Lake District National Park Authority
Minutes of Meeting on 6 April 2004

MINUTES of a meeting of the Lake District National Park Authority here at the National Park Office, Murley Moss Kendal at 10.30am on 6 April 2004. They record the discussions and decisions at that meeting.

Present
Mr MC Bentley (Chairman) Mr AJ Johnston
Mr RA Bird Dr HE Jones
Mr R Calvin Mr J Mumberson
Mr A Clark Mr P Phizacklea OBE
Ms MM Colquhoun Mr E Robson
Mrs DG Cranwell Mr GB Strong
Mr DS Fairburn Mr DAP Thomas
Mr IM Hall Mr GD Thornton (Deputy Chairman)
Mr JM Hayton Mr RV Turner
Mr DM Holding Mr RT Yates
Dr DJ Jeffray  

Unable to be present
Mr W Barr Mr J Faulkner
Dr JM Darrall Mr R Mein

 

482 Minutes
Decided To confirm the Minutes of the meeting held on 6 January 2004. The Chairman signed them

483 Chairman's Announcements

The Chairman welcomed Mr E Robson to his first meeting of the Authority and congratulated Dr DJ Jeffray and MR RH Bridson on the announcement of their second term as National Appointees for the Authority.

The Chairman informed Members of:

  • The HR and Member Services Manager's retirement
  • The informal briefing with the Audit Commissioners
  • Meeting with ANPA
  • Meeting with MPs
  • Meeting with Cumbria Tourist Board
  • Progress made with the Windermere Strategy
484 Declarations of Interest

Members did not declare any personal or prejudicial interests related to the business of the Authority

485 Questions

Mr R Calvin questioned why a cycle track, indicated by green paint had been applied to the road at Waterhead, Ambleside.  He claimed that adding a cycle track to this narrow road was a potential hazard.

The National Park Officer [Mr Paul Tiplady] responded that this had been a measure implemented as part of the Lake District Transport Strategy, to improve commuter cycling. He explained that he did not believe that this measure had caused the road to be hazardous. Instead this was already a narrow road, which was dangerous for cyclists. The purpose of the green paint was to make it clear to motorists that cyclists were using the road and to slow traffic down.

486 Public participation

There were no public questions, deputations or petitions from the public related to the business of the committee.

487 Minutes of committees

Chairmen of all committees asked Members to approve Minutes from their separate meetings over the past three months. These Minutes were published in the Minute Booklet. The Members looked at the committee Minutes listed below and:

  • agreed all decisions
  • agreed all recommendations where committees did not have the power to make decisions
  • commented on some Minutes as shown

DEVELOPMENT CONTROL COMMITTEE

5 January 2004
3 February 2004
2 March 2004

IMPLEMENTATION COMMITTEE

20 January 2004

CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

30 January 2004
13 February 2004
26 March 2004

ELECTRONIC GOVERNMENT PROJECTS COMMITTEE

6 February 2004

CORPORATE AND FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMITTEE

13 February 2004
15 March 2004

Dr HE Jones noted that she had been included incorrectly as a member of this Committee.

POLICY AND OVERVIEW COMMITTEE

20 February 2004

Mr JM Hayton asked whether any progress had been made regarding seeking a meeting with the ODPM to increase their awareness of National Parks, as referred to at minute 99, page 1669 of the Minute Booklet. The National Park Officer responded that a meeting with the ODPM had taken place on Monday 22 March and that he was confident they had recognised the Authority's concerns.

At this stage in the meeting the Committee decided that under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972 the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business because of the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

488 Legal issues arising out of certain pressure groups

Two potentially unlawful challenges to the Authority were discussed, the Corporate Communications Director [Mr Tony Wolfe] and Solicitor [Mr Matthew Neal] introduced the items. The first related to potential confusion in the public domain that may arise out of the use of the Lake District National Park Authority logo and modifications of communications between the Authority and an individual [Ed. the LDNPA logo was on their letters and I removed my home address]. Both of which had been posted on a website that could potentially mislead the public into thinking that they were viewing the official website of the Authority [Ed. only likely if you were an imbecile].

