MINUTES OF THE GENERAL MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION OF NORTH-WESTERN CAR CLUBS HELD AT THE HOLIDAY INN, RUNCORN, ON TUESDAY 9 MAY 2006

WELCOME

The Chairman, Bob Milloy, welcomed delegates to the meeting. A short silence was held in memory of Jack Romain, late RLO for North Wales.

ATTENDANCE

17 member clubs were represented by 17 delegates as follows:

Accrington Motor Sports Club (Eve Fisher, Steve Johnson), British Radio Cars Assn (Jim Spencer), CSMA (Eve Fisher, Steve Johnson), Formula 1000 Rally Club (Dave Thomas), Garstang & Preston Motor Club (Steve Kenyon, Terry May), High Moor Motor Club (Gary Heslop), HRCR (Stan Appleton), Ilkley & District Motor Club (Stan Appleton), Kirkby Lonsdale Motor Club (Katy Mashiter, Bob Milloy), Liverpool Motor Club (Ron Hunt), Longton Motor Club (Mike Ashcroft), Motorsport North West (Mark Wilkinson), North Wales Car Club (Dave Thomas), Potteries & Newcastle Motor Club (Eric Cowcill), 750 Motor Club (Mike Farnworth), Stockport Motor Club (Bob Milloy, Mark Wilkinson, Steph Wilkinson), Wigan Motor Club (Guy Wickham).

Officials present were Bob Milloy (Chairman), Ron Hunt (Vice-Chairman), Eric Cowcill (Treasurer), Katy Mashiter (Press Officer), Dave Thomas (Championship Secretary), Mike Farnworth (Training Officer), Stan Appleton (General Secretary).

APOLOGIES

Apologies for absence were recorded from John Harden (Aintree Liaison Officer), Peter Riley (Longton & DMC), Steve Skepper (Knutsford & DMC), Sue Sanders-Peppitt (Potteries & Newcastle MC).

MINUTES

The minutes of the February 2006 meeting were agreed as a true record on a proposal by Mike Farnworth (750MC) seconded by Mike Ashcroft (Longton & DMC).

MATTERS ARISING

Helmet straps - No reply has yet been received from John Symes at MSA. Reminder to be sent.

Stage rally restarts – No reply has yet been received from Rallies Committee. Secretary to raise with John Richardson.

Access issues – Regional Committee would be discussing the motorsport implications of the forthcoming NERC Bill.

Volunteers in Motorsport – The initiative had now been formally launched. Delegates asked if there was any particular value that could be added by the regional associations. Sue Sanders-Peppitt was to give a presentation to the Regional Committee. A link would be provided from the ANWCC website to ViM. Mike Farnworth reported 45 recruits from one school alone.

Toyo Tyres – No reply had been received to Dave Thomas’ email.

Inter-Association Autotest – ANWCC team came 5th on the event held on 1 April 06.

MSA MATTERS COUNCIL NEWS

Eric Cowcill confirmed the next meeting was to be in June. The rewrite of the Blue Book was well in hand. Plans were advanced to issue credit-card style licences for 2007.

MSA REGIONAL COMMITTEE

Bob Milloy reported that the committee was due to meet during the following week.

MSA AUTOTEST COMMITTEE

The definition of a ‘saloon car’ was being addressed.

MSA MEDICAL COMMITTEE

The committee was still working to define a suitable sticker to identify a crew member with a disability. It was difficult to act in this area without undue discrimination.

MSA RALLIES COMMITTEE

No report.

MSA SPEED COMMITTEE

No report.

CORRESPONDENCE AND SECRETARY’S REPORT

A request for association membership had been received from Accrington Motor Sports Club, sharing many similarities with CSMA (NW) but without the strict membership qualifications required by CSMA. They were accepted into ANWCC membership.

MSA had advised associations of a programme of visitors to association meetings. Allan Dean-Lewis would attend the August meeting and Bruce Goddard would attend in November. MSA had also issued a document to clubs explaining the governance of motorsport.

A Department of Transport Consultation Paper had been taken from the DoT website, seeking views on the review of the Motor Vehicle (Competitons and Trials) Regulations and in particular changes to the powers currently delegated to CAS within the MSA. The secretary felt that the only area of concern was about the proposed change to give MSA responsibility for naming those ‘specified events’ which could have preferential treatment under the Regulations; it was important that if MSA were given this power that sufficient notice was given to clubs of additions to that list so that they could plan their own calendars accordingly. A very short list was currently proposed (Rally GB, etc) and it should remain tightly limited.

