Present: Peter Colley (Chairman), Kate Cartmell (Lytham St. Annes), Barbara Colley (Ambleside), Adrian Dunning, Terry Edgar, Kathy Fishwick, Roger Frankland, Iain Gerrard, Brian Gilbert, Stephen Langtree, Cynthia Radford, Gordon Sidery, Elaine Smith, Susan Spibey, Paul Thornhill (Didsbury) & Tom Webster.

Apologies for absence: John Bedson

26.1     Minutes of the previous meeting:
Previously circulated, these were taken as read. Peter suggested that minute 24.3 would read better if the three lines beginning: "This led to a suggestion by Kathy…" were to be moved and inserted after the paragraph above them ending "…charitable status and one without". Susan also felt that her reported comment in the penultimate paragraph should be amended to: "Susan referred to the proposal she had prepared as a possible way forward to engage with other regional associations' committees, to share concerns and ideas for the future development of Civic Trust Societies. At Elaine's suggestion, Susan sent the proposal to Kevin Trickett for consideration. To date there has been no response". With these changes it was agreed unanimously that the minutes be accepted as a true record.

26.2    Matters Arising:
None

26.3    Constitution:
Peter brought an additional item to the agenda. He pointed out that there would be five nominations for the Lancashire area at that afternoon's Annual General Meeting, while both Cheshire and Cumbria were deficient in numbers nominated; the overall result was that there were fewer nominations for the committee than there were places to fill. He said he was concerned that anyone keen enough to wish to serve on the committee should be welcomed and not denied a place simply because of their place of origin. He wished to discuss ways and means of covering such circumstances with a view to altering the constitution if necessary, although this would not be possible this year, and he wanted to get agreement for this year's Annual General Meeting to tide the Association over until the 2009 Annual General Meeting.
There were three options: a person could be co–opted under the present constitution, a person could be joined to another society from another area for the purpose of representing that area rather than their own, and a society in one area could nominate a person in a society other than itself to represent it. The co–option proposal was agreed for this year, but the matter to be discussed further in a future committee meeting.

26.4    Autumn Gathering:
Peter circulated a draft programme for the two days in October and said that the arrangements were coming together. He said he had found that prices in Manchester were a bit steep. He was hoping for forty–odd people to attend but there would be a limit of 40 people on the canal boat trip on the Sunday. Bus transport to Gorton Monastery and Victoria Baths was good and Adrian pointed out that it was only ten minutes walk from the venue to Piccadilly Gardens. Peter said he had asked the Victorian Society for a speaker.
It was agreed that it would be most convenient if bookings were to be sent directly to Brian Gilbert.
Kate Cartmell asked where there was good overnight accommodation. Stephen said that the Castlefield Hotel was fairly inexpensive for the centre of Manchester and Tom pointed out that it was also close to the Museum of Science & Industry.
Stephen offered to prepare a leaflet and booking form and Iain agreed to provide him with a set of address labels.

26.5    Visit to Liverpool:
Peter distributed a programme+booking form. He said there would be a limit of 20 for the walkabout as Rob Burns would find it difficult to speak easily to more. Kate agreed to be the contact for all bookings.

26.6    Green Flag Awards:
Peter said that the award ceremony would be at the Arena, Liverpool on the 24th July. NWActs had been offered 10 free seats in St. George's Hall for the dinner following the ceremony. Peter asked for expressions of interest. Eight of those present said they would like to go and Peter said that he would contact societies who had won an award to see if he could fill the other two places. He said he would also have tickets for the award ceremony itself.

26.7     Expenses:
Brian pointed out that the expenses policy, agreed some two years before, had never been formerly adopted. In addition the stated mileage allowance of 10p per mile was no longer realistic. Peter suggested that the rate be stated as being that agreed by the Committee from time to time, rather than being a fixed figure requiring adjustment. This was agreed. It was also agreed that non–members of the Committee and visitors would not be reimbursed under the scheme.
It was agreed that the expenses policy as adjusted be adopted and that when the constitution was reviewed, as arranged in 26.3 above, the content of paragraph 7.2 of the Constitution be also discussed and changed.

26.8     Communications:
Civic Society website: Peter had looked at this and found little reference anywhere of the Regional Associations.
NWActs website: Peter asked that the Heritage Open Days programme for Cumbria be put on the website.
Power Point Presentation: Peter said he was very keen to produce one for the Association. He had been unable to open Elaine's Blackpool presentation file because he didn't have Power Point on his computer, but had now seen it after it had been converted to a .pdf format (portable document file) which anyone with the free Adobe Reader software could open. Iain offered to convert any future files into this format if desired.
Brochure: Stephen was undertaking the production of this. Brian had handed him a disc containing images, originally produced for the never–completed folder, which he could use. Stephen said he had asked for all of the committee to let him have details of suitable contacts for conservation officers in their local authority and those of any adjacent authorities; to date he had only had three responses. He asked if he could have the information for those authorities within the two federations of Lancashire and Cumbria.
Newsletter: Also being created by Stephen, he pointed out that without news and input from the committee his task was impossible and he appealed for news or comment from individual societies+committee members.
Guidance Notes from the Civic Trust: Peter said that these had never appeared from the Trust and that he would take the matter up with them.
Visits to NW Societies: Peter asked if anyone had approached a society to speak to them but none had, although Stephen felt that his visit to Marple last year had produced a number of ideas and views.

26.9 Conservation Awareness Project:
Stephen admitted that this was not progressing too well at the moment but appealed to all those who had contributed material for it over the last two years to update their contributions. Peter also said that the list he had (almost) prepared some time ago needed completing. Barbara said she would be prepared to do this for him and this was agreed.

26.10 Heritage Protection Bill:
Stephen reminded the committee that he had circulated a synopsis of the bill (received via the NW Historic Environment Forum) and said that this was the result of a process covering the last four or five years and that there had been some input from the Civic Trust and the North West Association of Civic Trust Societies. Kathy said that the bill was looking at the situation regarding demolition in Conservation Areas.

26.11 Planning Reform Bill:
Peter said that this was removing a lot of democratic processes from planning consultations. It still had to go through the House of Lords but was unlikely to be significantly altered there. Peter said that all societies needed to be involved in the preparation of the Local Development Framework for their area. He said that encouragement should be given to local societies to work with their Local Authorities. Kathy agreed but said that the National Civic Trust should be helping towards this end. Tom said that in Didsbury relations with the Local Authority were good.

26.12 Any Other Business:
Stephen said he hoped to send out the mail shot to Local Authorities soon.
Brian, who had circulated the Income & Expenditure statement, said that it had now been audited with some slight alterations from the last meeting, which he pinpointed. He said the Association was in a reasonable financial state for the present.
Stephen reminded the meeting that the newsletter and brochure, when produced, would bring with them substantial financial costs.
Brian said that after the accounts had been closed he had received a donation of £100 from Didsbury Civic Trust.

26.13 Next meeting:
The next meeting would be on the 4th October 2008.

The meeting closed at 1.05 pm