PRESENT: Dr P A Jones (Chairman), R D Pryce (Secretary), Mrs D Hopkins (Treasurer), and five members. The eight members present were insufficient to form a quorum. The meeting proceeded but matters requiring a vote were deferred.
APOLOGIES were received from Mrs K Cottingham, Mrs M Rees, Dr R Kemp, Mr & Mrs B Gill, Mr & Mrs B Stewart and Mr & Mrs F H Webb.
MINUTES of the 1997 Annual General Meeting (reproduced in Newsletter no 62) were adopted and signed after amending a typographic error in the date of the Treasurer’s Report.
There were no MATTERS ARISING.
CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT: The Chairman reported the deaths of two long-standing members of the society. Miss Sheilagh Seery was a founder member and had also served as County Mammal Recorder and County Secretary of CPRW. Denys Williams had been a Naturalists’ committee member for several years and was particularly interested in coastal and hedgerow conservation. The Chairman continued by thanking Professor Charles Stirton, Director of the Welsh National Botanic Garden at Middleton, for his acceptance of the Patronage of the Society. The society was now 25 years old and had not had a Patron since the death of Mrs Vaughan in 1993. The Chairman recalled that twenty years ago he had served a term as Chairman of the Society, one of the first following its founding. He thanked both the Secretary and Treasurer who had also each given more than twenty years’ service and the committee for their support and work during the past year and all society members. The programme of talks and field meetings continued to be varied but uncertain support made it difficult to engage eminent speakers. He urged more members to attend future meetings and for them to recruit their friends. He concluded by looking towards the future in which he hoped that the past achievements could be used as a foundation to take the society into the 21st century.
SECRETARY’S REPORT: The Secretary opened by thanking the Chairman for his statement and continued by outlining the society’s activities over the past year which had consisted of six indoor meetings and eight field meetings. Attendances at meetings was still a cause of concern as was the problem of recruiting new members. The future programme was very varied and covered many diverse subjects. Only one edition of the Newsletter had appeared which was entirely due to the diminishing amount of time that the secretary was able to devote to its production. The secretary thanked the editor, Ian Morgan, all contributers, the collators and the distributers and reiterated his apologies for delays. He appealed for help with its future production. For the same reason, no Llanelli Naturalists Bulletins appeared during the year despite enough material being received for the production of two issues. The Llanelli Millennium Coastal Park project was now underway despite delays. The ‘Swannery’ was under construction and the Pwll-Burry Port elements were also to be enhanced with the provision of substantial new wetland features building upon the existing mature habitats of the Ashpits Pond area. However there was currently concern amongst conservation bodies over the proposd infilling of Dyfatty Marsh. Management of the Pembrey Saltings Local Nature Reserve where Sea Buckthorn clearance was continuing, the first phase having produced substantial areas of bare sand ready for recolonisation by native dune vegetation. Philip Jones had again been instrumental in the organisation of the society’s exhibit at the Llanelli Flower Festival but a volunteer was needed to deal with publicity in general. Ther had been closer co-operation between the Llanelli Naturalists and the Llanelli Section of the Wildlife Trust - West Wales. Most future meetings were now to be joint as the number of people in Llanelli actively interested in wildlife did not appear to be large enough to sustain two separate programmes. The Secretary concluded by echoing the Chairman in thanking all those involved in the running of the Llanelli Naturalists and also all those supporters without whom the society could not function.
TREASURER'S REPORT: The audited accounts which were adopted by those present, are presented below. Payment of annual subscriptions continued to be a concern with only about half of the membership making payment during 1997. Membership stood at 77 with 11 complimentary. Th e greatest expense was the hire of the room for indoor meetings. The Public Liability insurance premium remained the same but affiliation to the BTCV had been raised by £5. After discussion it was resolved to retain present subscription levels for 1998 but as in previous years, the treasurer was given leave to raise subscriptions from January 1999, if required, which would then be ratified at the 1999 AGM.
RESERVE REPORTS
Lliedi Reservoirs (Mike Williams) No help had been forthcoming for the maintenance of nestboxes so they had not been cleaned out this year. No Pied Flycatchers had bred. Great Crested Grebes had nested but failed due, again, to fluctuating water levels: water was being drained from the upper reservoir in order to top-up the lower. The badgers had not been disturbed. The panels screening the pathway to the hide had been blown down but the hide remained intact. Carmarthenshire County Council now lease the reservoir from Welsh Water and wish to promote free public access. There is concern that resultant disturbance will be detrimental to the wildlife and encourage vandalism.
Stradey Estate (Ian Morgan) No report.
Factory Road, Pembrey (Philip Jones) The Bloody Cranesbill continued to flourish. The Tassel-hyacinth had not been seen for many years and should be scheduled as a monitoring task in 1998 or 1999.
Ffrwd Fen (Philip Jones) The site continues to be under-grazed. The Marsh Pea area had not been grazed at all and bales of hat harvested from the dune-ridge had remained on site for an unacceptably long time. The hon. warden had found a Harvest Mouse nest in the reedbed and another was found by Richard Jenkins as he continued with his Water Rail monitoring work. Fly tipping on the layby was an increasing problem with rubbish spilling into the reserve.
Both the chairman and secretary thanked the hon. Wardens for their efforts during the year.
PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE RULES OF THE SOCIETY: This matter was deferred as the meeting was inquorate.
ELECTION OF OFFICERS AND COMMITTEE MEMBERS: As reported by the Chairman in his statement, Prof. Charles Stirton, Director of the Welsh National Botanic Garden, Middleton near had accepted the post of Patron of the Llanelli Naturalists. As the number of nominations for officers and committee members were less than the number of vacancies, the following were elected unopposed: Dr.Philip Jones (Chairman), Mrs.Jan Crowden (Vice-chairman), Mr.Richard Pryce (Secretary), Mrs.Diana Hopkins (Treasurer). Committee members: Mrs.Kath Cottingham, Mrs.Edith Jones, Messrs.Ian Morgan, Barry Stewart and Rob Hunt. Wildlife Trust - West Wales’ Observer: Steve Lucas. Several suggestions came from the floor for absentee members to fill unoccupied committee places.
OTHER BUSINESS: Mike Williams raised the matter of the proposed barrage between Whiteford Point and Pwll which had received much press recently. The secretary stated that the project would be very unlikely to proceed as the habitats and wildlife of the Burry Inlet were protected by numerous statutory designations including both European and national legislation. However, Cardiff Bay had set a precedent which could be used a sincerely a lever by promoters. It was decided that the Society would not formally object at this stage.
The meeting closed at 8.40pm and was followed by slides shown by Richard Pryce.
