THE LEEDS ASSOCIATION OF ENGINEERS
Minutes of the Council Meeting held at 7.15pm on Thursday 4th December 2025 at The Corner House Club Leeds.
1. Attendance. G. Roper in the chair with J. Aldersley, S. Wilkinson, M. Murray, and I. Blakeley.
2. Apologies for absence. J. Burton, I. Auty, C. Pinder, N. Burchall, M. Golubevs, A. Kibler, J. Bentley, A. Rogers, G. Toulson, H. Soutar, S. Stacey and R. Town .
3. Minutes of the Previous Meeting, dated 6th November 2025 were approved & signed.
4. Matters Arising. None.
5. Treasurers Report. In Mr. Kibler’s absence he sent his report by email. Bank transactions since the last meeting are listed below.
| Date | Transaction | Debit | Credit |
| 06/Nov/25 | Subs – Ian Blakeley | – | 20.00 |
| 06/Nov/25 | Subs – Ross Town | – | 20.00 |
| 07/Nov/25 | Mars Rover Project – c/o Harry Soutar | 500.00 | – |
| 10/Nov/25 | Subs – Graham Roper | – | 20.00 |
| 12/Nov/25 | Subs – J. Kelsall | – | 15.00 |
| 12/Nov/25 | Subs – Chris Burgess | – | 40.00 |
| 17/Nov/25 | Subs – M. Garland | – | 20.00 |
| 20/Nov/25 | Subs – E. Atkinson | – | 20.00 |
| 27/Nov/25 | Subs – D. Bannister | – | 20.00 |
| 27/Nov/25 | Subs – E. Battye | – | 20.00 |
| 27/Nov/25 | Other – Bank Charges | 6.80 | – |
| 02/Dec/25 | Subs – M. Richardson | – | 25.00 |
| 03/Dec/25 | Subs – J. Shergill | – | 20.00 |
Balance of Accounts was reported but not published here.
6. Correspondence. Mr. Wilkinson attended the Leeds Manufacturing Festival, representing the Leeds Association of Engineers (LAE). He said he felt the festival was more focused on employers but he did get the opportunity to have a conversation with David Baggaley of the Leeds Manufacturing Alliance. David said that organising visits for their members causes them administrative difficulties, but he would be prepared to share contact details with us if their members are allowed to join any visits/lectures we arrange. University Technical College (UTC Leeds) have responded to Mr. Aldersley’s initial enquiry. They have said we will be able to visit them as a group but the visit would have to be during the daytime because essentially they keep school hours, unless our visit was on the day of a parents evening. Mr. Aldersley and Mr. Roper will arrange to visit the college to discuss how we can progress our relationship with the college. We thought it might be appropriate for some of our student members to visit and possibly offer to give them a talk/lecture.
7. Membership. Mr. Murray said there are no new applications this month. He said that Francis Atkinson had been considering resigning from the Leeds Association due to his poor health, however, he has renewed his membership for another year.
8. Orion Project “The Mars Rover”. Nothing to report other than Mr. Kibler has transferred the £500 sponsorship donation, agreed at the last council meeting, from the Leeds Association’s account into Mr. Soutar’s Orion Project Account.
9. Current Programme. We do not have a lecture or factory visit in December because it’s very difficult to get members to attend so close to Christmas. At this point we have no lectures or visits planned for the New Year. This means we need to quickly get five events in place. Mr. Aldersley said he will ask Mr. Pinder if he could give a talk/lecture in January 2026. This could perhaps be something relating to the World Skills Event that he has been participating in. Mr. Wilkinson feels that he has a good chance of securing a visit to ACS Stainless Steel Fixings Limited in February, and is also looking to get either a lecture or visit with Airedale International Air Conditioning. Mr. Aldersley said he hopes to get the agreed visit to Sulzer (Morley) organised but this is dependent on them finishing their building work. Mr. Murray has sent an enquiry to Fox’s Biscuits (Batley) but has not got a response but will follow this up. He also suggested that we try Westin Drives (drive reconditioning company in Huddersfield). Further suggestions included contacting Braime Manufacturing, a long time sponsor of Leeds Association’s Golf tournament and Nestle in Halifax (confectionery manufacturer). If we are able to secure more visits/lectures than we need they can be carried over into the session starting in September.
10. Next Session. We have an offer of two lectures/talks from Mr. Soutar. One on the Orion Project and the second one will be on the subject of his project on his Master’s Degree. We have the offer of a return visit to Siddall Hilton (wire mesh manufacturer). We also have the offer of a visit to Millers Oils but this will be a daytime visit. We have been offered a visit Greyhound Box Company (cardboard packaging manufacturer). It was suggested that we investigate the cost of using Probus for finding lectures.
11. Website. As well as the website, we now have a LinkedIn profile for the Leeds Association which has been created by Mr. Wilkinson. Mr. Toulson has brought the website up to date and this includes a short power point presentation by our Australian member Vas Dziombak who is Chief Reliability Officer (mechanical) for BHP Billington, an iron ore mine in Western Australia. Mr. Aldersley said he has asked Neil Cobbold to do a brief report on our factory visit to Carnaud Metalbox (Wortley) for the website.
12. Golf. Mr. Stacey said there is nothing to report regarding the 2026 Golf Tournament it is too early.
13. Annual Dinner. Nothing further to report.
14. Annual Church Service. Mr. Roper (our new President) will be doing the reading.
15. Journal. Nothing to do.
16. Morley Church Hall Closure. It is unlikely that the Morley Church Hall will be closing before the end of this session May 2026, however Mr. Aldersley, Mr. Roper and Mr. Wilkinson (LAE Council member and WDS employee) had a meeting with Andrew Dawson the Managing Director of WDS Components Limited where it was agreed that we can have access to one of their meeting rooms. We are unlikely to use this facility before the start of the next session in September 2026. We have agreed to give corporate membership of LAE to WDS Ltd for free in exchange for use of their facilities. Mr. Wilkinson will act as a key-holder and meetings will be when the factory is working nightshifts.
Any other Business. Mr. Aldersley has agreed to formalise a role he has been doing for a while, he now has the title of Events Secretary. Having no other business Mr. Roper closed the meeting.
.
……………………………………………President.……………………………….….. Date