Stan Appleton reported that he had been working with both ANCC and with ANECCC to agree a Code of Practice for rallies visiting the three northern areas. This arose from the growing number of long-distance events crossing boundaries including endurance, special stage and historic rallies such as the Roger Albert Clark, Lombard Revival and Le Jog. It sought to ensure good liaison between the visiting clubs and those in the locality, respecting existing dates and relations with landowners. The northern associations were most vulnerable because of the reduced width of the country in the north , limiting options, and the attraction of its emptier roads and more challenging venues. It also applied to events organised by ANWCC clubs but crossing into say ANECCC territory and vice versa. The meeting endorsed the principles in the Code of Practice but suggested that it should be recommended for national implementation rather than just within the northern areas.

To some embarrassment Stan Appleton told the meeting that under the Code of Practice he had already had to advise himself of HRCR’s plans to run a Winter Classic Trophy regularity event from 12-16 February 2007. He would discuss this with potentially affected clubs.

REPORTS

TREASURERS

Eric Cowcill reported that apart from the Championships, the association’s main financial activity was linked with training days. These were ultimately funded by MSA.

CHAMPIONSHIPS CO-ORDINATOR

Dave Thomas reported a total of 378 registrations compared with 387 in 2005. He repeated the options available to clubs for publishing regulations to championship contenders – a set of labels, an email list of contenders, a link to the ANWCC website. Although it was appreciated that some popular rallies filled quickly regs were always made available to championship contenders as early as possible; contenders needed to be ready to enter very promptly. Delegates discussed why some events were severely oversubscribed whilst others were barely viable – with no clear conclusion other than the need to market events well and build up a reputation.

The marshals’ draw awards were made and won by Paul Cross (February), Steve Johnson (March), Brian Lee (April).

FORESTRY LIAISON OFFICER

No report received.

AINTREE LIAISON OFFICER

John Harden’s written report said that little winter deterioration had taken place and users were currently negotiating to have repairs carried out where the track had been damaged by earth-moving equipment involved in development of the new racecourse stand. The dumped materials have had a marked impact on drainage leading to a serious flooding problem; remedial work is under negotiation. Notwithstanding this, a full season of events is planned. Mike Ashcroft confirmed that the first sprint meeting had taken place successfully as had a motor-cycle practice day. Ministers had decided not to give listed status to the Grand Prix circuit.

OTHER VENUE LIAISON

Work had been completed at Weeton and the new plan was expected to work well.

PRESS OFFICER

Katy Mashiter had no comments to make.

TRAINING OFFICER

Mike Farnworth was developing distance learning packages to enable colleges to train navigators, stage personnel, etc. He was also working on a Scrutineers’ Course and on what amounted to a GCSE in karting, with a ‘first diploma in motorsport’.

CTRLO

No report.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Eric Cowcill asked how any 50th anniversary celebrations were best funded as the championship and admin budgets were kept separate and the admin budget was relatively small. Much would depend on what plans were agreed, as say the cost of hiring Oulton Park could be high. It was felt that the anniversary was best celebrated in mid-year.

MSA had written to associations recommending them to consider becoming limited companies. It was unclear of the need since we didn’t promote anything that would give us a liability and MSA have blanket cover for our typical activities anyway. Bob Milloy would discuss with John Richardson why ANCC had decided to become limited.

Dave Thomas was trying to trace the activities of a past competitor called Derek Essen; any information would be welcome.

Dave Thomas offered to link to the ANWCC website the sites of those companies who supported our championship contenders own motorsport. He was warned of the potential scale of this but agreed to develop it this year with a view to a full launch for 2007.

Steve Johnson (Accrington MSC/CSMA) told delegates that noise limits for the industrial workplace had dropped from 1 April 2006.

Guy Wickham (Wigan MC) announced that Three Sisters was now moving much more towards karting and car-based events would find it harder to fit into their calendar. He also reminded delegates of the importance of checking that insurance cover is in place for the entire period that an event is expected to run, prompted by the enforced early termination of a a major event due to confusion over the times on their insurance certificate.

The meeting closed at 2220 hrs. Delegates were thanked for their attendance.

AGENDA ...

For the Ordinary Meeting of the Association of North-Western Car Clubs, to be held at Holiday Inn, Runcorn on Tuesday 8 August 2006 at 2000hrs prompt.
Minutes of last meeting (May 2006)
Matters arising
MSA Matters



p.p. Stan Appleton
General Secretary - Association of North-Western Car Clubs
Daleview, Pateley Bridge, West Yorkshire, HG3 5DN.