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“In the spirit of community-led neighbourhood planning our ethos is to be transparent, proactive, respectful, collaborative, open, diverse, explorative and community-rooted.”

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Draft Minutes Look! St Albans 10th Representatives’ Group meeting held on Monday 21st May 2018 at 7.50pm in Suite 19,

STANTA Board Room Business Centre, 3 Soothouse Spring, St Albans, Herts AL3 6PF

For your assistance relevant extracts of our constitution pertaining Representatives’ Group meetings and AGM As per 5.2 REPRESENTATIVES' GROUP POWERS AND MEETINGS the full

extract from this section of our constitution is reproduced at the end of these minutes.

Those in Attendance Vanessa Gregory, James Gregory, Mel Hilbrown, John Metcalf, Anthony Oliver, Councillor Beric Read, Dan Fletcher, John Hoad, Efa Schmidt Vanessa Gregory Introduced and welcomed Efa Schmidt as a new volunteer for the Reps Group. 1) Apologies for absence Chris Debenham Anthony Oliver advised that he had been speaking to the Arc & Arc recently and they may wish to send a committee member to our future Reps Group meetings. Vanessa Gregory chair said they would be most welcome and she had already extended an invitation to the President of the Arc & Arc Sandy Walkington to observe our proceedings. 2) Conflicts of interest as per 6. of our constitution CONFLICT OF INTEREST Should any member of Look! St Albans or the Representatives' Group, or any associate partner or relative of such member, have a pecuniary or potential pecuniary interest in any city centre site of interest to Look! St Albans, that member should declare his or her

interest at or before the start of the meeting and not vote on any issue pertaining to that site. No conflicts were declared. 3) Approval of minutes from Reps Group meeting dated 9th October 2017 The minutes were approved with Anthony Oliver proposing acceptance and seconded by Mel Hilbrown. 4) Update by Dan Fletcher on ‘Our Ethical Collaboration Policy’ https://www.lookstalbans.org/uploads/2/7/7/4/27749191/our_ethical_collaboration_policy_27_10_2017.pdf and update regarding our policy for the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) which comes into effect on 25th May 2018. ‘Our Ethical Collaboration Policy’ was accepted with no further comment. Copies of Dan’s draft GDPR policy (Look! St Albans Privacy Policy) had been distributed to members of the Reps Group before this meeting. Comments were made that it was a very long policy and Dan pointed out that much is standard wording he has used and much may not be applicable to Look! however it is better to have a fuller version than be missing a key aspect. However Dan agreed to revisit and see if it could be shortened. A subsequent shortened version was produced and circulated and accepted. It is now on our website. https://www.lookstalbans.org/uploads/2/7/7/4/27749191/look_st_albans_privacy_policy__may_2018.pdf Dan was asked about specific training for Rep’s Group members it was thought not needed unless a specific member was to handle data. Dan did point out that all Rep’s Group members should read and understand the policy. Dan Fletcher also volunteered to be Data Controller of Look! Vanessa Gregory thanked Dan on behalf of Look! for all his hard work on our policies and for volunteering.

5) Report and end of financial year accounts 2017/18 prepared by Chris Debenham prior to him stepping down as Treasurer in April this year.

LOOK! ST ALBANS - OUR COMMUNITY VOICE ON DESIGN Report by the Treasurer for the period ended 31 March 2018

The financial year 2016/17 included income from donations and expenditure linked to the CCOS charrette. The financial year 2017/18 included no such activity so that income and expenditure were significantly lower than for the year before. Whilst there was not the direct focus of a charrette to assist with fundraising efforts, annual costs nevertheless had to be, and continue to need to be, met. The Summary of Receipts and Payments shows that there was a loss of £135.41 in the year in question, although the Cash at Bank figure in the Balance Sheet shows £2,434.92, a reduction also of £135.41 from the previous year. Turning to the Budget for 2018/19, whilst there is seemingly enough in the bank to cover comfortably Look!'s Annual costs of £1220.00, please see the note immediately after the Annual costs section of the Budget. With a further £900.00 of the monies currently held being allocated towards the next charrette - it is likely that a lot more would in reality be needed, as to which see the Likely charrette/workshop costs section of the Budget - there is in fact very little leeway, and the need for donations or grants towards the running of Look! and the costs of hosting charrettes remains. The Budget provides an indication, but we cannot of course know quite how much Look! might need to provide itself towards the total cost of a charrette. Particular thanks to County Councillor Charlotte Hogg for the Locality Budget Grant she provided to assist with the funding of Look!'s operations. April 2018 Christopher Debenham, Treasurer Look! St Albans - Our Community Voice on Design

