Agenda item

-  Natural England – Access and Engagement Lead Advisor Martin Gilchrist Hampshire and Berkshire

-  LAF member event and training

Martin Gilchrist, Access and Engagement Lead Advisor with Natural England introduced the changes in structure at Natural England due to budget constraints.  He would now be the main conduit of information sharing across the region for LAF members and LAF officers.  His main role is to encourage people to enjoy the countryside, volunteering, diversity, green space and access to it and links to the health agenda. 

As the main LAF point of contact with Natural England his aim is to improve communication between the LAF’s he deals with and with Natural England. The LAF’s he deals with are; Slough, Windsor & Maidenhead, West Berkshire, Wokingham, Reading, Bracknell, Hampshire, Portsmouth & Southampton and the Isle of Wight The meeting agreed that new membership for the Slough LAF was a high priority and Martin would be able to provide advice and support in this.

The new proforma for the LAF annual report was now available and Martin would forward to JW as soon as possible.  This would allow easier and more cost effective reporting while still providing benchmarking and good practice data.

All members expressed interest in being trained and registered as MG explained the Huddle online national network site for LAF members.  MG also stated that the responses to the Richard Benyon consultation letter would be available by the end of Oct 2011.

There are plans for a LAF conference to be held in Reading sometime in Mar 2012.

Resolved   - MG would send annual report proforma, arrange for members to be registered on the Huddle and forward further details on the LAF conference when they become available.