Present: Peter Colley (Chairman), Rosalind Bell, Adrian Dunning, Terry Edgar, Roger Frankland, Kathy Fishwick, Iain Gerrard, Brian Gilbert, Stephen Langtree, Elaine Smith & Susan Spibey.

Apologies for absence: John Bedson, Paul Johnson & Cynthia Radford..

24.1     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.

24.2    Matters Arising:Kathy asked if there had been any progress on the issue of whether the North of England Civic Trust had the right to call themselves by that name (minute 23.5 refers). The Chairman replied that Peter Bembridge had told him that he had made no progress to date with the Charity Commissioners. However the enquiries had apparently soured relations between the North of England Civic Trust and the North East Regional Association.
Stephen suggested that Graham Bell of the North of England Civic Trust be invited to one of our meetings to discuss the problem. Peter said he would see what could be arranged.

24.3    National Committee Report:Philip Kolvin, the new Chairman of the Trustees of the Civic Trust, had given a presentation setting out his ideas about the future of the movement and what it stands for. He had said that he felt that the Planning Disaster Committee (set up to fight the planning proposals of the government) had not done enough nor been effective. The subsequent discussion had ranged over the future funding of the Civic Trust and what fresh posts Philip Kolvin would like to see established; these would cover policy, campaigns, fundraising and perhaps part-time positions for a public relations manager and a webmaster. He felt that the image of the Civic Trust was rather poor and that it was often not recognised nor its policies known or quoted. (It was noted by the meeting, not for the first time, that there were continuing difficulties in representing all members because they were not known individually.)
Philip Kolvin had offered a suggestion that if all members contributed, say £1 each, this would be enough to pay for the new posts, but Kathy pointed out that that approach had been attempted in the 1990s with almost disastrous results. An alternative suggestion of applying to the government for funds, along the lines that bodies such as English Heritage were funded, was felt to be impossible as English Heritage is a government agency, so alternatives that could be tried would be to pursue corporate membership or sponsors. Other initiatives presently being followed by the Civic Trust had been in making contact with two universities to do project work for free and obtaining the voluntary services of recently retired senior civil servants.
Kathy made the point that despite present circumstances she felt that the Civic Trust was more financially stable than it had been at the beginning of the 1990s.
Peter went on to say that a model Constitution - for individual societies - was being redrafted and that there were presently two versions, one covering those with charitable status and one without.
Although not discussed by the National Committee, reference was once again made in the meeting to the idea of a PowerPoint presentation from the Civic Trust with the ability for local societies to add their own information relevant to their area; the lack of action by the Civic Trust on this idea was thought to be disappointing. Peter said he had researched the cost of equipment needed to use such a presentation (digital projector) and that the cheapest he had found retailed at about £300. Brian said that if the need for such a projector was only once or twice a year it would be more prudent to hire the equipment which he said would cost in the region of £25 each day.
This led to a suggestion by Kathy that a presentation on the constitution is made at the Annual General Meeting and she offered to contact Peter Bembridge to arrange this. This was agreed.
Stephen objected to what he felt was unhelpful criticism of the Civic Trust and felt that we should be more positive and consolidate the role of the Regional Association.
Peter said there was a proposal to have one of the national committee meetings in a region rather than in London. Susan objected to this and said that her proposal, originally circulated to all committee members in an email, to have a national meeting for all committee members of all the regions was a way forward; she offered to arrange this. Stephen however asked what could be achieved by this.
Iain said that it seemed to him that the prime concerns were the lack of real leadership and the financing of the movement. Peter said that after all the discussion he wanted to formulate some positive ideas for us to work towards and to forward to the national committee.

(Susan left at lunch)

24.4    Regional Spatial Strategy: Peter said that the examination in public had been completed a year ago with the Inspector's report published in May 2007. The government's response was still awaited but already their were signs that the government were changing some parts of it by increasing unilaterally the numbers of houses it said would be required in some areas.
Kathy pointed out that the proposal for a number of eco-towns was still shrouded in mystery with no one knowing where they might be sited and that this was unlikely to be resolved before 2012.
Iain wondered how far it was useful to interfere into what were clearly political issues although they affected planning. Peter said that housing was an issue on which we could legitimately comment but he also felt that the Policy Committee should be issuing guidelines to us.

24.5     Development of the Forward Plan:Peter had produced a list of things to discuss.
Website: Iain was asked how successful he felt the website was. He said he wished that it was better used and that to date it had received only about 350 'hits' since he had fitted a counter in November 2006.
Peter said that Philip Kolvin had suggested that one option for a website would be to establish a method whereby the input of a postcode would tell anyone where the nearest society was. While this was felt to be too complicated the ability to make contact with a society from the website was considered to be desirable. This was already the case where a society had its own website, links having been provided for some time, but Elaine felt that this facility should be extended to those societies without a website. She said that approaches to the societies could be divided up between committee members to ease that part of the burden. Adrian said we should try to get each society to have a web address; he offered to research this a little more and discuss it with Iain.
Newsletter: Stephen offered to prepare the next newsletter but said he would require material from members of the Committee.
Peter said he felt that copies should be sent to all Local Authorities in the North West addressed, say, to the Chief Planning Officer. Stephen agreed to this but asked that Iain send him a list of Authorities and address labels, which could be used for the distribution of the remainder of the last newsletter.
Brochures: These were considered to be useful but that they should only be used when a suitable subject was evident.
PowerPoint presentations: Discussed earlier.
Meetings such as the Autumn Gathering: It was felt by some that these should continue. Peter wondered if Liverpool might be a good venue for this year and suggested this could include a trip round the buildings of the city with Rob Burns.
Workshops: Brian suggested that one of these, just for members of the Committee, should be held between the Annual General Meeting in July and the Autumn Gathering in October. Peter mentioned a workshop on Heritage Open Days, which was to be held in Penrith on the 14th March and forming a part of the spring meeting of the Cumbrian Federation.
Exhibitions: None presently in hand but Peter said that he held a set of display boards.

24.6     Autumn Gathering:Peter asked whether this should be held either as suggested above or in Manchester or Lancaster; wherever it was to be held the planning should begin immediately. Terry remarked that the fewer people involved in the preparations the better it would be for cohesion in the planning of the event. Adrian offered to check with the Museum of Science and Technology in Manchester on prices and availability; he would also look at other possible alternatives and let Peter know the results within the week.
The date of the Gathering was discussed and narrowed down to either the weekend of the 18th/19th October or the following weekend.

24.7    Forward Planning:Stephen said that following on the discussions outlined above he proposed an action plan for the newsletter, the Autumn Gathering and training workshops/events; the first one of the latter would be on one subject and suggested it discuss the direction of the Civic Trust. This would be aided, he felt, by having an external facilitator. He also said that this might be held following a shortened meeting in April. He further suggested that each member of the committee might invite another member of their own society to this workshop. Brian and Stephen, both of whom had suggested a facilitator, to contact them for costs and availability.

24.8     Any Other Business: None

24.9     Date for meeting:The next meeting to be at 11.00 am for 11.15 am on Saturday the 12th April 2008 at the same venue, County Hall, Preston.

The meeting closed at 3.10 pm