Agenda and minutes

Resolved:  County Councillor Albert Atkinson and County Councillor Mrs Susie Charles were appointed Chair and Vice-Chair respectively for the 2018/2019 Municipal Year.

County Councillor Albert Atkinson welcomed all to the meeting.

Apologies were presented on behalf of the Committee members and officers as listed on page 1.

The Committee held a minutes silence in respect of Michael Helm who had passed away and had been a longstanding member of the Forest of Bowland.  Elliott Lorimer had attended his funeral along with many from various communities such as the Parish Council and Bridleways and Access.

Cathy Hopley, Scheme Manager, Pendle Hill Landscape Partnership introduced two short films that can be found on the Pendle Hill Project website which had been developed and launched at an event at the beginning of October.  Cathy reported that the videos had been well received and that the Heritage Lottery people were also in attendance at the launch.

15 projects were planned over the next four years and support for these had been received from the Heritage Lottery Fund, who also sent a report to the Partnership every three months.

County Councillor Atkinson enquired about the availability of bite size briefings for the Countryside Service.

Resolved:  That Cathy Hopley would forward details of the bite size briefings to County Councillor Atkinson.

Members are asked to consider any Pecuniary Interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the Agenda.

There were no disclosures of pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests.

Resolved:  The Committee approved the Constitution, Membership and Terms of Reference for 2018/2019.

Elliott Lorimer, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Principal Officer, informed the Board that the Bowland Sustainable Tourism Network had been replaced by the Bowland Experience and there had been a few changes of personnel also.  Bowland Experience needed to be included on the Joint Advisory Committee membership.

Resolved:  That Elliott Lorimer amend the membership to include the Bowland Experience.

Resolved:  That the Minutes of the meeting held on 19 April 2018 were agreed as a correct record.

Matters Arising

Planning Policy in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty

David Porter, Lancaster City Council updated the Committee that following the submission of the planning policy for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, they were still awaiting the planning inspectors report.  The examination hearing was successful in June, however, modifications were required to the policy, which had been submitted today and now awaited the outcomes within the next six weeks.  David would then write to all the Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the Country regards adopting the plan.

Resolved:  That David Porter would report on the outcome and provide an update at the next Joint Advisory Committee meeting in April 2019.

Great Northern Forest

Elliott Lorimer, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Principal Officer, notified the Committee that he had sent an email of support to the proposals, however, there had not been any follow up meeting as of yet.

Resolved:  That Elliott Lorimer would provide further update at the next Joint Advisory Committee in April 2019.

To mark the 100^th anniversary of the Armistice on Remembrance Sunday, there would be numerous beacon flames across the Forest of Bowland.

Marilyn Pilkington, Friends of Bowland reported that there had been three completed guided walks, 18 task days, an apple day at Ribchester Village Hall and there was one activity left.  They were now compiling activities for 2019.

County Councillor Turner commented on the Pendle Hill Landscape Project and in his role as Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing was glad to see this happening and encouraging the people of Lancashire to take part.  He recently attended a conference at Brockholes which was tackling inactivity and how to make activities more accessible and this was something that could be joined up with the Pendle Hill Landscape project.

Elliott Lorimer, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Principal Officer, presented the report on the revised estimates 2018/19 and revenue budget 2019/20.

a)  Revised Estimates 2018/19

The Revised Estimates took account of the changes in comparison with the Original Estimates.  The principal revision related to an estimated reduction in salary costs due to the vacancy from April to October 2018 for the Development Funding Officer.

The net effect of any changes allowed an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty 'Projects' programme totalling £89,870 to be delivered in 2018/19.

Since the last reporting in April 2018, the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Unit had been successful in obtaining £981,305 in additional funding to support delivery of projects within the area.

b)  Revenue Budget 2019/20

The attention of the Committee was drawn to the gross expenditure, income, net expenditure and additional resources of the Revenue Budget 2019/20 as detailed in the report.

Resolved:  That the Committee:

i)  Noted the 2018/19 Revised Estimates

ii)  Approved the 2019/20 Revenue Budget as set out in the report.

iii)  Subject to approval of (ii) above, requested the funding authorities to make appropriate provision in their Revenue Budgets.

Elliott Lorimer, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Principal Officer, presented the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Business Plan 2018-2021 to the Committee and highlighted the structure chart for the team (page 23) that was requested at the last meeting in April 2018.  The plan would guide the work of the Unit from 2018-2021 and the actions within it were linked directly to the implementation of the statutory Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Management Plan and links were shown against each action.  It was designed to be a rolling three year plan, which was reviewed and updated annually.  It should also be recognised that this plan relied on the work of other partner organisations, communities and individuals to achieve the successful delivery of the Plan and the long-term vision for the area.

