SCOTTISH COASTAL FORUM (SCF) PLENARY MEETING:
17 MARCH 2005 , DUNSTAFFNAGE MARINE LABORATORY
In attendance:
SCF members
Douglas McLeod (Chair) Association of Scottish Shellfish Growers
Cathy Tilbrook SNH
Colin Wishart Highland Council
Derek McGlashan Forth Ports Authority
Mark Williams Scottish Water
Richard Luxmoore National Trust for Scotland
Scot Mathieson SEPA
Rhona Fairgrieve Crown Estate
David Phillips Crown Estate
Alan Stevenson British Geological Survey
Howard Johnston British Geological Survey
Stephen Midgley SCF project officer
Fiona Watt Secretariat
Steve Dowell Scottish Executive (SEDD Planning)
Alayna Imlah Scottish Executive (SEERAD Marine)
Observers & invited speakers
Karen Judd The Grab Trust
Mike Osborne SeaZone
John Pepper UKHO
Ken Buchan Argyll and Bute Council
Helen Atkin SCF
Prof Bill Ritchie Aberdeen University
1. Interim Chairman's opening remarks
Interim Chairman Doug McLeod welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked the hosts Dunstaffnage Marine lab for the use of their facilities.
2. Apologies
Apologies were received from Neil Black, Kara Brydson, Mike Comerford, Stephen Cummings, George Dobie, Neil Ferguson, Fiona Gowland, Brian Simpson, and Jim Simpson.
3. Minutes of 24th meeting of 15/12/2004
Two sections of the minutes need to be revised, Section 6 - Strategic Framework for the Marine Environment, and Section 7 on the Marine Spatial Planning briefing paper. The references made to the Solway pilot projects and SSMEI need clarification. It should also be noted that in the latest version of work programme, the £100,000 pa referred to in the minutes relates to LCP costs rather than the Project Officer's post.
Action: Cathy Tilbrook to make revisions and send to Stephen Midgley by 7/4/2005.
Action: Stephen Midgley to sign-off revised minutes off by next plenary meeting.
4. Electing a chairperson
(a) Tribute to Captain Wilks
All members of the SCF stated Captain Wilks will be sorely missed. Over 1,000 people and several members of the SCF attended the funeral, and said it had been a very moving ceremony, revealing much about Captain Wilks' auspicious naval career. Tributes had come from many sources - SEPA in particular, had given an effuse tribute, and The Scotsman had printed a very good obituary, which has been put on the SCF website.
Members put forward suggestions for an SCF tribute to Captain Wilks. E.g. on the SCF website, in the Coastline publication and a more permanent tribute, such as a competition for LCPs, or a conference or lecture named after Captain Wilks. The SCF agreed that a conference or lecture would be more feasible.
Action: The Steering Group to put together some ideas for a conference tribute, with formalities being left until nearer the event, investigating funding options for speakers, or invite funding agencies to contribute a set amount for the coming year.
(b) Nominations for Chairman
The CPO has now drafted Articles of Association for the SCF to guide the process of nominating a Chairman and the running of the SCF. It was agreed that the articles should be titled differently to reflect their non-legal status. The interim Chairman accepted that the members may consider some of the issues unresolved by the Articles, and asked that any comments be sent to Stephen Midgley.
Action: SCF members to send comments on articles to Stephen Midgley by 27/4/05.
Action: CPO to produce revised version of Articles, for approval at next plenary meeting.
It was agreed that the Chairman's post be voluntary, for three years, and renewable once, with T&S being met by the SE.
A debate was then held about whether to appoint an interim chair before a permanent chair. CT stated that an interim chair might be in a better position to oversee a review of the SCF's role, in the context of SE's developing marine strategy, and once the remit was clearer, that a permanent high calibre chair could be sought. CW favoured a Chairman from within ranks. Derek McGlashan favoured an interim Chair for 6-9 months, as an internal candidate would have a better background knowledge. RL favoured an interim chair to avoid making too many changes at once. SM favoured a permanent chair as he thought appointing an interim would take too long. MW and RF firmly backed a permanent chair. BGS advocated a permanent 3 year appointment. DM said that it would be unfair for an interim chair to all the work and then be dismissed in favour of a permanent candidate.
