Minutes of the meeting of Linlithgow Climate Challenge
Low Port Centre – Upstairs Lounge
Monday 11th January at 7.30

Present Peter Fairweather, Mel McEwan, William Ross, Alan Brown, Lesley Anderson, Dorte Gailani, Sheila Redfern, Corinne Anderson, Jenny Hammond, John Fleming, Peter Roberts, Kerstin Bonau, Tobias Bauer
Apologies John Buckley, Dave du Feu, Rose Hill, Elizabeth Ross, George Adam

1. Welcome was extended to all who had come out on the snowy night. This was followed by a short Message from Tokyo which was the TV footage shot by the programme maker for Tokyo Television Company in the lead up to Copenhagen showing the farmers market and home energy audits.

2. Minutes and Matters arising from 7th December were accepted with no matters arising.

3. Finance Report was delivered by William who highlighted the following

• The situation from the three film nights was expenditure of £930 and income of £372
• The decision to keep the P.O. Box system in operation for a further year to facilitate another town survey at an initial cost of £152
• The bulk of expenditure has been salaries of staff which came to £4537 an increase due to part timers temporary appointments which will be carried on to the end of the financial year.
• The effect of this decision will be to take up much of the slack from other budget headings as we make preparations for further developments if the new submission to CCF is successful.
• The budget surplus from the Feast will be available to ease this situation.

The point raised about the film nights with stalls etc was expensive and there are alternative ways to run these events which will not be as expensive in the future with smaller venues and less accompanying services.

4. CCF submission

An over view from the Co-ordinator
Alan gave a break down of the various aspects of the new bid which was agreed as a very positive development. There has been received a comprehensive input from various people, especially the sub groups and LCAG. The details of the submission were briefly described by Alan and from the various sub groups.
The main points were

• To achieve development in the house energy audits with a target of 1000 house, more paid time will be needed to assist the volunteer effort.
• The transport strategy from Springfield, with maps of cycle and pathways and local bus service bus will be developed and subsequently plans for another district in the town, further paid time will also be needed with publicity and community awareness promotion.
• Building on the planned food events there is the need to maintain the motivation and further development in aspects such as Community Supported Agriculture CSA, possible land share schemes etc. Further paid time will be needed to realise the potential.
• Support for infrastructure costs to the allotment group, LADAS, if and when they get land.
• The need to maintain a base for the public advice centre and also a work place to coordinate paid and volunteer efforts over the coming year.
• It is not expected that there will be any news forthcoming until well into March.
• Funding for the present posts and additional 3 part time positions has been requested.

5. Resilient and Sustainable Linlithgow 2010 – 2015 5 Year plan

There was much discussion about the draft 5 year plan and how this vision, rather than a plan might serve the purpose of setting into context our submission to CCF and then be further developed to act as input to other groups in the town developing their particular perspectives on how Linlithgow might develop in the next few year. It is hoped that the Civic Trust review of their previous plan and the potential for Aspires developing some ideas may be able to be brought together into one vision for the town. Help was offered from Tobias to work with Alan to develop both a comprehensive and focussed document and also a smaller leaflet/pamphlet for wider distribution to raise awareness and interest from the general community within a 4 week deadline – the next meeting on the 15th February.

6. Future Events

Food event ideas for the 20th February were sketched out and there is a planning meeting of a wider range of potential participants next week Wednesday 20th January at the Low Port Centre.

The Energy Showcase has had difficulty finding a suitable date and the 1st May was suggested and then realised that this is a traditional holiday weekend so lowering the potential participation of the community. The sub group were to review this at their next meeting on Thursday morning.

7. AOCB

support for Forth Diet coalition was discussed and agreed to write a supporting letter for their submission to CCF as this initiative would augment and dovetail into our potential ideas and actions on the food front.

The public enquiry into the new Forth Road crossing was reviewed with information shared which indicated that it would only be for cars, that the progress being made in sorting the faults in the existing bridge were move along quite well and in addition if this bridge goes ahead there will be little or no resources for any other travel related investment for years to come. It is not wise to be promoting further car use and it was agreed to encourage individuals to write with their objects to the proposals.

Alan indicated that the next addition for the Resilience Newsletter is now due and he would welcome ideas and text as soon as possible.

8. Date of next meetings were confirmed as the third Monday of the month due to holidays and none availability of the Lounge.

15th February will have a presentation on Renewable energy from Dr. John Buckley
15th March will focus on Food and related issues following the Food event on the 20th February
19th April will hopefully update the planning for the next years’ work following a successful response to the CCF submission.