thanks Jason (and sorry for my delay in replying... used to getting an email when theres a reply to a post and forgot to clcik on subscribe)
Thats fixed the visible galleries, but the settings area in the backend still showing that error as per my original image... have tried setting permissions to 755 to that fold (and sub folders) directly and nothing... when I go back to change permissions it has reverted back to 777
Basically, when I click on settings in the choosedesign page, the permissions remain 755. I then get to the editing page it prompts 'An Unsaved Theme Was Found' and when I click continue, thats when the permissions automatically get changed back to 777