If there was any further information required or queries, then please contact the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Unit.

Sandra Silk, Projects Officer, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Unit presented the Team Report to the Joint Advisory Committee which was included in the agenda pack.

There had been a big focus on the Pendle Hill Landscape project, however as could be seen from the report, still continued to deliver on other projects in the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

There were no issues arising from the report.

Cathy Hopley, Scheme Manager, Pendle Hill Landscape Partnership, tabled the Quarterly Progress Report to the Committee for July – September 2019, Year 1 Quarter 2 which was also supplied to the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Cathy briefed the Committee on the projects that had and are being carried out as detailed in the report.  Some of the highlights were detailed as below:

·  Restoring Footpaths and Repairing Peat Land on the Summit project – return to a future meeting with more information on this.

·  Sense of Place and Sustainable Tourism

·  Pendle Hill Foodie Foray event

·  Running a Community Grant Scheme

·  Providing Supported Activity Sessions for People Dealing with Mental Health Issues and Social Isolation

·  Creative Activities and a 'Radicals Trail'

·  Delivering Community Archaeology Session and Related Training for Interns and Volunteers

·  Outdoor Learning

·  Holding The Gatherings and Annual Events to Engage New Audiences

·  Coordinating Information and Publicity including the Pendle Hill project website.

The Committee were shown a short film on Archaeology which can be found here.

Sarah Robinson, Farming and Wildlife Officer, Pendle Hill Landscape Partnership, gave a presentation on the Pendle Hill Farmer Network and reported there were currently 98 Farmer Networks across the Country which were to encourage young farmers of the future.

Sarah Dornan, Countryside Access Officer, Pendle Hill Landscape Partnership, gave a presentation on the Summit and Path Restoration and showed a video, which can be found here.  The next phase of this project would be maintaining them.

Elliott Lorimer, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Principal Officer, updated the Board on the progress of the review of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Management plan and outlined the next steps in the process and progress so far as detailed in the report attached to the agenda.  There is a statutory requirement to review the plan every five years.  An on-line survey was held and over 300 responses were received on what worked well and what improvements could be made.

A draft report had been produced which would be formally consulted on and then the final report would be brought to an extra ordinary meeting of the Joint Advisory Committee in February/March 2019.  Once the Committee had agreed the Management Plan it would be presented to Cabinet to approve and adopt at the end of March 2019.

Resolved:  That the Committee:

i)  Noted the report and offered comments.

ii)  Approved the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Principal Officer to complete the consultation draft based on the version presented to the Committee and commence formal consultation in late November 2018.

iii)  Arrange an extra ordinary meeting to discuss the Management Plan Review for February/March 2019.

Elliott Lorimer, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Principal Officer, informed the Committee that the Government had formally announced the Glover Review of Designated Landscapes (Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and National Parks) which commenced in spring 2018. 

The Chair, Julian Glover, had convened a review panel with members drawn from countryside, land management and environmental sectors.  A call for evidence was made in October 2018, with the deadline for submissions being 18^th December 2018.  The National Association for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (including the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Partnership) would submit a response to this call for evidence (see attached).

In addition, the Chair, Julian Glover, had committed review panel members to make visits to all Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and National Parks during the review.  It was anticipated that the review panel would make a visit to the Forest of Bowland in early 2019.  Elliott would work with Defra to co-ordinate the visit if required and would contact Committee members if needed for the visit.

Resolved:  That Elliott Lorimer would submit a response on behalf of the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and circulate a draft of this to the Joint Advisory Committee.

Hen Harrier Update

There had been success with three nests with 11/13 chicks hatched and fledged all on United Utilities estates which was better than the previous two years, however there was still some way to go.  One tagged bird went missing early October.

Rural Crime Conference

The Rural Crime Conference would take place in November to discuss persecution and what could the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Partnership do to improve this.

An item of Urgent Business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the minutes, the Chairman of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.  Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any Members' intention to raise a matter under this heading.

The Chair reported that there had been no items of urgent business received.

The proposed dates and locations of the meetings to be held in 2019 are:

Thursday, 18 April 2019 in Wyre district, venue to be confirmed

Thursday, 24 October 2019 in Preston district, venue to be confirmed

The Committee noted that the next meetings would be held on:

Thursday, 18 April 2019 in Wyre District

Thursday, 24 October 2019 in Preston District

There would also be an extra ordinary meeting scheduled February/March time to discuss the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Management Plan 2019-2024.  Details would be forwarded as soon as a date had been confirmed.