LOOK! ST ALBANS - OUR COMMUNITY VOICE ON DESIGN

Summary of Receipts and Payments - year ended

31st March 2018

2017/18 2016/17 RECEIPTS Donations Public collections 60.68 46.00 Individuals 144.94 325.00 Locality Budget Grant 500.00 900.00 Corporate 6.66 712.28 3805.00 5076.00

PAYMENTS Public meetings Hire of premises 59.00 110.00 Charrette refreshments 0.00 812.26 AGM, etc, refreshments 44.94 42.88 Insurances 497.00 486.47 Website/social media 126.75 116.87 Printing/stationery 0.00 1971.48 Marketing 0.00 95.18 Subscriptions 120.00 847.69 50.00 3685.14 SURPLUS/(LOSS) for the year (£135.41) £1390.86

LOOK! ST ALBANS - OUR COMMUNITY VOICE ON DESIGN

Balance sheet at 31st March 2018 2017/18 2016/17 ASSETS Cash at bank 2434.92 2570.33 Represented by: ACCUMULATED FUND As at 31.03.17 2570.33 1179.47 Add surplus/(deficit) for year (135.41) 1390.86 As at 31.03.18 £2434.92 £2570.33

LOOK! ST ALBANS Budgeted Expenditure 2018/19

Annual costs (i.e. costs likely to be payable annually regardless of whether Look! St Albans is involved in a charrette/workshop) Indemnity insurance policy premium £550.00 Subscriptions to other bodies, e.g. CVA 80.00 Printing, postage and stationery 50.00 Website - hosting, domain name 130.00 - maintenance 100.00 Educational Placemaking events 250.00 Hire of premises, e.g. AGM 60.00 £1220.00 N.B. The Cash at Bank figure held at Barclays as at 31 March 2018 was £2434.92. Of that sum, £900.00 has been allocated/ringfenced towards Look!'s next charrette. In addition, the above Annual costs total of £1220.00 needs to be serviced. Likely charrette/workshop costs (per charrette) (i.e. those costs Look! St Albans should expect that it may have to pay on the occasion of each charrette - assuming a one day charrette) Publicity and printing costs £2000.00 Venue - hire for charrette 250.00 Venue - hire for public meeting (pre charrette) 125.00 - hire for public meeting (post charrette) 125.00 Refreshments - allow 850.00 £3350.00 Indicative costs for independent external facilitators (per charrette) The lead facilitator is expected to negotiate costs directly with the developer/landowner who would normally pay the majority of those costs. However, Look! may in the future be required to meet some of these costs if for example we deem it necessary to appoint a facilitator ourselves. We therefore have a cost indication that a senior technical facilitator's daily rate ranges from £800 to £950 per day. The length of time the initial commission takes would vary greatly and depends on many factors including the amount of preparatory work, the size and complexity of the site and whether it were in single or multiple ownership. Other facilitators are often required as may

be further specialists. The facilitator has to spend post charrette time drawing together all the material from the design charrette and producing a debriefing document. On occasion, the developer/landowner might request a detailed report which would add to any facilitators' costs. The Reps group accepted this financial up date and Vanessa Gregory will thank Chris for all his hard work he is truly missed. 6) Search for a Treasurer any progress? The Reps Group have not yet found a volunteer, Vanessa Gregory expressed her concerns and Mel Hilbrown and Dan Fletcher both said they would make inquiries in their organisation to see if we could attract a new Treasurer. 7) Expenses: It has become accepted practice that the officers regularly paid for expenses, such as cost of insurance in the initial year and subsequently costs of tickets and attending functions on behalf of Look! St Albans out of their own pockets. It is time to review this practice and discuss arrangements for the future. For this item Vanessa Gregory Chair handed over the meeting to Mel Hilbrown to Chair the meeting which continued with a wide range of topics discussed including expenses. Vanessa explained that especially in the last year she had absorbed a number of expenses whilst flying the flag for Look!. These included tickets for Gala Awards evenings, which weren’t cheap. In addition, our articles had appeared in professional journals and as a result she had been asked to speak at relevant conferences. These have raised Look!’s profile and enhanced our reputation both at home and nationally, which was most encouraging and in line with Looks! purpose to share knowledge with others. Appreciating that she would continue to bear the majority of the costs in the future some help such as car mileage allowance would be helpful. Recently she had been asked to speak about Look! at The Historic Towns and Villages Forum Conference in Oxford. BOB MK again in Oxford but to a different audience and now she had an invitation to speak at a Royal Town Planning conference in Leeds at the end of June. This she felt was a huge feather in our cap and sent out the message that Look! St Albans was a major innovator in collaborative planning. Look! will have a much enhanced reputation as future developers coming to St Albans are likely to be large developers with head offices outside of St Albans and will likely to know from our higher national profile that we are a professional organisation, albeit community led.

