Lake DistrictNational Park Authority Agenda Item:1
WindermereLakeUser Forum: Page Number: 1
WINDERMERELAKEUSER FORUM
MINUTES of a meeting of the Windermere Lake User Forum held at Brockhole Visitor Centre, Windermere at 7.00pm on 28 April 2008.
PRESENT:
Mr N Wilkinson (transport providers) – ChairmanMr P Senior (powered craft)
Mr P Harkness (sailors)Mr K Molloy (powered craft)
Mr D Williamson (sailors)Mr T Rothwell (commercial users)
Mr J Matterson (general users, youth - deputy)
OTHERS PRESENT:
Mr R Cartwright (Lake District National ParkAuthority)Mr J Dearden (commercial users - deputy)
Mr S Tatlock (Lake DistrictNational Park Authority)Mrs J Ratcliffe (Environment Agency)
Mrs V Senior (Lake DistrictNational Park Authority)Mr Q Merritt (Wingspan Consulting)
Miss S Grindley (Lake DistrictNational Park Authority)
Mr J Maguire (South Lakeland District Council)
APOLOGIES:
Ms J Moore (Friends of the Lake District) Mr R Heise (canoeists and rowers)
Mr P Truelove (general users, youth)Mr D Harpley (Cumbria Wildlife Trust)
Mr M Eccles (Lake DistrictNational Park Authority)Mr R Greenwood (Cumbria Tourism)
Mr T Ashberry (National Trust)Mr N Birkinshaw (anglers)
1MINUTES OF LAST MEETING AND MATTERS ARISING
The minutes of the meeting held on the 3 March 2008 wereconfirmed.
P Senior proposed and D Williamson seconded with the following amendments:-
The date should have read 3 March 2008.
Mr D Harpley should have been in apologies.
Page 6 - point 3 should read Exemptions to Speed Limit.
Page 1 - Action Point from Minutes: Jetties should read ‘sailing groups concerned that no-one polices jetties’
Page 5 of the minutes Exemptions from Speed Limitsshould have an extra paragraph:-
P Senior also asked that the British Classic Boat Rally held every year for the last 18 years be also considered for speed limit exemption on the basis it was documented in the original inspectors report to be considered as an established event for possible exemption.
Ms P Francis has resigned from the group so we are now seeking a representative for the swimmers.
The Forum noted that T Rothwell was continuing to recover from his illness and expressed their best wishes. As had been the case on 3rd March 2008J Dearden was also at the meeting.
2PRESENTATION ON LAKESERVICES PROVIDED AND ASSOCIATED COSTINGS
J Maguire and S Tatlock gave a presentation to members on the services and associated costs of their respective authorities.
The registration scheme which is run by the LDNPA was set up to register all power craft using the lake.All the monies generated have historically been used for byelaw registration and enforcement. The monies received at present nearly cover the costs of providing the registration scheme, but do not coverthe Windermere Byelaw Patrol Costs.
J Matterson asked if mooring fees are included in this.S Tatlock explained that the moorings are SLDC’s responsibility and that income generated from them is returned to SLDC. J Maguire explained that all the excess monies made on moorings and other SLDC facilities were returned to SLDC to pay for other council services.
D Williamson asked how the LDNPA were managing to fund the registration scheme.R Cartwright had said at the last meeting that the LDNPA had no intention of raising registration fees to the extent seen previously. R Cartwright explained that the current short fall was being met from other LDNPA budgets.
P Senior was concerned because the byelaw only mentions power boat users; R Cartwright said the LDNPA need to clarify the wording, but that the registration scheme applied only to powered craft and that there were no current plans to extend the scheme to non-powered craft as the previous consultation regarding this possibility had met with an overwhelming response against doing so.
T Rothwell questioned if the LDNPA are providing 700 crew hours, who is funding the rest? Under a new Service Level Agreement (SLA) with SLDC the combined Lake Patrol Team (LPT) will provide a minimum of 1500 hours per annum for double crewed byelaw patrol.