The SCF voted in favour of a permanent chair. The new Chairperson can be from outside the SCF, but needs to be nominated and seconded by a member of SCF, with the current terms for the post being contained in Article II. It was asked if the majority can vote the Chairman out - and if not, a clause should be added to article II. There is no current system of representation for the membership formalised anywhere - there are no records available
It was acknowledged that it could take a long time to get answers from prospective candidates, and DM encouraged members to begin approaching prospective nominees as soon as possible. It was agreed that the Forum would want to avoid public appointment by Scottish Ministers - ideally the SCF would appoint a chair, and then Ministers would send letter of welcome. Clarification on voting rights is also needed, such as establishing whether those with Observer status should have a vote. It was also asked whether SE and additional reps from stakeholders should be offered a vote. It was established that each member organisation would have a single vote for next 3 year period. It was suggested that a nomination procedure should include two current members of Forum and the Coastlines newsletter would not be used for inviting nominations as it is sent much wider than required.
Doug McLeod offered to act as SCF interim Chair until a permanent replacement is in place.
Action: Stephen Midgley to draw up nomination forms to send out with nominations being asked for (with a brief CV) by 15 April.
Action: CPO to send out subsequent voting forms for a permanent chair and vice-chair, which are to be returned by 20 May.
Action: SCF PO's own contract is also up for renewal. Alayna Imlah to speak to current funding partners: SNH, SEPA, CE about this contract.
5. Presentations and Options Paper - Stephen Midgley
Over the past few months the SCF PO has met and 'interviewed' most members of the SCF as part of an informal review of SCF. A presentation was made summarising the positive and negative aspects of the SCF.
Details of the presentation can be found in PaperSCF25/2 and from the ppt presentation presented at the plenary.
Relationship between SCF and Scottish Executive (SE)
It was agreed that the SCF's relationship with the SE is key, and should be clarified in SE's response to the ICZM Recommendation. Alayna Imlah replied that it is difficult for SE to give direction at this point, but the picture should be clearer in about six months. It was asked whether the SE wanted a more direct relationship with the Forum - if the SCF is at arms length it runs the risk of not being underpinned by funding. It was stated that the SE has to make it clear what the purpose of the SCF is, and it is now time to review the SCF's remit.
Formal review of wider interests
The plenary group recommended that wider interests in SCF and marine and coastal management should be interviewed i.e. non-active members and organisations not currently on SCF membership. An independent bodies should undertake such a review and funding should be sought for consultants to perform this task. It was later suggested that the SCF Steering Group should lead on this review process.
Action: Review of the SCF to be led by the SCF Steering Group.
6. LCP/SCF WG position paper - Cathy Tilbrook
The LCPs wrote to the SCF in September 2004 stating that there needed to be a better relationship between the SCF and the LCPs, and this was discussed at the plenary meeting of 15 December. A working group was set up to address two tasks - (1) to advise on how to integrate the LCPs better with the SCF, and (2) to comment on ICZM arrangements for Scotland. The working group comprised of representatives of the SE, SNH, Crown Estate, Solway Firth Partnership, Forth Estuary Forum, Firth of Clyde Forum and the SCF. This WG produced 2 papers with recommendations to the plenary group.
1. Relationship between SCF and LCPs (ref: paper SCF/25/4-a)
The main recommendations of the paper to improve liaison were:
· The local coastal partnerships should be invited to identify a representative to join the Scottish Coastal Forum.
· There should be a regular agenda item at Plenary meetings to discuss a brief report on issues of common concern to LCPs
· The arrangement of inviting the most appropriate (local) ICZM group to Plenary meetings should continue in addition to the regular representative. They should give a more in-depth account of the work of their own group.
The Forum thanked Cathy for this paper, and it was agreed that the proposals it contained should be taken forward. The issue of travel expenses for POs would have to be addressed however. The SE would perhaps fund this if the members not supported by an agency, but this needs to be clarified.
The meeting agreed that the SCF and LCPs relationship should be rectified as soon as possible. It was suggested that, although the LCPs do want SCF to fulfil a national role, there is some reluctance of the SCF to accept views of the LCPs, even though some SCF members are involved in LCPs. LCPs views have to be represented, and should present a paper at each plenary meeting for discussion - giving the LCPs this opportunity will be valuable to both parties.
Some members noted that the LCPs are still perceived as environmental organisations and as such do not get much support from industry. DM stated that CBI do not currently send a rep to SCF as Forth Ports were the CBI rep to start with but have since left CBI.
Action: CPO to investigate Industry (finfish aquaculture, CBI) representation on the SCF.
