Committee Meetings

Report of the committee meeting held on 27th November, Inverness

There being no apologies for absence the meeting commenced with the agreement of the minutes of the previous meeting.

After a fruitful discussion the following members were co-opted onto the Committee, John Melling, Inverness; Keith Tyler, Kinbrace and Alistair Roy, Wick bringing the committee to full strength for the first time for a few years with coverage of the whole line. A further memorial to Frank Spaven was discussed and the suggestion of an annual award for services to the Far North Line was felt to be difficult to implement. It was agreed to support the celebration of the forthcoming 150th anniversary of the Inverness - Nairn Line.

Satisfactory reports from the Treasurer and the Membership Secretary were received. It was felt that we are not attracting members from the Commuting public and efforts will be made to redress the situation by gaining more recognition with Community Councils and the Initiatives and Project Officers along the line.

An archive set of newsletters is being maintained and that copies will be forwarded to the British Library and the National Library of Scotland.

To capitalise on the work put into compiling the recent Policy Documents they will be presented in an form that will enable us to publicise our policies in a coherent form in future. Areas of concern not yet fully implemented, cover the visual aspect of stations, disabled access and Freight. Our policy towards the Dornoch Link will be formalised once the full Committee has met. It is anticipated that contacts with MSPs will be strengthened as will our relationship with the Press. It was agreed that the Chairman will attend Highland Partnership meetings but the other two Friends Groups will have to be consulted in the near future as to whether FoFNL continues to represent the Friends' Group. On the subject of our support for Highland Rail Heritage it was decided that given the lack of enthusiasm from the elected members of the Committee our support would be withdrawn pending further discussions with HRH representatives. The line is seeing a reasonable amount of heritage traffic from organisations in the South.

The meeting concluded with Stewart Campbell giving a short talk on his recent trip to Sweden.