Minutes ofTechnical CommitteeMeeting14th October 201413:30-17:00

1 / Apologies:
Apologies from Roger Kent, Christine Tudor, Stuart Ryder, Mark Turnbull, Romy Rawlings
Attending:
Anna Dekker (AD)
Colin Moore (CM) - Chair
Elaine Cresswell (EC)
Jon Rooney (JR)
Marc van Grieken (MvG)
Head of Technical & Professional Services (Simon Odell) HofT&P
Chief Executive Officer (Phil Mulligan) CEO
Attending by phone:
Bill Blackledge (BB)
2 / Notes of Teleconference 21st August
Signed-offfor content subject to HofT&P revising numbering. / HofT&P
3a / BIM
AD presented the current position with regards to the Book and Masterclasses, which were firmly on track, and the PDTs. There were a number of uncertainties about the PDTs which it was not yet possible to resolve. These include: how many there would be; who would and who was best to own them (given the NBS project to develop an industry tool, and past experiences such as Helios and Constructionline); who would cover the costs of maintaining them (ditto). AD suspected these might be out of LI and even PDT steering group hands. The HofT&P sat on the PDT Steering Group and would sound out the views of other (larger) players and share this before the LI position was developed. This would then influence whether the LI would want to subscribe to the CIBSE-led PDT management system towards which Carl Collins was seeking a contribution.
As to the next immediate stage, developing the remaining PDTs, it was understood that these would be produced in draft by the BIM group following the recent consultation round and that then they would be available for ‘public’ consultation which AD would lead and was minded to facilitate, with Staff Team and BIM group support, via a workshop.
The Staff Team move to develop a monthly newsletter was welcomed, as was the prospect of more guidance/advice notes from the BIM group.
The matter of sign-off by TC of outputs was deferred until the next meeting. BIM group view was that it had delegated authority and TC was adequately represented by AD & RR but MT’s previous advice about the need for formal endorsement for liability purposes was noted.
Emerging topics needing attention include BIM & GIS.
The Committee supported AD’s involvement in the TSB Tool development on behalf of the LI, welcoming the inroads she had made on the profession’s behalf. / HofT&P
AD
HofT&P/AD/RR
AD
3b / Visualisation
MvG gave a presentation on the theory of and role of visualisation and some of the issues that had emerged in practice and as a result of the Highland Council not having withdrawn its guidance once SNH had produced guidance in relation to wind-farms. In particular there was significant concern that local planning authorities might not only adopt the Highland Council guidance for their own wind-farm assessments but that this guidance might come to be applied to all kinds of development, including small-scale. As with the position being taken in GLVIA3 there was a need for proportionality.
In association with revisiting LI guidance note 1/11 MvG proposed developing short accessible guidance, which would be for all forms of development, to guide development managers and others about taking proportionate approaches with the application of any formal guidance that has been published for the more challenging issues such as windfarms, skylines etc. This would take the opportunity to explain the place of sophisticated 3D modelling and simulations.
It was agreed that at his earliest convenience MvG should proceed to the next stage of drafting out what this might look like and sound out a working group, which should include a representative of Natural England and possibly RIBA. BB was concerned how the guidance could properly address movement but considered it would help planning authorities.
Given the agreed raised importance of this work programme item MvG could rely on some support from the Staff Team. / MvG
3c / Lighting
Karl’s report was noted. In particular the situation was noted that the ILP guidance had suddenly appeared to suggest that lighting impact assessments should be part of LVIA. In discussions with ILP, including RR, it had been agreed that there was a need to work towards a shared jointly agreed approach over lighting impacts and their assessments which built on the ILP understanding of lighting and the LI understanding of landscape. In the long term this would be a definitive view which would cover e.g. skyglow and nightscape character, but in the short term two measures were being proposed: Interim guidance from the LI and an event which brought the two professions together to help convergence and also flush out landscape professionals involved with lighting.
