AGM Minutes 2014

Millbrook Lake Moorings Association Ltd.

Minutes of meeting held at 8.15pm. in The Football Club

on 10th December 2014.

The Chairman welcomed those present who had made the effort on a cold wet evening to venture to a surprise change of venue due to problems at the Village Hall, hence the latter start time.

Board Members Present – Bruce Selkirk (Chair & Tres.), Justin Elworthy (Moorings), Keith Bousfield (Shore), Tony Edwards (Fish), Bryan Luxford (Sec.), Rob Wingate and James Buss.

Apologies Ken Banks.

Members – 23 members present (including Board members)

Apologies – Kathy Boston, Neil Harvey and Chris Richards.

The minutes of previous AGM were accepted as a true record.

Proposed- John Horsley and seconded – Mark Hayward.

Matters Arising from Minutes.     None.

Chairman’s Report

During the year Bruce has attended various meetings with new bodies that have been set up to oversee any developments, from replacing old mooring blocks to new Marinas. These bodies have offices at different locations around the country and intend to pool their information to prevent any infringement of their own legislation.

These bodies include;- The Environment Agency, Natural England, The Queen’s Harbour Master, The Port of Plymouth, Plymouth City Council and Cornwall Council Planning Dept. Even wider examples of new focus are the establishment and policing of Marine Conservation Zones and much stricter controls on inshore fishing and leisure activity, The Marine Management Organisation has been set up as a major co-ordinating force and following a visit to the Lake by the local officer we were contacted to explain a particular activity. This was resolved amicably, but our attention was drawn as to their ability to enforce heavy fines if the correct procedures are not taken.

The Years Key points.

  1. Updating our information that we give QHM for our annual license to have moorings in the area called Millbrook Lake. (Area A33)
  2. Establishing the correct procedure to make the sewage outfall post more obvious at night.
  3. Obtaining prices for making the site at Dexters Spit more conducive to boat users.
  4. Our extension to the slip-way at the Dam proved too expensive for us to fund alone, it is hoped that we could encourage the Environment Agency to front the project with our financial help.
  5. Graham Ayers plus a few Board members had a good clean-up earlier this year with some help from Jonathan at Voyager, a skip was filled with old tyres, rope and netting.
  6. Ken Banks has volunteered to become Chairman (after or at ) next years AGM therefore the post of Vice Chairman has been created to enable him to be more involved with the formalities of running the Association.

Bruce thanked the Board members for their time and contributions required to run the Association over the past year.

Secretary’s Report

Bryan thanked the following;- the Football Club for providing the venue for the AGM with no notice, Bruce for continuing to do both chairman and treasurer’s jobs and for the board members’ partners for their continued patience.

The formalities of the secretary duties have continued without fuss over the year, as most of the communications are done by Email, each board member deals with their own topic and therefore circulates information easily.

As a Board we have held 10 meetings this year, Bruce attended them all, Keith and myself 9, Rob and Ken 7, Justin 6, James 5 and Tony 4. Steve Creese our Parish representative retired in September, though will be kept informed of any Parish related activity. Steve has served on the Board for 11years, he was thanked for his long term contributing in jovial manner.

Having up to date information of mooring holder’s details proved most useful in the case of Brian Lane’s boat fire, members were encouraged to keep the MLMA informed of any changes that occur, even the colour of a vessel.

Treasurer’s Report

Bruce discussed his two page report that each member was given at the meeting, the highlighted colours making the layout much easier for him to explain to the members present the financial position of the association. The details relate to the year ending 31st December 2013.

Key points;

  1. Income up, expenditure down – return to surplus.
  2. Continued use of fixed-term saving bonds.
  3. Funds set aside for potential litigation costs (Parish council stipulation)

The MLMA have a well-established constant number of private moorings on the Lake, a significant number are empty and about 15 private moorings have remained unallocated, giving a constant income from year to year.

Looking ahead to 2015, there will be no increase in license fees (the 5th year we have maintained stable license fees), however we need to be aware of different needs of interested parties ie; Members-low fees, Land owners income keeping pace with inflation and Commercial mooring fees (our lease stipulates that we need to charge relative commercial rates). The Board will report back at the next AGM if a small increase is recommended, this will only be a small amount. Some members of the Board hope to meet with the newly appointed Land steward at the Duchy in the new year as we had a good working arrangement with the last steward.

Any Other Business

John Horsley asked the mooring Officer if the long canoes at the beach area adjacent to the Dam were licensed and if so, could they be moved to one end of the beach area to enable him to launch his tender at high water as at the moment the canoes obstruct his pathway. Justin stated that he would arrange for the canoes to move as he wished.

Election of Officers

John Horsley proposed that the present Board members were re-elected, Mark Hayward seconded the proposal. The meeting unanimously approved the re-election of the Board.