Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Ken Ranson, Denise Feeney, Councillors Beacham, Christophides, Demirci, Peacock and Williams.

Apologies for lateness were received from Councillor Scott.

The Chair welcomed Kevin Stanfield to the meeting as the new representative of the Palace Gates Residents’ Association.

A member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or a prejudicial interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered:

(i) must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest becomes apparent, and

(ii) may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter and must withdraw from the meeting room.

A member who discloses at a meeting a disclosable pecuniary interest which is not registered in the Register of Members’ Interests or the subject of a pending notification must notify the Monitoring Officer of the interest within 28 days of the disclosure.

Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal interests and prejudicial interests are defined at Paragraphs 5-7 and Appendix A of the Members’ Code of Conduct.

Councillor Jenks declared a personal interest as he was a member of the Warner Estate Resident’s Association.

Councillor Hare declared a personal interest as he was the Chair of the Alexandra Palace Allotments Association.

i.          To approve the minutes of the Joint Informal Statutory Advisory and Consultative Committees held on 15 January 2013.

ii.         To note the minutes of the Advisory Committee held on 15 January 2013.

iii.        To note the draft minutes of the meeting of the Alexandra Palace and Park Board held on 7 February 2013.

i)          The minutes of the information Joint Statutory Advisory and Consultative Committees held on 15 January 2013 were approved as a correct record.

Matters Arising

APSC105 – Jacob O’Callaghan informed the Committees that he was minded not to raise this for discussion at this meeting but depending on further enquiries, he may want to raise this issue at a future meeting.

ii)         The minutes of the Statutory Advisory Committee meeting held on 15 January 2013 were noted.

iii)       The draft unrestricted minutes of the Alexandra Palace and Park Board held on 7 February 2013 were noted.

Matters Arising

APBO270 – Councillor Jenks referred to the meeting held before the Board meeting in February and asked whether any members of the opposition had been invited (as the minute referred to ‘strong cross-party support’).  Duncan Wilson advised that the minute did not mean that strong cross-party support had arisen as a result of the meeting referred to, but that there was support for the HLF bid by both parties.  The meeting referred to was with HLF representatives, and the Leader of the Council and the Chief Executive had attended.  No other Councillors had been invited to attend.

APBO272 – Members asked for details of the complaints made in regard to the overnight gate closures.  Mark Evison explained that most of the complaints were from people who used the gates late at night and still wanted them to be open, but none of the complaints were alarming.  The gates closure was still in the trial period, and a full evaluation would be made at the end of this period.

The Chief Executive, Alexandra Palace & Park, will outline the nominations process for the election of Chair and Vice-Chair for the Statutory Advisory and Consultative Committees, and delegates to the Alexandra Palace and Park Board.

These elections will take place at the first meeting of the Municipal Year (18 June 2013).

Duncan Wilson outlined the process for nominations of Chairs and Vice-Chairs for the Committees, and the 3 non-voting representatives to the Alexandra Palace and Park Board.

Members could provide advanced notice of nominations to the Clerk, and nominations would also be sought on the night of the meeting (18 June 2013).

Colin Marr raised the issue of the status of the joint meetings and their  ‘informal’ designation.  He advised that he would like to re-visit this issue over the course of the year, and asked for any comments from Members.  Jane Hutchinson commented that the SAC was a body constituted by the Act of Parliament and so any changes to that would involve a change to the Act.  Nigel Willmott suggested that the change could be made by the Council, and that the joint meeting could be formally constituted, rather than changing the Act.  Duncan Wilson agreed to see what legal advice had already been provided on the matter.

ACTION: Chief Executive

To receive the report of the Chief Executive, Alexandra Palace and Park.

Duncan Wilson – Chief Executive, Alexandra Palace and Park – introduced the report as set out.

NOTED:

Regeneration project

·               The HLF stage 1 bid had been successful, and £844,800 had been awarded for the development phase funding.  The stage 2 bid would be in approximately 18 months – to allow for the procurement of a design team and about a year for the design process.

·               In parallel with the HLF bid, soft market testing was being carried out in regard to regeneration elsewhere in the palace – hotel and event spaces.

·               The Chairmen and members of the Committee expressed their congratulations to Duncan Wilson and the rest of his team who had been involved in the process.  The Chair also commented that it was gratifying for this Committee to know that its representatives had influenced the final shape of the successful bid.  Members also expressed their thanks to Councillor Pat Egan and Julie Parker (Director of Corporate Resources).

·               Councillor Cooke commented that the success of the bid was testament to the leadership of Duncan Wilson and was the result of a lot of hard work of his team.  The Leader of the Council had provided much support to the process.

·               Duncan Wilson provided the following responses to questions:

-       The HLF decision was unanimous.

-       Donald Insall were not referenced in the Regeneration Strategy Workshop papers as they had reached the end of their current assignment – the appointment of a Surveyor to the Fabric would take on that role.

