CAN's Spring Meeting was held on the sunny afternoon of Wednesday 3 May in Felton Village Hall and was sponsored in part by Barringtons and Business Link.

Chairman’s Address  -  The Chairman reported to the 40 friends and colleagues present, that at the AGM in November he had given details of the difficult time that the Community Council had been experiencing.  This was as a consequence of the need to restructure the staffing of the organisation as a result of the unexpected loss of European funding.  These steps were having to be made against a background of a longer process of review that had already been initiated to strengthen the case for continuance of funding from  other major funding sources, DEFRA and the Northumberland Strategic Partnership.

In responding to the need to reduce both staff numbers and hours of work, the decision was made to focus on ensuring as much staff field presence as possible. The Chairman expressed his deep sadness that other such experienced staff had been lost to the organisation due to this loss of funding, and offered his thanks for their contribution in working with communities.