Draft Notes of Lydney Area in Partnership Meeting Held in Lydney Town Council Chamber On

NOTES OF LYDNEY AREA IN PARTNERSHIP MEETING HELD IN NAAS LANE COMMUNITY CENTRE ON WEDNESDAY 20TH APRIL 2011

1. Welcome and Apologies Present

Present: Bill Hobman, Val Hobman, Derek Biddle, Harold Symonds, Roger Holmes, Steve Sayers, Judith Davis (Part), David Cooksley (Part), Bob Watters (Notes) Apologies: Hester Jourbet, David Holmes, Simon Richards

2. Approval of minutes of meeting held 23rd February 2011

The minutes of the last meeting were approved Moved by Derek Biddle seconded by Bob Watters and carried unanimously

3. Matters Arising

Item 4 – Train services to and from Lydney. David Flint Severn Tunnel Action Group (STAG) has arranged a passenger/user group meeting and issues raised have been sent to Arriva and some have been responded to. Derek Biddle and Bob Turner have volunteered to help with a further passenger survey at Lydney station in the autumn if the user group decide to do one. There is nothing to report on the proposed electrification of the main line.

ACTION – Derek Biddle to inform STAG of LAiP’s offer of support and obtain the minutes from the last meeting held 19th April.

The notes are included at the end of these minutes and the 2 documents mentioned in the notes are attached for information

Item 5 – Sale of woodlands. 15% of Forest of Dean is still up for sale and a panel has been set up to look at options so the HOOF campaign remains active

Item 13 – Review of LAiP Constitution. The amendments proposed by Bill Hobman at the last meeting will be incorporated into a revised constitution and presented to shareholders at the Annual General Meeting in September.

ACTION - Hester Joubert to amend the existing Constitution with the proposed changes for finalising at the July Board Meeting

4. Fairtrade Status for Lydney

This item to be suspended temporarily from the agenda until resurrected by David Holmes who is leading the project.

5. Lydney Docks Partnership Café and Toilets

The bid for circa £300,000 for the development of a café, toilets and interpretation centre to be located within Lydney Yacht Club is still under consideration by the Local Action Group (LAG). The LAG is to consider commissioning a feasibility study estimated to cost £8k-10k at its next Executive Meeting which takes place on 27th April and is seeking confirmation that, say, 20% march funding can be provided. The LAG is not confident that the high cost of the development will be approved by Defra and is concerned that the £8k-£10k may be wasted. Lydney Yacht Club has put an enormous amount of effort into the development of the bid and cannot be expected to do more and it was agreed that a meeting of the Lydney Docks Partnership should be arranged as soon as possible to consider the response from the LAG and to reconsider all options to achieve the local community desire for better basic facilities at the Docks.

ACTION – Derek Biddle to arrange a meeting of the Docks Partnership during May. Bob Watters to explore opportunities for, say, £2k match funding contribution.

6. Gloucestershire County Council (GCC) Redundant Buildings

1 Naas Lane – a meeting was held on 14th April of all user groups to define a way forward for occupancy of the site and the outcome was to consider the development a co-operative type partnership. A Business Plan is being prepared and is due for submission to GCC by 1st June. An application for a grant of £2,500 is being made to finance the setting up of the management group which will comprise County, District and Town Council (the latter to be ratified on May 16th) elected members plus user organisation representatives. GCC officer support will be provided in the short term. Given the uncertainty about the future of other non GCC owned buildings and the extent to which S106 monies will contribute to community investment projects it is proposed to take a short term lease, say 5 years on the Nass Lane site to allow time for longer term options to be considered. A 5 year lease will be aligned to that which the Sea Cadets currently have at Nass Lane

7. Lydney Area Action Plan

There is nothing to report on the progress of the Area Action Plan and it is assumed that the community consultation meetings under the “planning for real” exercise is continuing as arranged. LAiP will continue to press the area action planning team to involve land owners in the centre of town if it is the desire to make a major impact on the retail sector. The bus station is not a part of the plan as that falls under GCC’s transport arm who are seeking commercial rents for use of the site.

8. Hydro Group Report

2 meetings have been held by the group comprising Derek Biddle, Simon Richards, David Holmes and Bob Watters since the last Board meeting about the New Mills site. The favoured consultant for the feasibility study, Manpower, suggest a 3 stage approach. The first will cost £1,700 including VAT which comprise a review of the work undertaken by Severn Wye Energy Agency (SWEA) that is possibly not as robust as originally thought. Bids for funding have been submitted to Nature Save and Gloucestershire Environmental Trust. An approach has also been made to the energy companies to see what funding may be available from them. If Stage 1 provides a viable case then Stage 2 could be developed which is designed to provide a much more detailed evaluation and will cost £7,700. Stage 3 could then be funded under the LAG bid which is currently suspended until September. Some community consultation is being planned at the Lydney Festival later this year. It is understood that the Co-op is progressing its own study to generate power for its store from the adjacent River Lyd. There may be potential hydro opportunities further upstream beside Light Fantastic.

