1.      Present:  Roger Bastin, John Clarke, Graham Collett, Peter Davies, Judy Dixon, Maureen Edwards, Simon Geller, John Hoare, Bron Johnson, Anthony Rae, Anne Robinson, Colin and Fleur Speakman, Don Townsley, Jackie and Ray Wilkes, Brian Witty, David Wragg.

2.      Apologies for Absence. Pam Ashton, Paul Chattwood, Ron Healey, Tony Ross, Alan Sutcliffe.

3.      Minutes of last meeting. These had been circulated by e-mail and were approved at the meeting.

4.      Chairman's Annual Report.            Anthony Rae.

Anthony observed that the group was still here, and still solvent. This was largely due to the approach agreed last year, and to people’s voluntary work and commitment, for which thanks were given all round.

Liaison: the e-mail network approach had seemed to work well.

Focus: the newsletter was a strong area of activity and a lot of time had been well-spent on it. It has an agenda, theme and point. As the group’s budget was coming down, it was important to seek funding for future editions

National activity: Quarterly TAR meetings in London were regularly attended by AR and some by GC and RW. There would perhaps be confidentiality issues in putting these up on the website.

Eddington review (due out in autumn)- not all TARS had an input, but we via AR had.

Regional Assembly Transport Forum: attended by AR and RW. Changes were coming here, but there had been strong representations made as the spatial strategy was discussed.
John Hoare commented on the positive influence and mentioned that the E. Coast main line now needed to be lobbied about.

The future? The Milliband changes would mean more, smaller, closed boards, without so much involvement of stakeholders.
John Hoare said forums are likely to continue in some form but the new boards will be the decision-taking bodies. The situation was not yet clear, but the paper would be circulated when it comes from the Regional Assembly.

Anthony thanked everyone who had contributed to the successful seminar.

5.      Treasurer’s Report / Accounts.     Graham Collett.

A Regional Assembly grant had been obtained (by AR) to last for 2 years. It was dependent on what had already been successfully done, ie organise seminar, use RSS theme in Focus and make response on RSS. GC had been to one examination in  public, and someone would now have to go in September.

There were also some donations which had come in in response to appeal in Focus.
Discussion followed on ways to reduce expenditure to fit reduction in funding.
Agreed: Co-ordinator’s fee be reduced to £800, or £500 if no Focus involved, but to be restored if funding obtained.

Sponsorship for Focus. RW would continue to approach bus companies.

Long term funding. People to go to parent bodies and request sponsorship (possibly with threat of demise in 2 years if none forthcoming).

A project brief (A4) to be prepared to show what we have achieved, and circulated to Yorkshire Forward and board members of T2000 via Fleur.
RW was thanked for agreeing to the payment reduction and the accounts were accepted and GC thanked.

6.      Co-ordinator’s Reports                  Ray Wilkes.

I have attended the RTF meetings and continued to argue for greater safety and a higher priority to buses and road safety at every opportunity.

I have attended a national T2000/TAR meeting in London which was very interesting. I have attended several WYPTE LTP meetings and campaigned on bus issues on behalf of WY T2000 Bus group, of which I am now Chair.

Focus. First Calderline sponsored YHTAR Focus 18 and 19. ‘Focus’. Focus 18 had a guest article from Stephen Joseph. 19 had a ‘Right of Reply by John Henkel of WYPTE.

There has a creative collaboration with Anthony on Focus content.

I am trying to seek funding for a ‘Buses Special’ edition of Focus. This might include some colour pages and would include features on demand management and car share clubs.

Mailing list. 388 on list, - up 16 from last year despite cull. I have continued to update mailing list which now includes Stagecoach Yorkshire (was Yorkshire Traction), Stagecoach Hull & Stagecoach Grimbsby-Cleethorpes. Attempts to get CPRE, FoE, Transport 2000 opt – ins did not produce many takers. Cull improved list by removing some and getting more details of existing members. Appeal for donations just got into double figures.

