Brecon Beacons National Park Authority s1

BRECON BEACONS NATIONAL PARK AUTHORITY

REPORT TO THE AUTHORITY ON EXTERNAL MEETINGS

Meeting Organisation

Name of Member Ian Rowat

Host Organisation Biological Information Service

Venue of Meeting 6 Bulwark Brecon Date and Start/End Time of Meeting 14th March 2013

Reason for Attending (eg. as Authority The BBNP appointed Director of BIS nominated representative, or at the request of the Chairman/Chief Executive) Was lunch provided? No How did you receive your papers Electronically (post/electronically) – please attach any relevant papers that need to be made available to members, electronically if possible How did you travel to the meeting? (If Car but went onto another event in the car, did you share transport?/If public afternoon transport, what form?)

Main Agenda Items BIS was established in 2000 and began its ‘running phase’ in November 2001. It is now supported by nine organisations, mainly through Service Level Agreements (SLAs). BIS was the first LRC in Wales and is now one of the 4 LRC’s making up the network ‘Local Record Centres Wales’. This complete LRC coverage of Wales has helped to promote the work of BIS and increase its funding partnerships.

The objectives of BIS are to promote, encourage, coordinate and undertake the gathering, collation, storage, management, use and dissemination of biodiversity information about the flora, fauna, habitats and sites of biological, ecological, geological or geomorphological in Powys and Brecon Beacons. It has become firmly established as the focal point for biodiversity information in Powys and Brecon Beacons National Park.

Before BIS was set up wildlife information was held by a large number of organisations and individuals in various formats including paper records, and so was not always readily accessible. Over the past 10 years BIS has collated and electronically stored nearly a million species records and this information is now readily available to its partners, local recorders and the public, as well as to commercial ecological consultancies Implications for the Authority

Issue Please give details

Area of work Planning reports. Bat Alert layer. Biodiversity enquiries & Data analysis LBAP support Funding (either costs to the Authority Under a service level agreement BBNP or potential sources of income for the contributes to core funding Authority)

Staff Resources (time) The Senior Ecologist is on the Steering Group of BIS which meets 4 times per year.

Member Resources (time) The Authority member is a Director of the Board of BIS and attends 3 meeting per year

Further meetings (please give dates) Next meeting 17th July 2013

Authority decision needed None

Timescale

Benefits to the Authority Records on Biodiversity are readily available

Potential for future joint working A formal partnership is already in place.

Other issues or further action Please return this form to Julia Gruffydd, Democratic Services Manager as soon as possible after the meeting so that the report can be posted on the Members’ Portal and any action taken as necessary.

Tel: 01874 620400/Fax: 01874 622574 email: [email protected]