Some members of Rep’s Group expressed views that they could not see any value in our taking Look! outside of St Albans, they suggested there was no benefit to St Albans. Therefore why should Look! pay for such expenses other than expenses for speaking locally. Others took the view there was merit in these speaking engagements, though as we are a community group we should ask for at least a donation from those asking for us to speak. Vanessa thought that a good idea Vanessa and others expressed views that it was good that her speaking had raised Looks profile nationally. Vanessa explained that she has tried to request expenses from others but admitted she has not pushed it hard. The Vice Chair expressed the view that Look! were really a “ tin pot organisation” in view of our small balance sheet we that we would never be large. This view was shared by a few others. Whilst others believed passionately using that phrase undermined our hard earned reputation and was a derogatory term to use. Looks! balance sheet is not a measure of our success. One member suggested that Look! should speak more to local organisations such as the Abbey Precinct/ Aboyne Lodge/Verulam Road who all meet together regularly. Vanessa informed the group that she was in contact with residents groups and other local organisations on a regular basis already and had spoken at one AGM. It was suggested that we should ask to speak at the councils City Neighbourhood Forum. Council representative on the group said they would explore this possibility. After some discussion it was agreed that Vanessa would keep a spreadsheet of expenses she had incurred. It would useful to see what actual expenses Look! have and if we are in strong financial position in the future may be able to consider paying some expenses. Vanessa agreed to try harder to negotiate expenses should she be asked to speak in future. (Since this meeting she did claim travel expenses to Leeds, but has not had a response yet). 8) Updates on events and activities, including fundraising from individual Representative Group members acting as ambassadors for Look! St Albans since last group meeting. Preferably a short synopsis should be circulated to Reps Group members ahead of meeting. No specific updates were received. The following other matters were discussed.

Dan Fletcher had attended an event called Block busters/Mindcraft where youngsters were encouraged to build models of buildings using three dimensional Lego. Beric Read also mentioned a similar activity at community events called Silicon Abbey. The Rep’s Group thought these activities could be helpful in encouraging youngsters and we should investigate them. For the forthcoming AGM Anthony Oliver offered to give a presentation on the work he has completed on “Fishpool Street Design Standards” Vanessa Gregory thanked Anthony for volunteering and said we already had two speakers lined up. However as we had accommodated three speakers last year she was sure we could do the same again this year. 9) Chair’s update to hopefully be circulated ahead of meeting. “Sorry as usual I was unable to circulate this beforehand. Time, seems always to be an enemy! I try to make this as brief as I can, but this is for the record and for our supporter’s to read and know that we are far from inactive. It is fair to say that Look! St Albans is getting known and most importantly what we do, both locally and wider afield! Local people are getting to know about us, as I find out when on the rare occasions I get out and meet people in a social settings. Radio Verulam has been a star for giving me slots on various programmes and seems to really understand what we are about. You may have seen local newspaper articles pertaining to CCOS. It would have been nice to have been quoted without being cut off in mid-sentence, but on the whole the coverage wasn’t bad. Do though view online the article about Oak Tree Gardens and video by Anne Suslak of The Herts Ad, it is excellent. In the last few months I have had the opportunity of sharing the Look! St Albans story with others at home and in the country. Before Christmas I was given the opportunity to share what we have been up to in St Albans with Civic Voice regional forum in Birmingham. In January we hosted the University of Hertfordshire Master of Science students in Sustainable Planning and Environmental Management on their field trip in St Albans, together with their tutors Georgia Wrighton Planning, Programme Leader and Frances Harris, where I gave a presentation on the two design charrettes we have held.