Plans for the event, probably in January, were underway and being drawn up with the help of Education & Membership. Meanwhile KC would flesh out the ideas for interim guidance and follow up on the event including discussions with Education & Membership staff. / KC
3d / Research at the Landscape Schools
The Committee noted the research report. It recognised the environment in which University research was undertaken but also noted the increasing desire that outcomes from research would form part of course evaluations. The committee expressed a strong desire to help schools undertake research of real relevance to the sector and then to help them share this.
BB recirculated his previous thinking for TC members to add to where appropriate and for HofT&P to share with Education & Membership colleagues.
It was observed that Lisa McKenzie at Edinburgh University was making a bid for £3M to research into landscape change. / All
3e / Procurement
JR tabled his paper (which had missed the mailout from the staff team) One interesting point that had emerged was that BIM compliance would not be mandatory for small works.
JR went through some of the key points of what he explained was a very ‘technical’ consultation. It was agreed that this could be submitted as the LI response. HofT&P also agreed to circulate the Procurement information JR had offered at the previous meeting. / HofT&P
4 / Council and Board updates
The CEO set the paper in a wider context, celebrating recent achievements and leading a wider discussion about the direction of travel the Leadership Retreat had settled on but how matters were still very open to discussion and the importance of forthcoming meetings such as Council and AGM. It was agreed that the LI needed to become more attractive (and in some cases ‘cool’). A small point raised by EC was that responding to tweets, not just broadcasting them, was the current norm and that some organisations offered webpages that learned reader preferences and customised content accordingly.
5 / Matters arising from previous meeting
No. / Item / Report / Details / Action
5a / Landscape Character / HofT&P / CT had resent her original paper to Simon but not yet updated it. Simon has spoken with Carys and then CT to explain the LI would have liked to publish Carys’ rewrite of CAX84. However CT has the core of this coming out as an NE publication and the main residue, case studies, she considers could be published by LI. The Director of P&C had recommended doing so via the case study section of the website
5b / BREEAM / EC / EC reported on some developments. She needed to step back for a few months for personal reasons and KC agreed to pick up her position once the Water Position Statement was out of the way. / KC
5c / Water / KC / KC was developing succession proposals for the parts of the Water Task group’s work that were not being handled under the PPLI’s chairmanship. It was suggested that Practices were mobilised by the Staff Team to comment on the RBMPs & FRMPs. / HofT&P
5d / Biosecurity / CM / The group was busy. Following slow takeup locally, Staff Team help was needed with publicising the Birmingham event on a national basis.
The HofT&P drew attention to a FC map showing the significant spread of Chalara as at 22 September. CM said that Biosecurity was possibly one of the most important things the LI should be pursuing. / HofE&M
5e / GLVIA3 / MvG / MvG would revise the questionnaire and activate a Steering group involving CT representing Natural England given that Chris Bolton had said to HofT&P that she was the correct lead. It was agreed that HofT&P would support the group where necessary.
HofT&P suggested that the questionnaire could form part of a larger one. / MvG
5f / JCLI / CM / CM had supplied the Staff Team with the Contract Growing Guidance at the end of September and was awaiting its publication which needed to be within the next two weeks.
It was agreed that the JCLI contract was still an important publication, amongst other things judging by the NBS survey which included non-members.
CM asked for a survey of those who had previously purchased it to be undertaken and would help devise some questions / DirofP&C
CM
5g / Soil / KC / KC was in discussion more widely with David Hackett over joint working on soils & ecology issues involving CIEEM. It was agreed that some joint events might be good. The CEO pointed out the possibility of making a loss on a joint conference but agreed CPD events worth exploring.
There is a Topsoil BS revision underway and David Hackett was on the group.
A particularly interesting idea was for some work to be done on ‘recipes for soils for different situations’. TC agreed this was a gap in knowledge but a proposal for what this might involve was required / KC
6. Work programme
HofT&P explained the current budget situation which allowed scope for funding some of the developments that were proposed above.
This was the working programme and if anyone had any comments on this they needed to send them to the Staff Team / All
5. Any Other Business
None
6. Date of Next Meeting
HofT&P to circulate a DoodlePoll / HofT&P