TUESDAY 10 MAY 2005
Present:
Andrew Burt (chairman) Tony Beadle Jacqueline Bickerstaff
John Billard David Davies Michael Edwards
Julian Ghosh David Hurley David Marsh
Peter Mead Rosy Pugh Mike Young
In attendance:
Geoff Smith (vice president) Jim Whyman (secretary)1. Apologies for absence
Lord Montagu; Derek Grossmark; Colin Francis; Sandy Hamilton; Tim Holt; Ian Edmunds.
2. Approval of minutes of meeting of 22 March 2005
The chairman signed the minutes of the meeting of 22 March as accurate.
3. Matters Arising from previous meeting
3…8 Shows David Davies and Jacqueline Bickerstaff reported on the recent Classic Bike Show at Stafford where there had been stands for over 20 FBHVC subscriber clubs. FBHVC’s presence had again been welcomed. There had been significant plaudits for the newsletter.
The secretary said he had made tentative bookings both for the Beaulieu Autojumble and for the NEC International Classic Motor Show. It would not be possible to use a coach at Beaulieu this year, but no other details of space availability were known. JW3.3.9 Member clubs The secretary said there was nothing further to say about the Jaguar Drivers Club. Two local clubs had joined in recent weeks. Subscription renewal forms had been sent.
3.9 Other matters The secretary said there had been no progress on the proposed “no small print” insurance scheme he had mentioned at the January meeting until the end of April when he had received a letter suggesting that the scheme was still a possibility with a club’s premium to be calculated at 75p per member subject to a £75 minimum (as opposed to the Footman James minimum £250). He said he was expecting to be invited to a meeting shortly. JW
4. UK Legislation
David Hurley outlined proceedings at a meeting of the legislation committee that had taken place a fortnight earlier as the minutes had not been distributed. The meeting concurred with all actions proposed. [For details, refer to attached minutes of legislation meeting of 27 April.]
A matter that had not been discussed at that meeting was a proposal hidden in a VOSA fee consultation that regulations should be changed to require retired fire appliances to be tested. This had been triggered by reports that some enthusiasts were hiring out preserved fire engines for special occasions, and there was thus felt to be a need for the vehicles to be tested accordingly. There were many complicated ramifications that the consultation appeared to have ignored and a response would be drafted accordingly. DH
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5. Parliamentary Historic Vehicles ClubIt was too early after the previous week’s general election to know what direction the PHVC might take. The secretary said he had written to Greg Knight to congratulate him on being re-elected and to say that FBHVC was ready to continue liaison at the appropriate time. John Cryer, sadly, had lost his seat.
6. EU Legislation
Geoff Smith reported on the progress of the Driving Licence Directive which was at the stage where national governments were negotiating prior to reaching a Common Position. Air quality legislation was about to be reviewed with the likelihood of a range of new regulations aimed at tackling pollution hotspots by regulating particle pollution rather than just static air quality. Denmark and Sweden were considering congestion/road charging. Environmental issues were thus going to remain the biggest threat for the next few years.
David Hurley expressed concern that requirements laid down in the 2003 directive on commercial driver training, which were due to be implemented by 2008, were excessively onerous for those intending to become professional drivers, let alone for enthusiasts wanting to acquire entitlements above normal levels. Unfortunately, FIVA had not been alerted to the Directive when it was in preparation and so it had not been possible to seek special treatment for non-professional drivers. David said he would discuss the issues with officials at the Department for Transport who would have to translate the requirements of the Directive into UK law. DH
7. FIVA Report
Geoff Smith, David Davies and David Hurley had attended a meeting in Brussels organised by FIVA at which representatives from 16 European countries had exchanged ideas and concerns on European issues. The discussions were part of FIVA’s on-going strategy of encouraging greater political activity and co-operation amongst European members to improve FIVA’s general lobbying ability. It was thus disappointing that no-one from Germany had attended, but that had not detracted significantly from the value of the exercise.
The general committee of FIVA had met in Rome at the end of April and had approved the survey of the economic value of the historic vehicle movement in Europe. Due to a substantial contribution from the German motor industry, FIVA’s funding commitment remained low and was limited to contingency amounts. Geoff Smith said the next stage was a meeting with the researchers in June to finalise the questionnaire and that would be followed by another meeting in July with representatives of the ten countries taking part to agree procedures.
Those present congratulated Geoff Smith on reaching this stage and thanked him for the immense amount of work he was doing.
David Davies said that he was concerned about FIVA’s accounting and financial planning. He was not suggesting that anything was amiss, just that the presentation of accounts and budgeting was inadequate and did not give subscriber organisations full information about where their money went. He went on to comment that he was finding FIVA had an image problem as far as PR was concerned as there was nothing obvious to “promote”. He was also concerned that FIVA was prone to being impractical about its selection of venues for meetings – Rome had been difficult and expensive, but there were now plans to go to Beirut.
The chairman said he was engaged on re-drafting the FIVA statutes to take account of recent changes in management structures and to include some internal regulations that should address the accounting concerns that David Davies had highlighted.
Geoff Smith said that although FIVA was still in the process of completing a transition from catering for vehicles over 20 years old to those over 25 years old, there was a growing view that the cut off should actually be 30 years as so many 20 to 30 year old vehicles were still in daily use, especially in southern Europe where there was little or no exposure to road salts.
8 DVLA
The secretary said he was not aware of any new Swansea related issues. There had still been no formal feedback from the consultation on fee proposals.
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9. Finance and PlanningThe secretary said that a working group comprising the chairman, Julian Ghosh, John Billard, Mike Young and himself had met earlier in the day to consider progress against plans for the period 2002 to 2007 and to consider budgets for the next two financial years.
Progress was generally deemed to be satisfactory, although some weaknesses had been found. The group recommended that the 2002-7 plan should be updated for the period 2005-10, and proposed that the working group should meet again in June to produce a revised plan that would be submitted to the committee for approval at the July meeting. This was agreed.
The secretary said he had handed round two sheet of paper prior to the meeting – the first showed a likely surplus for the current financial year of over £12,000, an improvement of some £2,500 on budget. The second showed the result of the working group’s budgetary deliberations that had taken into account changes such as the loss of Britannia Rescue income and increased cost of preparing FIVA ID cards. The secretary highlighted the increased provision for overseas travel. It was noted that the budgets included inflationary increases in fees for the secretary. The budget for 2005/6 and outline budget for the following year were agreed.
10. Other matters
The secretary reported the sad news that Peter Baines, Secretary of the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts Club, had died suddenly at the end of March. Rob Pedler had represented FBHVC at the funeral. The family had asked for donations to Great Ormond Street Hospital in lieu of flowers, and the secretary said he had sent £50, saying half was from his wife and himself and the other half from FBHVC. It was agreed the secretary could re-claim £25.
The revised website was up and had been well received. There had been 80,000 hits in April alone.
David Davies said that the Vintage Motor Cycle Club premises in Burton on Trent would be available to host FBHVC committee meetings at no cost to FBHVC.
It was agreed to run another conference session after the AGM in October, and to offer suggestions for subject matter in the newsletter.
………….…………………………….. Chairman P H J Whyman, Secretary.