The following were present in an advisory capacity:

Three amendments to the previous minutes were agreed.

1. The addition of Donald Bishop's apology for absence, which Dave had forgotten to include.
2. An addition to Item 4 (Architects Brainstorming Sessions): - Alan requested that the Council’s key objectives remained a parameter for the development of options, and he urged early consultation with key staff at SHDC on the emerging schemes before work progressed too far. Di stressed that what was being presented to SHDC was a worked up scheme in response to "What the Community Said it wanted" (which itself had been constructed within South Hams’ parameters.
3. An amendment to the final item (on car parking income): - Pruw noted that 'Bob-the-Bus' met its day-to-day running costs through operational income (and not the total cost of providing the service as previously stated).

Dave then gave a brief finance update. Since the last meeting almost all the outstanding bills had been paid. This included large payments to Totnes Town Council for the hire of the Civic Hall (590 pounds) and to South Hams Newspapers for the second 'Big Event' ad (151 pounds) even though these last two had not yet been reclaimed from SHDC. Casper pointed out that there was an outstanding payment to him for materials for building the model. Dave reported that he had received invoices from Di Parkin for the facilitator training and data analysis work she had performed and from Bill Brown for the work he had done for DOS. Peter presented his bill for the work Harrison Sutton had done preparing the Exhibition Dossier. Dave was preparing the third schedule of invoices to go to SHDC and was still expecting the final total to be on target.

Peter then outlined what had happened at the Architects meeting held on 31^st August, to which Andrew Fiske (Housing Office at SHDC) had been invited. The various designs had been reduced to three proposals with the number of houses being the main difference between them. Peter and Casper had amended their individual designs so that all three were based on the same outline structure. The schemes still retained considerable flexibility with various opportunities to add or remove components. Andrew had been generally very positive on the housing aspects and had agreed that this was a 'flagship' project.

Alan reminded the meeting that Andrew could only speak for housing and was concerned that the proposals had not yet been seen by various other departments at SHDC who might have important comments to make. He said that as long as he was unaware of exactly what was being proposed he was concerned that important issues might be being overlooked and thus at the level of risk that the scheme might fail to meet its objectives. It was agreed that he, Nick Hodgson and Steve Munday should be briefed next week. A provisional date of Tuesday 7^th at 4.30pm was fixed.

Donald asked Alan about the status of Saviles in the SHDC review of the scheme. Alan replied that whether SHDC would need their views (for which SHDC would have to pay) depended on how confident the officers (particularly Nick Hodgson) were about the viability of the scheme.

Peter remarked that they would be presenting three possible choices (development vehicles) for how the project could be developed:

1. by disposing of the whole site to a single developer (as SHDC had intended for the November 2003 scheme)
2. by selling individual sites to developers and housing associations
3. by forming a Community Land Trust (CLT) to look after parts of the site

In his view the first was the worst choice for SHDC - it would result in a loss of control and would not produce the best return.

There was some discussion of the use of a CLT to secure the long-term affordability of the housing. (While Andrew Fiske had been supportive of the idea in principle the day before, he had mentioned that due to the lack of local practical experience of them expensive legal advice would be needed by all the parties involved). Alan reinforced this, emphasising that council's need to minimise risk and uncertainty. He said that if a CLT were to be considered as a 'development vehicle' it would be necessary to locate a similar project in the UK that had used the idea and that could provide practical advice and experience about what was involved. SHDC would not want to be the first to embark on such a course. Dave remarked that he had attended a conference in Taunton on the subject in February 2004 (at which there were speakers from both Devon County Council and Torridge District Council). It was agreed that further research into the subject was needed.

There was also discussion of the community's involvement. Susie reminded the meeting that long-term affordability was one of the key objectives to come out of the big event and that therefore the choice of the right 'development vehicle' would be something the community would want some influence over.

The meeting then turned to the preparations for the various events occurring next week. First of these was a short presentation on current status to be made to Totnes Town Council on Monday September 6^th. Dave or Susie would do this and it was agreed to leave the details up to them. The Public Meeting and subsequent exhibition was then discussed. The meeting will be held at the Methodist Hall on Friday September 10^th, starting at 7.30. The formal part of the meeting will be relatively brief - an hour or less. First Di will outline her analysis of the responses to the 'Big Event' which formed the brief given to the architects. Then DOS will briefly outline what will happen over the next two weeks or so (the exhibition, how the community can respond to the plans, when the final plans will be delivered to SHDC etc). Finally the architects will present their schemes (along similar lines to the way Peter presented them to Andrew Fiske). This formal part will be followed by the opportunity to inspect the plans that will be on display and discuss them with the architects. Alan was offered a slot in the formal part at which he could give SHDC's views about the proposals and what was likely to happen next. There would be an opportunity for public feedback at both the meeting and the following exhibition.

The exhibition will be held in the DOS Office from Saturday 11^th until Friday 17^th September. While it would be ideal to have long opening hours, given the lack of knowledge about volunteer availability, it was agreed that on posters and ads it would be advertised as being open in the afternoon and early evening.

There was some discussion of who should be invited to the meeting and exhibition. As well as TTC, the SHDC SAWG and the Totnes ward members it was agreed to invite Councillors Steer (Housing) and Rowe (Environment). Donald agreed to draft a press release. Corrie is already working on a poster to be displayed from Friday 3^rd September.

It was also agreed to discuss with Peter and Casper what form of public feedback they would prefer. There was a general feeling that any forms should not be lengthy, nor should people be asked to comment on everything, or vote for which of the designs they preferred. Instead feedback would be gathered on the various features of the designs, allowing the architects greater flexibility in combining the more successful elements into a final design.

The meeting noted that there would be presentations to the SAWG on September 23^rd and again on October 7^th.

There was a brief discussion of how the Project Office might be cleared before it is handed back to Windeatts on 1^st September. Alan offered to see if space was available at Follaton for storage of the posters and plans presented at the Big Event. Dave noted that Plymouth University School of Architecture would be visiting Totnes on 1^st October (they are planning to use the Southern Area as a case study this coming academic year. It was hoped that some of the material from the Big Event as well as the forthcoming exhibition would be available for them to inspect.

Finally the meeting considered the distribution of the Brochure Dossier copies. There are currently around 20 colour and 20 black and white copies. Some of these will be distributed soon (e.g. a copy will be presented to the TTC on the 6^th September and Alan was given a copy for SHDC. It was agreed that most copies should be retained at present until after the public meeting and exhibition.

The meeting closed at 12 noon. The next meeting will be held on September 15th at 9.45am in the Project Office