J Maguire explained that if a car park ticket was bought from Ferry Nab pay machine the money goes into SLDC car park budget, if parking tickets were bought in the Ferry Nab Office this is apportioned to the Windermere lake budget.
N Wilkinson asked whether the substantial rents and lake encroachments that Windermere Lake Cruises paid to SLDC were credited to the Windermere Budget. J Maguire confirmed that they were.
N Wilkinson said that at the meeting held on 18th January 2007 at the Windermere Hydro Hotel to discuss lake activities and services,4 categories of services were discussed being rescue service, advising and helping lake users, looking after shoreline, islands and habitats and Byelaw provision/enforcement. He went on to ask whetherthe LDNPA knew how much of their budget is allocated to each of the four categories, and what percentage of time the wardens spend on each of these categories?
S Tatlock estimated that 2/3rds of their time was spent enforcing byelaws.
J Maguire estimated that the wardens spend a lot of time educating and informing people both on the phone and in person at Ferry Nab before they even get onto the lake. User figures are more rounded and an equal amount of time is given to all user groups.
D Williamsonasked if it would make life easier if only one authority looked after the lake and commented that if the two authorities worked together there would be no deficit in money.
J Maguire replied thatif SLDC did this council tax payers would have to pay more.
P Senior asked whether any jet skis are registered at present.
S Tatlock confirmed that there are none.
P Senior asked if the LDNPA have an income of £28,262 how many power boats does this include? S Tatlockstated that there were approximately 4,200 boats registered last year.
P Senior asked what percentage of these were non- powered craft.S Tatlock explained that there was no record to show just non- powered craft. However on work carried out for the proposed joint Trust it had been estimated that there were approximately 1000 non powered craft actively using the lake.
N Wilkinson askedwhat the impact on the revenue generated by SLDC would be if there was no registration scheme, and no Byelaw provision or enforcement?Both J Maguire and S Tatlock were of the opinion that neither of their respective authorities could be without the registration scheme and Byelaw provision/enforcement, as for safety a robust scheme is needed on the lake.
3BYELAW REVIEW – WINGSPAN TO FACILITATE DISCUSSION
On behalf of the Windermere Lake User Forum N Wilkinson reported that Q Merritt of Wingspan Consulting Limited had been appointed to act as an independent facilitator to help the group with their discussions on the Byelaw Review. The LDNPA had agreed to provide the funding for this appointment.
N Wilkinson explained to the group that he had met with Q Merritt and that Q Merritt had disclosed to him that he had previously been employed by the LDNPA. N Wilkinson advised the meeting that he was satisfied that Q Merritt would be a goodindependent facilitator and circulated to members a copy of the Project Brief that he had agreed with Wingspan Consulting Limited on their behalf.
Q Merritt gave a brief introduction about his work and why he had been employed to facilitate the meeting.He then explained the process and the four points he had been asked to focus on.
P Senior asked what weight would be given to this report; he was also concerned that statistics could be read in many different ways.
S Tatlock explained that CN Research are collating all the responses, they will then prepare a report. WLUF’s response will not be “number crunched” with the rest, it will be evaluated by CN Research in a different way, and the methodology used would be available.
K Molloy asked if WLUF would be given more than 3 minutes to present their report at the Authority meeting. R Cartwright assured the group that the forum’s representative would be offered the chance to speak at Authority meeting and there would be no time-limit.
A copy of the report is included with the minutes.
4ANY OTHER BUSINESS
P Senior commented that theminutes were sent to Forum members 5 weeks after the last meeting and this did not give sufficient time to allow members to consult with their respective groups. N Wilkinson apologised for the delay and assured members that minutes for this meeting would be distributed as soon as possible and there would be ample time for forum members to consult with their respective groups prior to the next meeting.
The forum nominated N Wilkinson, as Chair, to present the WLUF report on the Byelaw Review to the Authority meeting on 23rdJuly 2008.
5DATE OF NEXT MEETING
The next meeting will take place on Monday 8thSeptember 2008 at 7.00pm venue to be confirmed.