Focus Costs. (repeat from last year)

1 second class stamp per person up to 16 pages.

Printing up to 8 pages £150, 9-16 pages £300. So a 16 pager gives the lowest cost per page and an 8 pager the second lowest cost. I have tried to scrounge articles from outside YHTAR/T2000 and succeeded with two.

7.      Section Lead Officers Reports

Bus. Ray Wilkes.
The situation in the two PTEs continues to be dire. Except in Leeds bus use is falling and the network continues to face cuts, even in K & D areas. In my view the present congestion levels preclude a stable or growing network. Fortunately, outside the PTEs there is evidence of a bus revival in about 40 UK locations which include York & Hull.

Ray expressed a concern that many transport campaigners had a hostile attitude to Bus Companies and their profits yet we were very dependent on bus companies and their profits both for delivery of sustainable transport and for ‘Focus’ funding.

Rail. Peter Davies
Peter had written articles for Focus and studied the rail review. It was unfortunate that hardship had not been taken into account.
LTT-Derek Twigg- no changes. John Hoare pointed out that there was the opportunity for lobbying on East Coast Main Line in the context of the Rail Utilisation Study.

Walking. Colin Speakman
It was necessary to measure in every plan the extent of the provision of pedestrian infrastructure. Networks of walking routes should be put back through cities and towns. A hierarchy was needed and it was noted that the E Midlands strategy does pursue a modal approach.

Water Transport. Anne Robinson
Freight was now moving onto water/rail.
CS suggested getting in touch with Fred Andrews.

Cycling. Simon Geller.
There was regional relevance in looking at bikes on rail- GNER now had improved their system. Northern Rail have set up a cycle users’ forum, but they need to relax their 2 bikes per train rule.
The Mottram by-pass at Penistone was having a negative impact on cycling, at the A628 Transpennine Trail crossing. SG had participated in the South Yorkshire LTP
The CTC had upped its scale of campaigning A trial was taking place to see whether the ban on cycles on Sheffield trams could be relaxed.
SUSTRANS had been in liaison over problems on the Transpennine Trail.
Networking had taken place with various local groups.

Aviation. Anthony Rae
There were opportunities for airports to get huge expansion plans in with no challenge. Finningley is not in the plan and an objection had been successfully made to a link road which was to be built to something with no planning permission.
It was noted that large subsidy had been put into a poorly-used bus service to Leeds/Bradford airport.

Roads. Anne Robinson
The Northern Environmental Committee was looking into how roads were evaluated post-opening. There had been no response to the repeated question of how CO2 targets would be met by the DfT.
Planning enforcement was taking place over the removal of clutter from the sides of motorways after a photo campaign.
The Highways Agency had commissioned Health Care Trust Sheffield to investigate methodology for measuring the effect on air quality of the opening of a motorway. The Tinsley Viaduct needs the air quality question resolved before the M1 widening can be continued.
The SY LTP appears to be premised on more car commuting to support economic regeneration, with a number of road schemes, including the Cudworth and Dodworth bypasses which are part of Barnsley’s aspiration for a northern relief road .

The A628 Mottram Tintwistle bypass, now at draft line order stage, would cause up to 57% traffic increases on some roads in South Yorkshire.

Website. Paul Chattwood.
PC was thanked in his absence and the TAR RSS site should be live on Monday.

8.      Election of Officers. As before

9.      Section Lead Officers As before

10.  Subscriptions for 2006/7- linked into review of fundraising.
Parent bodies to be asked for donations.

11.  Next Annual General Meeting. In March 2007, in York.
It was noted that the Priory Centre and catering were very satisfactory
RW circulated the 24^th March 2007 for approval subsequent to the AGM

There was a discussion as to whether the seminar-should it be held on a weekday to attract more people. RW agreed that would be a good way to raise money but pointed out most YHTAR members would not be able to attend on weekdays

Donald Townsley was thanked for making his IT equipment available for the Seminar and AGM.