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MINUTES OF THE SOUTHERN ENGLAND RADIATION MONITORING STEERING GROUP HELD ON 10 OCTOBER 2002 |
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Present
Paul Williams, North Cornwall Council Alan Higgins, Portsmouth City Council Dr Ian Croudace, Southampton University Kate Bishop, West Wiltshire Council
Penny Austin, Bournemouth Council and John Leach, Exeter City Council. The Minutes were agreed as a true record with the exception that Paul Williams is from North Cornwall not Torbay. No problem with the sampling programme, although it was noted that the majority of Local Authorities had not signed their new contracts although they were still submitting samples. There needed to be an update of Section 10 of the manual and Wink would be pursuing the contact details. Ian noted that there had been a few problems with couriers. ACTION: W Janes Alan circulated an email from Keith Binfield, Rimnet, which indicated that Defra might be prepared to provide some funding for an external quality assurance and accreditation scheme. This wasn't a firm commitment as yet but there was an undertaking to look at the issue. We would probably know a little later in the financial year. Ian noted that the University was gearing itself up to ISO9000 for its laboratory. This might satisfy some of the requirements for external accreditation of the lab. This is attached to the Minutes and any comments on it are requested by the end of November. ACTION: ALL Wink will provide an up-to-date note on the network sites that have been upgraded. It was noted that the University probe was down at the present time and was being replaced. The West Wiltshire probe was also down. ACTION: W Janes All contracts had been sent out at the end of August but as yet none had been returned, although Ian noted that all authorities were still submitting samples. Ian would chase up the contracting arrangements. It was generally thought that crunch point was when they would receive a copy of the invoice. ACTION: IC A general discussion around how we engendered some interest in the Scheme and some consideration as to whether we ought to change the name but this was rejected and some discussion around the logo and Alan said he would be happy to receive any ideas. It was agreed that we should mail authorities in Kent and Essex to see if any of them were actually interested in joining the Scheme and that authorities be asked for a list of key names, eg Portfolio Holders and Chief Executives. Members of the Steering Group were asked to provide Ian with details of contacts for the various Chiefs Group which he would then contact. ACTION: ALL It was noted that some authorities had created a link from the SERMG web page to their own authority's web page. Alan would look at the question of an article for the yellow pages. ACTION: AMH It was also suggested that we should be contacting the Health Protection Agency in view of their role in relation to radiological protection to raise the profile of SERMG and ensure they were aware of what Local Authorities did in the field of radiation monitoring. ACTION: AMH It had generally been agreed that it had been a good venue and in particular the presentation on mobile phones had been well received. It was felt in future we should produce some sort of evaluation form to go round to delegates to try and ensure we obtained some feedback on the Conference. Expressions of interest had been sought from half a dozen other contractors in relation to the SERMG contract. Two had responded but neither was comparable in price to the current arrangements with Southampton University. No further action would be taken in relation to these two expressions of interest. ACTION: AMH March / April 2003 |
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