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Minutes of the Annual General Meeting 2023

7pm Thursday 27th April 2023 – Spectrum Centre, Inverness & via online video conference

These minutes are also available to download as a PDF.

Present: John Davidson (Chair), Ian Brown*, Ged Church, Susan Guest, Brian MacKenzie,  Kate MacLachlan*, Sara Ramsay*, Ron Stewart*, Anne Thomas, Ann Marie Wakeling* Emily Williams.  *online participation

Apologies:  Sarah Bowyer, Kristina High, Vivienne Hutchings, Roger Humphreys, James Alexander, Chris Ballance.

1. Approval of Minutes from Previous AGM

Proposed by Anne Thomas and seconded by Brian MacKenzie. 

The Minutes of the 2022 Annual General Meeting of the Highland Cycle Campaign were approved.  

2. Accounts & Treasurers Report

Anne Thomas reported that Duncan Tullis had stepped back from the role of treasurer during the year and she had taken over as acting treasurer. 

HCC Accounts for the year ending 31st December 2022 were circulated.  

The only costs incurred were from subscription to Transform and web hosting.  Income mainly came from membership donations. 

It was proposed that cycle campaign groups within the highlands be invited to apply for small grants towards projects on the ground.  It was agreed that this be taken forward.

3. Convener’s Report and Future Purpose and Direction of HCC

John Davidson reported about the activities that the HCC has been involved in over the past year, and discussions about the future direction of the organisation. 

🔗 Conveners Report 2023

4. Description of roles and request for additional committee members

Calls were made for the members to fulfil the following positions.  3 positions are mandated in the HCC constitution. Additional positions may be created to fulfil the needs of the organisation. 

Constitutionally Required Positions

Convenor:  Chair meetings of the HCC and co-ordinate the work of the organisation.  Act as the figurehead of the HCC. 

Secretary: To arrange the HCC AGM in compliance with the constitution. To ensure minutes are produced and circulated from the AGM and other meetings. To act as vice-convener. 

Treasurer:  Oversee the finances of HCC including fundraising, payment of invoices, grant applications and ensuring the annual accounts are completed in a timely manner and signed off by an external auditor. 

Other Positions

Membership:  To oversee administration of the HCC membership data, including ensuring personal data is secure and stored in compliance with regulations.  To grow the membership of the HCC. 

Website & Social Media:  To administer and update the HCC website. To administer the HCC social media channels. To edit a HCC newsletter.  

Publicity: Dealing with requests from the media and issuing press releases. 

Ordinary Member: committee members without remit.  Maybe sought to ensure all geographical regions of Highland are represented. The committee is able to co-opt other positions as needed during the year. 

5. Appointment of Committee, including Convener, Treasurer & Secretary.

The following members were appointed to the committee: 

  • John Davidson
  • Anne Thomas
  • Susan Guest
  • Brian Mackenzie 
  • Sarah Bowyer
  • Vivienne Hutchings
  • Duncan Tullis
  • Kristina High

6. Presentations 

The meeting heard from the following speakers:

Ian Brown – Skye Projects

Ian gave a great update on the many projects that are happening on the Isle of Skye. This includes: 

Skye Cycle Network – the development of a network to utilise the old roads to relink communities on Skye & the role of the Community Companies, using money from renewables towards projects.  Including: 

Emily Williams  – Inverness Bicycling Mayor & Kidical Mass

The ‘Bicycling Mayor’ scheme is run through BYCS, an international organisation based in Amsterdam.  BYCS manages and coordinate the Bicycle Mayor Network, a global community of advocates and activists pushing forward their local cycling agendas. 

Emily explained how she applied for the role and some of the benefits it has brought in terms of peer networking and support.  She is already finding that the council and politicians are more receptive to listening to her. Emily would love to see more Bicycle Mayors in the Highlands and is happy to chat with anyone who is interested in standing in their area.

You can read Emily’s manifesto here: https://bycs.org/emily-williams/

Anne Thomas – North Kessock Underpass and Avoch to Munlochy Path 

Anne provided an update on the work that has happened on the North Kessock A9 underpass including some before and after photos of the project.  This stretch of the A9 has also recently had an improved pedestrian crossing by the Kessock Bridge and there is tentative talk of improvements to the cycle infrastructure close to the bridge.  

There was an update on the Avoch to Munlochy path. 

2023 AGM

Highland Cycle Campain AGM 2023

Thursday 27th April at the Spectrum Centre, Rose St, Inverness, and online (delegates will be emailed a link)

6.30pm – Welcome and set up

7pm – AGM starts

Agenda:

  1. Minutes from 2022 AGM
  2. Accounts & treasurer’s report
  3. Convener’s report and future purpose and direction of HCC. John Davidson
  4. Description of roles and request for additional committee members
  5. Appointment of committee, including convener, treasurer & secretary. The Constitution can be found here

7.30pm – presentations begin

  • Ian Brown (by zoom) Skye projects
  • Emily Williams Inverness Cycling Mayor/ Kiddical Mass
  • Anne Thomas – update on North Kessock Underpass and Avoch to Munlochy path (7.45pm)
  • 8.45pm (latest) – finish
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Conveners Report to the 2023 AGM

from John Davidson HCC Convener

This year has been another busy year for the committee members. We have continued to respond to proposals particularly in the Inverness area, as well as offering support for projects further afield.

In Inverness, plans for Academy Street have caused some continuing discussion. It’s important for us to let our councillors know our feelings on that one – their inboxes being filled with positive emails about changes to the street made a difference in moving the project onto the next stage.

I plan to offer a letter of support to the proposals as a “fair compromise” to give essential access for businesses and improving safety and making the city centre generally a nicer place to spend time and money.

We have also offered a letter of support to a project to create a safe cycling link between Garve and Contin, avoiding the busy A835.

Highland Cycle Campaign has also signed up – for free – to the Cycle Advocacy Network, run by Cycling UK. There is a link on the website to lots of resources for campaigning.

As a committee, we have also been discussing the future direction of Highland Cycle Campaign. It’s fair to say we have struggled for time to do everything we would like, but thankfully there are many other people within the community who are also pushing for improvements – including Critical Mass, Kidical Mass and Velocity.

We see our future role as being to support and promote these wider community efforts. The history of the HCC gives it a value when it comes to speaking on behalf of cyclists across the region, and we can add our voice to help grassroots community projects whether in Inverness, Skye, Garve, Thurso or elsewhere.

We also have a pot of money in the bank. We have started to discuss the idea of offering small grants for projects to help those doing work “on the ground”.

As an addendum, I have also been made aware that the local access forum – which met for the first time since 2019 recently – is looking for a cycling representative.