The following were present in an advisory capacity:

Apologies for Absence:

Under the general heading of matters arising, the following items were discussed:

1. Dave reported that he now had a firm quote for public liability insurance (and employer liability and contents). The premium for a year would be £250 + insurance tax (at 5%). It was agreed that Dave should go ahead and pay for the insurance and claim the premiums back from DOS when the bank account was set up (see Finance below)
2. Susie raised the various emails from Alan: It was agreed that it was unfortunate the the first DOS Newsletter had not been approved by Calire Madran (though Pruw note that the version that was printed was (a) not the final version she had submitted and (b) had an SHDC stamp on it, so it had been handled by someone at SHDC.

   The Grove School situation appeared unlikely to be resolved within the timescale of the project. Susie noted that the DOS questionnaire had a reference to the subject so we were likely to get comments back. Bill Brown emphasised that we should be prepared for the expression of opinions on the matter during the planning sessions.

The subject of Office Management was then discussed. Shirley introduced Jan O'Highway, the DOS Office Manager, to the meeting and outlined the terms of her contract. She will be working around 12 hours a week (in addition to 4 voluntary hours) for the next two months at least. This will enable the DOS Office to be open every weekday morning. Jan has been involved with DOS (and SOS) since the very beginning and her graphic skills will be particularly useful. She will also be responsible for liaison with the DOS volunteers (at this point Shirley noted that we now have 100 volunteers on the database).

Dave reported that he would be helping Jan set up the office computers - installing the scanner donated by Julia Banerjee and connecting them up to the Internet. He asked Bill Brown about the status of the A2 printer he had offered to DOS - it appears this is currently not working. Bill Hitchins noted that SHDC is currently upgrading its computer equipment and might be able to loan a printer to the DOS office. Nick Hodgson agreed to investigate.

Susie mentioned that thanks to Green Fuse, we will have the use of 7 The High Street. This is a very small shop (100 square feet). The intention is that we will use it for storing exhibition displays and model making. This caused the subject of Business Rates on the DOS Office to be raised. Nick felt that it was almost certain that DOS would be liable to pay business rates since it was unlikely to be registered as a charity in the time available. Various options were explored to avoid the (considerable) expense of paying the tax. Dave suggested that since TotSoc was a registered charity, perhaps they could be the official 'occupier' (i.e. pay the rent) and DOS would then pay them the same amount for the use of the office. It was agreed that this might work and Donald agreed to investigate on behalf of TotSoc.

The subject of exhibition displays prompted mention of the donation of display boards from Michelmore Hughes and the offer of boards from SHDC.

Susie reviewed the key project dates:

• The 2^nd Public Meeting at 7.30pm on Thursday 20^th May in the Civic Hall
• The Community Planning Intensive sessions (the 'Event') to be run in the Civic Hall from June 30^th until July 3^rd
• The exhibition(s) to be displayed in the days immediately before the 'Event'.
• The various fund raising events (Totnes Happening, Auction of Promises)

Bill noted that Di Parkin will be attending the next Working Party meeting, on May 26^th, and will spend approximately an hour explaining the training she will be giving for facilitators and scribes involved in the 'Event'.

[At this point Pruw had to leave the meeting]

Nick asked for details of the final (post-'Event') stage. Bill explained that it was was hard to be very precise at this stage - for example, it might be that the public at the 'event' decide that an Outline Planning Application must be submitted (i.e. more that the Concept Statement required by SHDC). Things would become clearer over the coming weeks.

Funding was then discussed. Bill Brown outlined the progress to date on submitting applications. There were five people currently involved in writing such applications in addition to Donald who was working on the ones that were going out under the umbrella of TotSoc. There were some 28 applications in the pipeline, and one at least was close to being 'approved'. Bill noted that he was unsure about submitting an application for DOS funds to Esmée Fairbairn because we might well want to submit an application to them later for (much larger) development funds. They might not be prepared to accept that if they had already given a smaller grant to support the DOS project. Bill also asked for any funding questions that arose during working group meetings to be passed to him so that answers could be provided in time for the public consultation.

Bill Hitchens asked if there had been any investigation of the 'Living Spaces' Fund (which provides grants for public open spaces). He suggested that it was worth contacting the Groundwork Trust in Plymouth.

Lionel outlined the current state of DOS funds. So far contributions totalling over £1000 had been made by local residents and businesses. It was hoped that the DOS Bank Account at HSBC would soon be open for business. Nick Hodgson confirmed that SHDC would provide a matching tranche of £1000. Susie asked about the application to the Preservation Trust (made by Peter Sutton some time ago). Donald said that the request was had been too general to be approved and Bill Brown agreed to write another, more specific request for support.

Donald then raised the question of the circumstances under which SHDC might 'claw back' any matching funds. Alan Robinson's email on the subject had not really clarified matters - it used the term 'viable' which was subject to various interpretations. There was extensive discussion on the subject but eventually Susie made a suggestion that met with general agreement - that if SHDC gave matching funds in tranches of £1000 for specific identified purposes then it should be possible for SHDC to confirm, for each tranche, that it was a non-returnable grant. Donald pointed out that this made it essential that DOS did not commit to spending money it didn't yet have. He was worried that Bill's budget might be seen as a target to be met rather than an estimate of what was likely to be needed. Shirley responded that the 'matched' funding requirement had caused DOS great difficulties because it was almost impossible to get grants approved in less than a couple of months at least. Bill argued that fund-givers were often prepared to issue letters signalling their intention to give a grant ahead of actually disbursing the funds and that these letters should be enough for SHDC to consider providing matching funds.

The meeting then looked at the plans for the next Public Meeting and the Community Action Planning days. Bill emphasied that while we should make every effort to encourage people to attend these, it was also necessary to provide mechanisms by which those who could not or would not attend such meetings (he singled out the elderly and disaffected youth) were able to provide feedback. He felt we needed to build this into the process (e.g. by visiting sheltered accommodation facilities such as Home Meadow).

Susie, Shirley and Jan all pointed out that many of the people coming to the market stall and quite a few of the volunteers were asking questions about how the Community Action Planning 'Event' would work. Bill Brown reminded the meeting that he had distributed a document on the process shortly before the last Public Meeting (where he had spoken about it at some length). He outlined the three parts of the event:

1. The exhibition and presentation (of facts and options identified by the working groups)
2. Intensive discussions designed to reach agreement as far as possible and to document outstanding conflicts and disagreements
3. The plenary sessions designed to resolve these conflicts and disagreements. These could be held at the end of each day and/or on the final day.

He emphasised the need for the discussions to involve groups of no more than 15 people and each such group would need a facilitator and a scribe. While members of the public could attend as little or as much as they liked, it was important that Working Group members should be present for as much as possible, to answer questions and provide information. Bill himself would be available to act as a referee and to handle situations where groups were being dominated, side-tracked or hijacked by individuals with personal agendas.

Under the heading Any Other Business the following items were discussed:

1. Shirley asked Nick if all the buildings within the Southern Area (specifically the CVS ones next to the Leechwell Street car park) did actually belong to SHDC. Nick confirmed that they did. Susie also asked about the terms of George Heath's will when he gave the land to the Council. Nick said that the land was free of any covenants - the council was at liberty to use it for any purpose it chose (subject to obtaining planning consents of course).

The meeting closed at 12 noon. The next meeting will be held on 26^th May.