The second related to potentially defamatory material in circulation misinforming the public about the Chairman and the actions of the Authority relating to Lake Windermere. Council advice, sought by the Solicitor, was presented. [Ed. Nothing to do with me]

A Member reminded the meeting of some of the background to the Windermere 10 mile an hour speed limit inquiry. The decisions that the Authority had made were made democratically. A brief background of the three Lakes inquiry and decision relating to matters at those enquiries was given.

Members made the following comments:

  • That the safety of staff and Member was a consideration and that Police links should be robust enough to deal with this type of situation. One Member called for a top level meeting of the Police, the Chief Constable and Special Branch and that the Home Office should be notified of the situation. It was also noted that Members wanted to prevent tragedy as anti-social behaviour could be escalated by scurrilous activity.
  • That the Windermere Project Group have a weakness in that it was too close to the subject matter. It was proposed that a disinterested person joins the group to offer balance.
  • To urge action with regards to the website infringement. Proposals were put forward that an area of the Authority's website be set up to invite criticism to demonstrate that we are prepared to engage with issues and recognise that the Authority welcomes comments and criticism especially as this helps to improve our services.
  • Whether or not the Solicitor believed that advice had been sought from the correct source. The Solicitor confirmed that it had.
  • Whether there were any connection between the two incidents. It was not self evident what, if any, connections there were.

It was proposed and seconded that there is support for the Chair and Deputy in this difficult issue. This was unanimously agreed.

Gill Cranwell was proposed as a member of the Windermere Project Group. She accepted.

Decided:
a. That the Solicitor be authorised to take appropriate legal action against the person responsible for the named website
b. That no funding be given for any legal action to be taken against the group disseminating potentially defamatory information in respect of the recent poster regarding the Chairman of the Authority
c. To set up Windermere project group as described in paragraph 3 of the report
d. Members of the Windermere Project Group, to include the Chairman and Deputy Chairman
e. To approve option 2 in Annexe c of report in dealing with requests to meet protesters

A resolution was passed to return to Part I of the meeting

Ed.
It is not known what lies were presented by the Corporate Communications Director [Mr Tony Wolfe] and Solicitor [Mr Matthew Neal] that made the Members of the Authority believe the website to require that "the Chief Constable and Special Branch and that the Home Office should be notified of the situation".

Is a member of the public highlighting the Authority's failure to fulfil (or even attempt to fulfil) their statutory obligations a threat to "the safety of staff and Members", is it a threat to national security?
The Authority's Members clearly believe so. These Members are un-elected and unaccountable.

The Authority Solicitor [Mr Matthew Neal] proceeded to threaten both myself and my website host [Demon Internet]; this site is now hosted in the USA.

Mr Matthew Neal is the same Solicitor who continued to ignore the issues I was raising and was quite willing to put peoples lives at risk by diverting them on to a Public Right of Way that the LDNPA knew to be completely unusable, this was potentially dangerous if you needed to get of the fells in a hurry.
 

489 Association of National Park Authorities
Decided To note the minutes of the meeting held on 4 December 2004

490 Corporate Plan 2004 - 2007

 The Performance Development Director explained that the report proposed a new three-year Corporate Plan. The key audience would be staff and Members. The plan would link higher-level policy to work on the ground, and assist us with future decisions on determining resourcing priorities.

Members agreed that this was a huge achievement for the Authority and commended staff who had developed the plan.

Members expressed the following concerns:

  • Whether all staff had been involved in developing the Service Plans. The Performance Development Director responded that work on the Corporate Plan was led from the top, however the whole of the management team had been involved. She assured Members that herself and the Corporate Development Director were planning to hold talks on the Corporate Plan, in order to involve staff and Members
  • Disappointed that the "State of the Park Report" was to be produced in 18 months time. The Corporate Operations Director [Mr Bob Cartwright] assured Members that a report would be produced within this financial year. He explained that progress had ......