Chris kindly escorted the students and the lecturers on the walking tour of the two sites. Very kindly Pat helped with refreshments. I couldn’t physically have done it without them and James, as I was in the full grips of the winter bug and was far from my best. Janet Bruce Chair of FoodSmiles St Albans came and gave students an excellent talk on what they have achieved in the city centre and their two other sites in Harpenden and Hixberry Lane, St Albans and joined Chris on the tour showing the students what they had achieved on the way. I had excellent feedback from the University. On Tuesday 20th March I gave a presentation The Historic Towns and Villages Forum ‘Supporting Historic High Streets: The Ingredients for Success in the 21st Century - Part 2’ held at Kellogg College, Oxford. As part of Sustainable St Albans week I gave a presentation at BRE on 23rd April. We had a good turn out for a day time event and thanks to go to Charlene Clear & John O'Brien for a fantastic guided tour of the park. I had been asked by The Prince’s Foundation to give a brief taste of what Look! St Albans had achieved at the Government’s Design Quality Conference 2018 on 25th April. However I would have bookended with a local authority with whom The Foundation had worked and they unfortunately pulled out and so the format wouldn’t have worked. I followed proceedings on Twitter and it seems in our absence the only community based group invited was Civic Voice. I am due to give a presentation to BOB-MK in Oxford on Tuesday 5th June. BOB-MK was formed in 2004. There are 14 subscribing local authorities. The network’s activities are coordinated by a six-strong steering committee comprising four local authority officers, an architect and the network coordinator. I have been asked by Dr Lindsay Smales of Leeds Beckett University, to talk at Yorkshire RTPI Conference on ‘Design, Conservation and the Built environment’ on Thursday 21st June. This has yet to be firmed up and is very close to our AGM. However if developers wanting to redevelop sites in central St Albans are getting to know who we are and what we do is a moot point, as I still get emails asking Look! to go along to a ‘consultation’ led by a PR company. I think we will have to look at this on another occasion as there has been plenty to discuss on this evening’s agenda. After a rather slow start tomorrow will see our fourth site visit to Oak Tree Gardens. I had hoped for more news updates from Morgan Sindall pertinent to construction methods and craftsmen used. I have received some information but not as much as I hoped. However as they have lost seven weeks work due to the bad weather over the winter and yet are only one week behind schedule this is to be applauded, and Paul Barrett site manager and his

team have been incredibly kind, helpful and informative on the site visits, I am therefore extremely grateful and the site visits have been thoroughly worthwhile! I’m not planning to arrange anymore for a while, unless there is demand, as most people who have wanted to visit have. Also I understand others have arranged site visits so Paul’s forbearance is commendable. I think it fair to say to see our concept plan come to life was an ambition of Look! as far back as 2013 and has made all the hard work we have put in over the years well worth every hour. I understand the New Museum will open in early June. I think Look! can be extremely proud in our part in helping to ensure quite a few million pounds will go towards the project. This, I feel, is somewhat a well-kept secret! However, with all the positive stuff that is going on, life has a habit of coming up with unforeseen surprises and not always pleasant. Some key members of Team Look! haven’t had the best of times recently on health issues. Somehow we have between us managed to keep the show on the road, but as you know, as discussed earlier, Chris has been forced to step down as Treasurer. I know he would not have done so unless there were very good reasons, as his commitment to Look! and personal support, advice and encouragement and dry wit shown to me has been immeasurable and at times kept me going. Chris thankfully will remain on The Reps Group. For the first time, especially in the early months of this year, I have had to put Look! second and yet somehow keep appointments and make presentations when not well myself. We basically need more willing hands to make lighter work, hence my call for people who could offer about four hours a month and become part of Team Look! Efa responded to a Tweet literally within a couple of hours and I am delighted to have her on board. Please please do pass the word around. If you take a look at some other groups they have webmasters, minute secretaries, graphic designers, social media gurus and others who take on tasks that don’t necessarily take a lot of time, however if one person is doing most of that work then it becomes unsustainable and that is what is happening with Look! even though fellow officers and Dan are all doing their upmost some with full time jobs. Some community groups also have membership fees which we can’t and don’t have and therefore we have the added task of fundraising and applying for Grants. We have been extremely lucky that three County Councillors have helped in the past with funds from their locality budgets, but we can’t guarantee that money each year. As I couldn’t take the lead on this towards the end of last year we missed out on two and fortunately one offered earlier this year.