9. Heritage Consultation

A forest wide heritage consultation study has been commissioned by the Local Strategic Partnership to find a way forward and to produce tools to assist in raising the economic and social value and profile of the Forest of Dean district through its heritage and culture by:

 Producing a baseline for sustainable economic value in heritage projects bringing together the wealth of information, artefacts and locations using research  Promoting the Forest of Dean district by enhancing the knowledge of local people and extending the tourism offer  Identifying the potential to assist in the retention and creation of local jobs and reinvigorating lost skills.

A community consultation event is to be held in Lydney Library on 12th May at 7pm and LAiP has been asked to provide a speaker to input to the discussion from a position of knowledge and also to take the opportunity to inform the community of other activities being undertaken in the Lydney partnership area. The Partnership has also agreed to facilitate introduction, such as Lydney Park, where the consultation group has been unable to make contact.

ACTION Bill Hobman (lead), Derek Biddle and Bob Watters to represent the Partnership at the consultation event on 12the May.

10. Accounts for Year Ended 31st March 2011

The accounts for 2010-2011 were presented to members. Turnover for the year is consistent with previous years with only one exceptional item for £6,000 being a grant to the Victoria Centre from Glos Environmental Trust for which LAiP acted as the accountable body. This was a simple transaction of a £6,000 receipt and £6,000 expenditure. For the first time since 2007/08 the Partnership has returned a surplus. Whilst this is less than £100 it could signal a turning point and provide greater confidence for the future. The bank account currently has a credit balance of £1956. The Partnership has no liabilities. Under its rules the Partnership is exempt from the statutory requirement for an audit subject to approval by the committee.

Adoption of dispensing with an audit for the year ended 31st March 2011 Proposed by Derek Biddle Seconded by Val Hobman and carried unanimously

Approval of the Accounts for year ended 31st March 2011 Proposed by Val Hobman Seconded by Harold Symonds and carried unanimously

11. Date of Next Meeting

Wednesday 20th July 2011 at 1830. Venue to be advised

The meeting closed at 2005

3 Notes from STAG meeting held 15th April 2011 The assembled group of nine of us (two from STAG, including me) talked for about two hours and Bob Garside made an attempt to persuade me to act for Lydney. While I’m happy to use contacts at Lydney to further STAG’s interests, my own view is that Lydney and the Forest of Dean has its own problems that are better dealt with at a local level and through Gloucestershire County Council.

A move to a Lydney lobby group would certainly strengthen our position at Severn Tunnel Junction. However, for us to spend time and energy working on Lydney problems will dilute our own efforts. I’m not prepared for this.

The key issue, where a strong Lydney lobby would certainly help, is over the issue of the regular hourly ATW (Arriva Trains Wales) service. I attach notes on this: at this time we believe the cost of the extra ‘set’ that ATW claim is needed is between £500K and £1.0m in rental and running costs. Estimates suggest that at least a 50% increase in users will be needed to justify this, but statistics suggest we’re moving in the right direction. ATW executives tell us they want £500,000pa from the Welsh Assembly Government to pay for this extra unit.

Meanwhile, STAG believe we have the possibility of a fight to retain FGW (First Great Western) services at Severn Tunnel Junction (STJ). This is because stops of the Portsmouth Harbour service at STJ are not in the franchise agreement, and it seems almost certain that FGW will not be extending the franchise in two years time. An hourly service to Bristol, and with no service to Bath, Salisbury and Southampton, will decimate what we have!

One issue that arose on Friday night was that of the use of Severn Tunnel Junction as an interchange station. Tim Bell, MD of ATW, does not expect passengers to use Severn Tunnel Junction (STJ) for such purposes, and doesn’t want to encourage it. He would prefer Lydney Passengers to interchange at Newport! I have certainly told him why he is wrong: and my argument is supported by the Office for Rail Regulation statistics which show that there has been doubling of the use of STJ as an interchange over the past five years.

I will write to Tim Bell about the concerns of Lydney commuters.

Unfortunately, for Lydney, residents from Chepstow drive to STJ rather than interchange. There are only a few Chepstow rail passengers that interchange at STJ. I strongly feel that an independent voice would be much louder if a separate lobby group at Lydney were formed.

With few STJ passengers using the Cardiff / Cheltenham route, and with none of these voicing concerns to STAG, I am not inclined to have active involvement at Lydney. If we can help we will: and I certainly intend to take up a point made at Friday’s meeting by Jane Lloyd, but I think that’s as far as it goes.

I do understand the reluctance of busy regular passengers to form a lobby group; however, I sadly feel this is a problem of British Society today. The ‘it’s someone else’s job’ cry is heard far and wide! Hopefully a retired person, with a computer and internet connection, and bags of enthusiasm, will be found.

In closing, please be aware that Chepstow (BT4C) has embarked on an aggressive marketing campaign! This is to secure continuation of the additional AXC (Arriva Cross Country) train

4 trial once it ends in May 2012. This BT4C campaign will also prove to the Directors of AXC that Chepstow has commitment to making the additional service work. In my opinion you have until November to do the same for Lydney!

Finally, I also attach my list of contacts with the industry in the hope that it might help you in future.

David Flint Chair STAG T. 01291 423551