Issue - meetings

• Update on LAF meetings/ conferences
• Huddle

The National LAF Conference was due to take place in Durham. It was noted that attendance at national conferences could be affected by the distance needed to travel to the conference and as such there were would be no representative from the Bracknell Forest LAF this year. The costs of national conferences were also thought to be prohibitive and free venues were being sought for the next national LAF conference in 2015.

The South East Regional LAF Conference was due to be held on Tuesday 20 May 2014 and proved useful to attend in previous years. There were bi-annual officers meetings for LAFs and Bracknell Forest had submitted a written summary of the Borough Council’s work for the latest meeting, which had coincided with the previous LCAF meeting on 1 October 2013.

Contact information for all Local Access Forums in England can be found on the Natural England website and specifically in the south east via the following web link:

http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/access/laf/selaf.aspx .

If LAF members were interested in attending further LAF meetings in neighbouring authorities and counties, the details of these meetings could be found on the websites of the authorities (examples below):

• Hampshire LAF: http://www3.hants.gov.uk/hcaf
• Surrey LAF: http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/environment-housing-and-planning/countryside/explore-surreys-countryside/visit-the-countryside/footpaths-byways-and-bridleways/surrey-countryside-access-forum
• Mid & West Berkshire LAF: http://www.westberks.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=8904
• Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead (RBWM) LAF: http://www.rbwm.gov.uk/web/prow_local_access_forum.htm
• Slough LAF: http://www.slough.gov.uk/parking-travel-and-roads/slough-local-access-forum.aspx
• Wiltshire LAF: http://www.wiltshirelaf.org.uk/

Huddle is an interactive Forum for LAFs. In discussions on Huddle you can learn from and share with other LAF colleagues on topics ranging from ‘Unsurfaced Roads’ to ‘Wind Farms’; from ‘Health Agenda’ to ‘Public Consultations’. LAFs use Huddle to upload local information and to keep in touch on relevant issues; a diary of events can also be found on Huddle, although this was reliant on LAFs to upload details, such as meetings. Natural England were regular contributors to Huddle.

Hugh, Michael and Rob expressed an interest in learning more about Huddle. Rose would investigate the possibility of licences and in-house training for LAF members.

(Action: Rose Wicks)