year and the urban areas the next.
Peter then mentioned the folders being researched by Brian who reported that he needed a better selection of appropriate photographs for this. He reminded the committee that any mock-up would be charged for, although if the result was an order the cost would be part of this. He said it had been suggested that an A5 format rather than A4 might be preferable as this would result in lower postal costs. Stephen said he disagreed with this as he wouldn't want the contents to have to be folded and also that the original idea had been that they would be used to contain 'delegate packs' at meetings and postage would not be an issue.
When asked, Brian said that the printers had told him the work could be completed in two weeks from the receipt of the order but they would not be ready in time for the Autumn Gathering in October. It was generally agreed that the folder must be available by the end of the year.
Peter said he felt that any future 'gatherings' should be on specific issues. Iain reminded the meeting that the Civic Trust covered groups which had interests outside the original remit of the Trust and that this should be borne in mind when deciding upon specific issues to discuss at meetings.

22.8     Press Officer:Peter proposed that one committee member should have a contact list for all local newspapers in the north west and be the one to send out any press releases by email. Stephen said he felt that this could be managed successfully between the Chairman and the Secretary. He also said that the issues likely to be covered would be more likely to interest regional newspapers rather than local ones. Iain pointed out that whichever scheme was adopted a database would need to be created.

22.9     Budget: An analysis of spending over the previous three years was produced by Brian which he promised to email to all committee members. Peter said that it was necessary to know what our proposals, both existing and new, would cost in order to see where extra funding would be needed. This would help in asking for grants which were usually given for specific projects and not for core administration costs.
Stephen mentioned one project which might be the basis of a one-day conference: how knowledge within the Civic Trust could be used to benefit schools in their citizenship classes.
Brian mentioned again the bill he had received from the University of Central Lancashire which contained the extra cost of another room authorised on the day by Alberta Stephens. He said he had already paid the main part of the bill with the exception of this item. Stephen suggested that he write to the University and tell them he had forwarded the bill to the Civic Trust for payment. This was agreed.

22.10     Any Other Business: Stephen said that the replies received by the Civic Trust from north west regional sources on the Planning White Paper might identify individuals prepared to be part of a group to cover such issues in the future. This could be done largely by email and would not require specific meetings. The Association would send directions to them to access information on the web and then collate their individual replies from which to formulate our collective response.
It was agreed that Stephen create a draft proposal and send this to the Chairman.

22.11     Next Meeting:11.00 am for 11.15 am on Saturday the 8th December at the same venue, County Hall, Preston.

The meeting closed at 3.35 pm