I’m afraid we do need volunteers to liaise, but take such matters forward sometimes without heavy involvement from me. Again Dan has achieved much in this area, but he had his only health issues on top of his work, so we do need backup. Here for the record are some diary dates and events I have attend on behalf of Look! 20th – 22nd October James and I attended Civic Voice annual convention held in Wakefield. Look! St Albans is an Associate Member of Civic Voice 9th November delighted to attend CVS AGM and relaunch celebration as Community Central Held meetings with Morgan Sindall on 9th November and 15th March 2018 Site visits to Oak Tree Gardens 23rd March, 9th April, 2nd May and tomorrow 22nd May Discussions with Sustainable St Albans, BRE about an event for Sustainable St Albans week through most of December and into January culminating in a meeting with Charlene Clear on 8th January. As mentioned 19th January hosted a field trip for students from University of Hertfordshire 6th February attended St Albans Strategic Partnership Community Conference. 8th February attended by invitation from Susan Parham University of Hertfordshire ‘Making Space For Food In Hatfield’ report launch and discussion. Always something to learn for St Albans from Dr Parham! 6th March officer’s drinks 13th March and 8th May Portcullis House ‘All Party Parliamentary Group for Civic Societies’ discussing ‘Will the NPPF Review deliver the homes the country needs’ and ‘Future of Conservation Areas’ speakers included Richard Blyth, Head of Policy RTPI and James Caird Institute of Historic Building Conservation 20th March as already mentioned presentation at HTVF event in Oxford, 5th April Interview on Radio Verulam with Amanda Yorwerth on Environment Matters re our BRE event. Thanks to Dan I think. I become an individual member of The Urban Design Group. You may recall we featured in their periodical. On 11th April James and I attended an event hosted by them asking that the “Government to get serious on design’’ in response to the draft NPPF. Apart from the concerns voiced about the lack of clarity in the NPPF on design I learnt that detailed local plans are no longer required. Something I found extremely alarming.

23rd April Joint event with BRE for Sustainable St Albans week. Our thanks to BRE and Catherine Ross for the suggestion and introduction. 1st May Kindly I was invited to the celebration of the success of Sustainable St Albans week at Lussmanns. A very nice treat. Tomorrow site visit to Oak Tree Gardens then head down to prepare for two presentations Oxford and Leeds and our AGM on 25th June.” 10) Chair thanked those attending and closed the meeting at 21:58. Some members adjourned to nearest hostelry for refreshments and discussions. These minutes were approved by those present and signed by the chairman at the Representatives’ Group meeting held on………………… 2018 ……………………………………………………… Chair Look! St Albans Our Community Voice on Design 5.2 REPRESENTATIVES' GROUP POWERS AND MEETINGS Members of the Representatives’ Group shall individually and collectively promote the Ethos, Purpose and Aims of Look! St Albans (a) The Look! St Albans Representatives’ Group may exercise the powers to:- (i) invite and receive contributions, and raise funds where appropriate, to finance the work of Look! St Albans and to open a Bank Account to manage such funds (ii) publicise and promote the work of Look! St Albans and organise meetings, trips, training courses, seminars, workshops or similar events (iii) share information locally on good practice, via email, Flickr, Twitter and other low cost social media (iv) work with groups of a similar nature and exchange information, advice and knowledge with them, including co-operation with other voluntary bodies, charities, statutory and non-statutory organisations (v) enlist or employ such staff (who shall not be members of the Representatives’ Group) as are necessary to conduct activities to meet the Ethos, Purpose and Aims (vi) take any form of action that is lawful, which is necessary to achieve the Ethos, Purpose and Aims of Look! St Albans (b) The Representatives’ Group shall comprise representatives of those groups, organisation or individuals who are referred to in paragraphs 5.1 (b) and 5.1 (d) (c) The Representatives’ Group will meet at least twice a year for formal meetings with the expectation that it will meet on at least a further two occasions a year informally

(d) At least seven days’ notification must be given to its members for a Representatives’ Group Meeting (e) The Representatives’ Group Meeting will elect a Chairperson, Deputy Chairperson, Treasurer and Secretary, and the procedure for the election of officers will be determined by the Representatives’ Group. (f) The Representatives’ Group may appoint working parties from within or outside the list of supporters of Look! St Albans to consider and advise on specific matters. (g) Supporters of Look! St Albans may attend as observers any meeting of the Representatives Group and the Chairperson may invite an observer or observers who are not supporters or members of the Representatives' Group to attend, but they may not vote. The Representatives’ Group reserves the right to exclude observers where a majority of Representatives’ Group members present deem that this is necessary for the effective conduct of the Group’s business. (h) At least one third of the then current members of the Representatives’ Group (of whom at least two are to be officers also) must be present at the start of any Representatives’ Group meeting for it to be declared quorate. (i) Voting shall be by a show of hands on a majority basis. In the case of a tied vote, the Chairperson or an appointed Deputy shall make the final decision. (j) It shall be the responsibility of the Chairperson to chair all meetings, or a designated Deputy in his/her absence. All meetings must be minuted and the minutes must be accessible to all who live in the City and District of St. Albans and interested parties. (k) The Representatives’ Group may take appropriate steps, including purchasing insurance, to indemnify its members against any liabilities resulting from their work for Look! St Albans. In addition 8. ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING (AGM) AND OTHER SPECIAL MEETINGS (a) The AGM shall take place no later than three months after the date of the anniversary of the inaugural AGM and subsequent AGMs. At least twenty eight days’ notice must be given before the AGM takes place.

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