Present: Dennis Fancett (Chair), John Earl(Secretary), Ken Allott, Gordon Barclay.

Apologies: Janet Mcleod Trotter, Ronald Hunt, Nic Best, Colin and Coral Patmore.

1. Minutes for the meeting on 11.05 were accepted.
   
2. AGM – general feeling was that it was good, but that audience was a bit thin on the ground. John – Paul Salveson did not seem to mind, and the good thing about having him and others up to speak is that we establish a personal relationship which has proved to be very useful in the past and will no doubt go on being so.
   
3. Next meeting – with Brian Johnson of Virgin on November 9th. Dennis was determined to try and ensure a better audience by inviting members from other local Rail User Groups and local councillors. Gordon said he would tackle Rail User Groups, and Dennis would ask Nic Best if he could approach local councillors in Morpeth. He felt that after the recent successful meeting with County leaders at the Woodhorn Experience, he could rely on contacts with John Nicholson, John Smith and David Laux at county for a start, and see whether they could encourage others to come along. We decided not to have a paid advert this time.
   
4. Matters arising from meeting on 11.05.06: Dennis was disappointed that Northern were not getting back to us so far on the detailed points from January`s meeting, but we thought we would wait until after the “curry event” on the 27th Sept. when we would meet the Northern officers concerned to find out if there was any further progress. It was felt that we should support Brian Johnson of Virgin on his statement that he would bid for some of the £300m of available money for station refurbishment for the NE, particularly our stations. John thought it would be a good idea to cost Trevor`s plans for a ramp on the northbound platform so that at least we could have a figure to wave at the accountants – Ken thought that the whole amount would need to be taken into consideration, including the lift to the southbound side. Dennis stated that his campaign to get cheaper deals from Morpeth as well as Newcastle had borne fruit insofar as the RPC had got the designation of the ticketing area changed to “Newcastle and connections” as from the January 2007 fare revision. John thought that this was good news that we should publicise – the anomaly where you are paying £27 from Newcastle and £110 from Morpeth for the same trip to London should disappear. Ronald Hunt`s idea of having a permanent display in Bedlington Community Centre was thought to be a good idea. We agreed to buy boards to mount the display. The Blyth and Tyne building at Morpeth was sold at auction for £255,000 at the beginning of September – there are rumours that it might be a funeral parlour(!). What happened to the publicising of the M17 and other bus routes as travel connections to the station? Nothing so far, so Dennis will take this up with Richard Walters, the new Transport officer at County, when he meets him soon. Planning of AGM – it was felt that as planned, there was not an awkward “gap” in the middle of this year`s meeting, so we felt the whole thing went more smoothly.
   
5. Financial matters – we had £580 in the kitty as opposed to the £760 we had the year previous. John says that Luke will wait for payment for the website until we have the necessary, but meanwhile it is obvious that we are not making enough for publicity. John suggested we explore avenues for local grant funding, and Gordon suggested a rise in subscriptions. The latter was felt to be a last resort only. We have 70 members, of whom 9 have not renewed – Dennis said he would write personally to these. Mentioned also that we need an itemised financial statement, and would contact Colin on this. Also called for fundraising ideas. For a start, Dennis said he would write to Dave Pope of the Morpeth Chamber of Trade and ask for support from their members, to whom it was felt we had brought benefits.
   

6. 
   
   1. Meeting at Woodhorn. Discussions with County leaders had been positive. Dennis mentioned that he was particularly impressed with the way they were linked to specific people so that they had the opportunity to make contacts. Similar “good vibe” reported from Coral and Colin.
      
   2. We need to get the ABT leaflet done. Dennis to talk to Richard Hilton about layout.
      
   3. Website. Can we get an online survey up and running on the ABT with questions such as – “How often would I make a journey?/What journeys would I make ?” Could we get Chairman`s photo on front page? John to talk to Luke.
      
   4. Northern Rail services – mentioned above.
      
   5. GNER current crisis. Dennis would write to GNER, on the back of Ken`s letter last year.
      
   6. Facilities – No word yet on tannoy or electronic indicator boards. Dennis would talk to Richard Walters at forthcoming meeting. Morpeth booking office has had to close again because of staff exhaustion mainly – Mrs. Greener was doing it all by herself! Dennis to bring this up with Northern- apparently ticket sales were such as to warrant an extension of this facility. Dennis would also mention the extraordinary efforts of Betty Greener to keep things running, and how much we appreciated this.
      
   
   

Any Other Business: John mentioned that we needed to kickstart the Manors theme again – mentioned a few contacts he might have in that regard, and with Carol Dixon`s help, would see whether he could further this campaign. Agreed.

Dates for future meetings:

• Thurs. 9th November- Brian Johnson, Virgin.
  
• Mon. 5th February – Committee meeting, Ken`s House
  
• Thurs. 15th March – Speaker – Tynedale Community Rail to be confirmed.
  
• Thurs.12th July -AGM
  

All meetings in the Morpeth Methodist Church unless indicated otherwise.