Meeting documents

For discussion

Members reviewed and discussed the Constitution.

The following comments were made.

·         In terms of meeting attendance, Conservation Officers from some of the District Councils have not attended a meeting of the Forum for a while. There is nothing in the Constitution to advise where the business of the Forum goes to i.e. are the minutes fed back into the County Council.  There is the worry that the Forum alone cannot achieve very much.  Should the minutes of the Forum be reported back to relevant Cabinet Members?

·         Input from non-voting members is very important.  At the moment this is an area which is lacking.  Conservation Officers have their own Forums for feedback. 

·         The Forum has a lot of good knowledge and information which used to go via District Officers.

·         Wycombe District Council is losing their Conservation Officer.  There is concern about continuity and a loss of existing knowledge.

·         Buckinghamshire Historic Environment is a useful Forum.  It cannot make decisions but there is the danger of losing the interchange of information and ideas as attendance reduces.

·         How can the Forum be made more attractive bearing in mind Local

Authority cuts?

·         The concern is how attractive can the Forum be if there is no longer input from District Council Officers?

·         There was a debate about three years ago about having one big meeting rather than two smaller ones which would make it important to attend.

·         The Forum meeting coincides with the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire & Berkshire (BOB) Conservation Group meeting in Oxford which Conservation Officers attend.  It has been agreed that the 2015 meetings dates for the Forum will be sent to English Heritage who organise the BOB meetings. 

Action: Julia Wise

·         In terms of reporting back to the County Council and Cabinet Members, the understanding was the expectation that Members of the Forum would report back to their own organisations.  Wider distribution of the minutes needs to be ensured.

·         The minutes of the Forum are distributed informally.  There is no reporting structure.

·         One benefit of the Forum is the mixture of Members and Officers.  The needs to be some element of cascading information to Members which they wouldn’t otherwise receive.

It was proposed that the minutes of the Forum are sent to the Heads of Planning Departments in Local Authorities.

Action: Clerk

The elected representatives from Planning and Transportation and Community Services are to meet with the relevant Cabinet Members on a three monthly basis to provide a report on the Forum.

Action: Warren Whyte/Bill Chapple

In terms of additional members missing from the Forum, an invitation will be extended to the Conservation Officer, The Royal Institution of British Architects for Buckinghamshire to attend the Forum as a non-voting Member. It would also be appropriate to invite the Officer from Buckinghamshire Conservation Trust to attend Forum meetings as the Trust receives land for Quarrendon.

Action: Chairman

Members of the Forum agreed the following amendments to the Constitution.

Part 7 – Quorum and Procedure

Add - Attendees of the Forum meetings are to be reminded about their duty to disseminate information appropriately.

Part 8 – Admission of the Press

Title to be amended to Admission of the Media and Public

The wording of the paragraph is to be amended to ‘the Press and members of the public shall be admitted to meetings of the Forum unless excluded by resolution of the Forum’.

Part 9ii – Variations of the Constitution is to be deleted

It was agreed that these changes would be ratified at the March meeting of the Forum.

Action: Forum Members

A copy of the revised version of the Constitution is to be circulated to Members of the Forum.

Action: Clerk