2. ICZM structure for Scotland (ref: paper SCF/25/4)
It was explained that this second paper was a very draft discussion piece, intended to open debate on a major topic which hadn't received sufficient emphasis in the SCF strategy. The first stage in addressing this question is to audit all existing ICZM initiatives. The WG has therefore started to compile a list of such projects which summarises the distribution of ICZM in Scotland. It is realised that there are gaps in this - and a need to include other topics such as aquaculture management groups, which have specific remits. These groups haven't yet been reviewed against ICZM criteria - the WG would welcome feedback about any gaps in the list. When mapped, there is a clear picture that the east coast is almost fully covered by existing initiatives, whereas the west coast has much more fragmented cover, often with smaller and more sectoral groups.
SSMEI pilots are not up and running yet, but these groups could be invited to meetings dealing with local initiatives
Highland Council thought the title of the paper quite ambitious, and needs a larger group to address it, and it is also important that ICZM should be seen as task-focused. It was realised that there are gaps in ICZM coast coverage information, and this needs to be addressed.
Action: The working group will continue to develop report on an 'ICZM structure' for Scotland. (SM and CW invited to take part in revised group, which will include one local partnership representative).
Action: SCF members to feed back comments on draft list of ICZM initiatives, especially gaps
7. SCF Strategy Consultation: Alayna Imlah
Alayna Imlah stated that all respondees to the consultation have now agreed to accreditations. The consultation is now being rolled in with the Marine Strategy, and over next few months these will be brought together as Marine and Coastal Strategy. Stephen Midgley has sent a copy to all members of the Forum, and suggested it go on SCF or SE website. Alayna is conducting a point by point analysis, and recommendations will be made to Ministers over next three to four months. No further input is required from the SCF at this stage.
8 Mike Osborne - Seazone
Mike Osborne of Seazone made a presentation on advances in digital marine mapping. It is likely that the new Seazone dataset will be made available through LGA co-ordinator contracts. The aim of Seazone is to create and market a range of digital marine mapping products for professional scientist, engineering, planner and manager with an interest in coastal and marine ICZMapping projects. Working from a common shoreline, Seazone aims to bring existing datasets together to form a digital terrain model. It aims to bring marine data to customers such as SE, Local Government, the Oil and Gas industries, academia, and ports. More information is contained on the presentation material attached, and if anyone would like to see a live demonstration, they should get in touch with Mike Osborne. (Mike.osborne@seazone.com)
9. Marine and Coastal Management Initiatives in Argyll and Bute - Ken Buchan, Argyll and Bute Council
Ken Buchan of the Marine and Coastal Development Unit of Argyll and Bute Council made a presentation on Marine and Coastal Management initiatives in Argyll. This included Argyll Marine Special Areas of Conservation, ICZM projects in Loch Etive and Loch Fyne, and he also covered proposed SSMEI pilots in the Sound of Mull and the Firth of Clyde. Presentation attached. (Ken.buchan@argyll-bute.gov.uk)
10. Beaches and Marine Litter Project - Karen Judd, The Grab Trust
Karen Judd, Project Officer with the Grab Trust (Group for Recycling in Argyll & Bute) gave a presentation on their Beaches and Marine litter project - her presentation is attached. For more information, Karen can be contacted at karen.judd@argyll-bute.gov.uk.
11. Introduction to the Evaluation and Monitoring report - Helen Atkin, SCF
Helen has recently started with the SCF on a 3 month contract, to write a report on the State of the Coast. She aims to research and collate data on the Scottish coast, which will be used as a baseline to assess success in ICZM. She is currently trying to identify all the sources of data for coastal and terrestrial areas, including population, tourism, flora and fauna, geology, water quality, aquaculture, and port and harbour data. Scotland will be sectioned into regions as suggested in the SEPA River Basin Management Strategy, and Helen will look at the coast for each region, what is currently being done, and what monitoring exists. This will enable her to pinpoint areas for research, and to use as a baseline on how well ICZM is working. This will be a state of the environment report, and a draft will be circulated to the Forum for comment.
12. Members update
Colin Wishart (Highland Council) informed the group that Angus McHattie is the replacement as their PO for the Atlantic Coast marine spatial planning project. Steve Dowell (SE) highlighted that SSMEI steering group has representation by several SCF members. Scot Mathieson (SEPA) informed the forum that a new SEPA marine biodiversity officer was to be appointed in June. Mark Williams (Scottish Water) has now completed investment plans which he will send to Stephen Midgley for distribution to members. The British Geological Survey have now restructured their marine coastal hydrocarbons programme, which may change the focus of future coastal work
Action: Mark Williams to send investment plans to Stephen Midgley.
13. Date of next meeting:
- confirmed date is 9 June.
- Subsequent meeting 7 November in Inverness.