WELSH COUNCIL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Minutes of WCEC meeting held on Saturday 4th July 2015
At Wales Office, Cardiff
No.
Actions
Present
88/15
Members – Alan Norton (Chair), Gwyn Lewis (Vice-Chair), Diane Davies (Hon
Secretary), Max Grant, George Allingham, Vernon Davies (Vice-President), Chris
Hodgson (Vice-Chair), Benedict Southworth (CEO Ramblers GB).
Staff – Rebecca Brough
89/15
AN welcomed Rebecca Brough (RB) to the meeting.
90/15
Apologies: Denis McAteer, John Cook, Roger Fisher, Maggie Thomas, Richard
Trueman, Ron Williams, Angela Charlton.
91/15
Declaration of Interest: none.
92/15
Announcements: none.
93/15
The minutes of 16th May 2015 were agreed and are to go on the website.
94/15
Action Sheet (61/15): Minutes of meetings held February and April are on website.
95/15
Action Sheet (63/15): 2015 Constitution is on website.
96/15
Action Sheet (64/15): Powys Area has indicated that they did not wish to provide a
programme of walks at Meifod2015.
97/15
Action Sheet (65/15) Cambrian Way: Papers circulated by MG were discussed. MG
to provide Action sheet which shows how actions are being prioritised.
98/15
Action Sheet (67/15): Date of Senedd launch of Manifesto2016 has been circulated.
99/15
Action Sheet (68/15) FoI Campaign: E-mail to Areas and Groups has been sent and
some feedback received. Noted that IPROW has sent a survey to all LAs and this
might remove need for more detailed work on FoI request.
100/15
Action Sheet (69/15): No reply from Huw Irranca Davies to third e-mail. Agreed to
leave further action until nominations for next years VPs.
101/15
Action Sheet (70/15): Circulation list of “Summary of what happened at WC2015”
has been checked.
102/15
Action Sheet (74/15) WC2016: A paper showing detailing arrangements and costings
of up to £5085 for holding WC2016 at Trinity St David, Lampeter Campus was
circulated. This venue was agreed and it was also agreed that it should be late
Saturday plus all-day Sunday event. In addition it was agreed that GA should look at
venues in Pembrokeshire for 2017.
103/15
Action Sheet (75/15): Draft of updated Welsh Language Policy still to be circulated.
104/15
Action Sheet (75/15): Migration from Walking from Health to Ramblers walks has
been circulated.
105/15
Action Sheet (77/15): Those yet to sign Trustee Declaration of Eligibility to be
reminded.
WCEC Minutes of meeting held 4th July 2015
DD
MG
DD
GA
AC
DD
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106/15
Action Sheet (78/15): Motion on Officer for northern half of Wales passed at
WC2015: no further progress at this stage.
AC
107/15
Action Sheet (79/15): Motion on Width of footpath passed at WC2015: awaiting
favourable moment to put motion to NRW.
AC
108/15
Action sheet (80/15): Motion on review of Area and Group structures passed at
WC2015: AN to circulated notes and agreed actions from sub-group meeting which
was held the previous day.
109/15
Action sheet (81/15): Co-option onto WCEC: No response to AN’s letter to Area
Chairs.
110/15
WCEC to encourage Areas and Groups to use their editable pages on Ramblers
website and to sign up to the Newsletter: no further action on this issue.
111/15
Staffing: BS to provide a paper on core staffing and impact on Wales Office budget.
Agreed that WCEC should underwrite up to £9000 in respect of the present two
temporary posts in order to provide financial stability.
112/15
AC circulated the latest information on the Business Plan. The three red-lighted
initiatives (Vision & two on DofE Accreditation) were discussed and the delays
experienced in progressing these areas accepted. The orange item on Wales
Coastal path was also raised; it was agreed that Areas and Groups should be asked
to indicate if they know of any problems along their section of coastline.
AN
BS
JC
RB
113/15
BWW2016: MG raised the issue that its spread over a month diluted its impact. It to
be on the agenda for next meeting.
DD
114/15
WCEC Wikki Training: training to be provided at next meeting in Cardiff.
AC
115/15
AOB (i): Area Chairs to be invited to WCEC meetings so as to improve
communications
DD
116/15
AOB (ii): Devolution sub-committee meets on 5th August to discuss renewal of the
Devolution Agreement. GL will issue paper requesting advice and comment on
issues that need to be raised at this meeting.
GL
117/15
AOB (iii): AN raised the issue of involvement of WCEC in BP process. Agreed that
a session (preferably the evening before) was needed before the May 2016 WCEC
meeting in order to allow detailed discussion of the draft BP
118/15
AOB (iv): Thanks were expressed to members of staff for their work in running the
training sessions at the Volunteer Day on 3rd July.
119/15
AOB (v): It was agreed that a video-conference meeting needed be held in early
September to feed into the Budget process.
120/15
Vision: BS gave a presentation on the current state of the Vision document. He
agreed to circulate this first draft for members to give feedback and to provide
updates every two weeks that includes feedback received. There will then be a
further presentation at the September meeting. It was agreed that the Vision should
be launched at WC2016 after having been circulated widely prior to that.
121/15
AN’s paper on where WC & WCEC should be by 2018 was discussed. There were
no arguments made against the statements of intent in the paper.
122/15
Dates of next meetings: dates set out on the circulated Agenda were confirmed.
Signed.. Alan Norton....(Chairman)
WCEC Minutes of meeting held 4th July 2015
ALL
AN
AN/DD
BS
ALL
28th September 2015 .......(date)
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