In Attendance:

Vinnie O’Brien, Standard Life Investments, Chairman
Cllr David Guest
Brian Smellie Grays of George Street
Patrice McHenry (Secretary)
Dorothy Anderson St Andrews & St Georges
Insp. Bruce Johnston LBP
Fiona Binnie American Express
Sgt. Dane Harrison LBP
Gill Hames Neals Yard Remedies
Ian Davison Porter Project Director, BIDs in Scotland
Ian Bell Royal Bank of Scotland
Ian Broadfoot, ECCM
Jackie Skinner Assembly Rooms
Shona Clelland Assembly Rooms
John McKee Hanover Health Foods
Sheila Daferas Assimi Jewellery

2. Minutes of AGM 11th May 2005
The minutes were approved.

2A. Matters arising
Their were no matters arising.

3. Chairman's Report
As delivered by Chairman Vinnie O’Brien
‘When our outgoing Chairman Brian Smellie approached me a little over 12 months ago, and asked whether I’d be interested in succeeding him as Chair, despite obviously being pleased to accept, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. Well 12 months on, I’d have to say my experience has been a very pleasing one. I admit on occasions this year it has proved a challenge to commit the time the post deserves, with the rather unique demands of my employer at this time but, I hope I’ve been able to strike the right balance. I’m sure you’ll tell me if I wasn’t doing my job!

I would like to “up-front” thank my fellow Association members for all their support during the year, for their own efforts (as every one of us are having to balance extremely busy day jobs), and importantly their good fun camaraderie. At this point, I would like to pay particular thanks to the Association’s Office Bearers. Ian Webster (Vice-Chair), Denzil Skinner (Treasurer) and by far the most important, Patrice McHenry, our Secretary.

2005/06 PLAN
I suppose this year has had its moments and I’d just like to take a couple of minutes to re-cap on the 2005/06 highlights and the role the Association has played in hopefully adding some value:
Shortly after last year’s AGM, we had the

G8 Summit
The G8 summit in July was a traumatic event for the city and city centre in particular, but in the end one which was largely regarded as a success by most. I think this was achieved in no small part due to the extreme professionalism of our Police force – not only in how they handled the protest events over the 3 days, but in particular for their meticulous preparation in advance and the extensive communications programme they put in place for a number of months leading up to the summit. In terms of our Association, we kept in close liaison with the Police throughout early 2005 and hopefully our members felt we were able to provide timely value added information to supplement the work of the Police. I’d like to take this opportunity to formally thank Bruce and his colleagues for all their work in this respect.

Traffic Management Scheme
In the Autumn, significant new traffic management arrangements were implemented in the City Centre, which, and I don’t think I need to recap on in great detail here, but they did cause substantial concern to a number of different stakeholders in the City, not least our own City Centre retailers. Our Association were a key contributor, and active debater, in the meetings arranged by the Council following the Scheme implementation, and I’d like to think our views helped contribute to the reversal of large parts of the Scheme in early November. I think I should also pay thanks to the ECCM who were instrumental in helping to initiate and broker these meetings between the Council and the city centre stakeholders. It was encouraging to me that the Council were willing to engage in such open debate with parties, such as our Association, and to take in the end a rather bold step to reverse their previous decision; one which I feel, in hindsight has been vindicated – our street has maintained its vibrant, healthy atmosphere without undue traffic issues. The demographics are not static though and we will need to continue to monitor the position going forward.

Christmas Lights
In conjunction with Standard Life, our Association held another successful “switching on of the George Street lights” evening. Many members and guests, including a record number of children, were able to attend, which certainly added to the Christmas atmosphere – even if it was November!! Personally, it is these sort of events that I feel will continue to help build much more of a sense of community for our street, and our Association will be considering what other similar events we can help promote in the future – any suggestions from our members would be more than welcome.

BIDS
I suppose the start to 2006 has been relatively quiet, but the most significant event so far has been the acceptance of Edinburgh city centre as a potential BIDS programme. We have with us today, Ian Broadfoot from ECCM who is going to provide us with more information on exactly what BIDS is all about, so I have no intention of stealing Ian’s thunder. It is fair to say though, that our Association will be prepared to take an active role, on behalf our membership, in considering and promoting our memberships wishes. In fact, Denzil Skinner already sits on Iain’s initial working party.

That was the key highlights of the last year. I should also like to take the opportunity to briefly cover those areas where I see the Association concentrating its resources over the coming 2006/2007 year: You may recall that at the year-end we did seek the views of our membership on what areas you would like the Association to focus its resource. Interestingly, and thankfully I suppose, there was a degree of concensus shared by our members and the conclusion was that we should focus on the following things:

• Public Realm.

• Website Design (as part of promoting George Street); we were hoping to have a presentation today but we are still considering potential suppliers.

• Transport (in particular Parking) Initiatives; a number of parking-related matters still exist, including relaxing of parking restrictions; the Trevi-parking system (proposed at this meeting last year) and also the possibility of an underground car park in George Street.

Parking is also a priority for the recently introduced City Centre Retail Forum, of which our Association is represented at the highest level, and we will focus our joint efforts through this forum.
More recently, we have added the BIDS Project to this list. And we will also continue to evolve other initiatives started this year, such as our Newsletter.

Through the Newsletter, I’d hope to be able to provide you with information on the progress we are making on our initiatives during 2006. Lastly, thank you to all our members who kindly offered their employers premises for our Association meetings during the year. And thank you to the Assembly Rooms, on this occasion, for allowing their – gorgeous – premises to be used for our Annual Meeting’.

4. Treasurers Report
The financial statement was circulated to all and was received as an accurate record of the current financial statement of the Association, secretarial expenses for the second half of financial year are to be included. The association is showing a healthy balance due to an increase in members, 6 companies, Charlie Miller Hairdressing, Brian Drumm Hairdressing, Assembly Rooms, Hanover Health Foods, Roxburghe Hotel, Hamlin Daniels and our most recent Business Exchange. The Chairman thanked Denzil Skinner Treasurer of the Association and Ian Bell, Royal Bank of Scotland for auditing the George Street Accounts. A further financial statement will be given at the next council meeting after expenses and income have been added.

5. Appointment of Office Bearers
Ian Webster, has asked to step down from his position as Vice Chairman of the Association, Ian wishes to continue to serve on the committee. A replacement for his post will be sought in due course. The other committee members were re-elected to their current positions. Committee as follows:

Vincent O’Brien, Chairman, Standard Life Investments
Denzil Skinner, Treasurer, Hamilton & Inches
Ian Webster, Northern Lighthouse Board
Dorothy Anderson, St Andrews & St George Church
Gill Hames, Neal Yard Remedies
Eleanor Leech, Trotters
Eleanor Dykes, LLoyds TSB
Ian Bell, Royal Bank of Scotland
Brian Smellie, Grays
Frank Pullen, Royal Society of Edinburgh
Jane Rankin, Phase Eight
Amy Brown, ESPC

6. Any Other Comptent Business
There being no other competent business, The AGM was formerly closed.
The Chairman welcomed Ian Broadfoot, who gave an exceptionally informative presentation on BIDs Pathfinder project.

Please see attached copy of Ian’s presentation.

10. Date & Place of Next Meeting
Next council meeting June 28th at Northern Lighthouse Board, 84 George Street at 3.00pm