-       Restoration of the organ would be approached differently to other projects.  It was more challenging to demonstrate the level of community support and involvement required, and a major project in its own right.  Although it was not included in the current regeneration project, it had not been forgotten.

Red Bull event

·               The Red Bull event plan was outlined in the report.  The 20k attendance figure has been put to the Licensing Authority for the premises licence, although actual attendance was likely to be around 15k.

·               Gordon Hutchinson raised some concerns about the plan for the day – there had been some changes in the infrastructure since he had met with officers on behalf of Friends of the Park.  Duncan Wilson suggested that Gordon Hutchinson met with Mark Evison, Emma Dagnes and Red Bull to discuss the issues further and resolve them.

ACTION: Mark Evison / Emma Dagnes

150^th event

·               The report contained a lot of detail on the 150^th event.  Efforts had been made to include the community as much as possible.

CPZ proposals

·               The purpose of including this in the report was to draw the Committee’s attention to the possible implications of parking at the Palace should a CPZ be implemented.  Some reservations were expressed about the existence of the bays at all, but it was accepted that if a local CPZ was implemented there would be a case for some form of parking control there.  Any detailed proposals would be put to the Committees for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 113.

To receive the report of the Park Manager, Alexandra Palace and Park.

Mark Evison – Park Manager, Alexandra Palace and Park – introduced the report as set out.

NOTED:

·               The draft Alexandra Park Design Guide was attached as Appendix 1 of the report.  This guide would help to improve quality and maintain consistency of the park furniture.

·               Mark Evison provided the following responses to questions:

-       Whilst the benches could not be made vandal-proof, the use of thinner slats could help to prevent vandalism.

-       It would be possible to provide wire mesh bins for overflow when the park was particularly busy – Mark Evison agreed to look into this.

ACTION: Mark Evison

·               Members asked whether a colour scheme had been adopted for the palace.  Duncan Wilson advised that the final decision was about to be made on the shade of green paint for the colonnade.  Some members expressed an interest in seeing the colour choice before the final decision was made.  Duncan Wilson asked that those members contact him in the next couple of days to arrange a visit.

RESOLVED to note the report.

RESOLVED

To receive the report of the Chief Executive, Alexandra Palace and Park.

Duncan Wilson – Chief Executive, Alexandra Palace and Park – introduced the report as set out.

NOTED:

Little Dinosaurs

·               Members of the Committee had visited the Little Dinosaurs site on 9 April 2013 to go through the proposals relating to the building and the surrounding grounds.  Further details of the proposals were set out in page 53 of the report.

·               The operator of Little Dinosaurs has asked for some indication from the Committees as to whether the proposals would be supported before further design work was carried out.

·               The following comments were made by the Committee:

-       There were concerns over the suggested use of artificial turf, as it may spoil the appearance of the area

-       There was an advertisement board on the south west elevation of the building – it was unknown if this was authorised.  Mr Jenkins (operator) explained that the sign was useful to people entering from Muswell Hill as it helped to show where the building was.

-       Other issues were raised at the site visit were the bouncy castle and the sound of the compressor running. 

·               Duncan Wilson suggested that Mr Jenkins could work with the Palace’s design team to develop a more sympathetic / appropriate sign.

Advertising consent application, Alexandra Palace

·               The most common criticism of the Palace was that it was hard to find out any information at the Palace.

·               Appendix 2 detailed the creative concepts and locations for Alexandra Park and Palace branding on the East, South and West façades.

·               Councillor Cooke encouraged members to think of the advertisements as adding momentum to engaging with the public.  The advertisements would give some history or the Palace and provide up to date information.

·               Members made the following comments:

-       Whilst the idea of providing information at the Palace was a good one, careful thought needed to be given to the fascias on the South Terrace – the design should be discreet and not detrimental to the look of the Palace.

-       It would be useful to have some signage at the theatre, perhaps at location 6.  Signs to the theatre inside the ice rink would also be useful.

-       There would be an improvement to the existing signage at the Palm Court entrance, however location 3 (South Terrace) needed to be treated with sensitivity.

-       It was important that events were advertised – but outside events should pay for their own advertising.

-       The advertisement boards were a good opportunity to provide information to people who were travelling past the Palace by bus.

Protection of areas adjacent to the north façade

·               Duncan Wilson advised of the possible measures that may need to be taken in order to make the north façade safe.  The Committees would be asked for their comments (this might be at short notice) should this work need to go ahead.

RESOLVED

i)          To endorse the content of the proposals by the owner of Little Dinosaurs, taking into account the comments made by the Statutory Advisory Committee and the Consultative  ...  view the full minutes text for item 115.

None.

There were no such items.

Jane Hutchinson requested that all Committee Members publicise the 150^th event to their members, friends and families.  Mark Evison agreed to send the poster round to Members.

ACTION: Mark Evison

Tuesday 18 June 2013 (Members, please note the change in date)

Thursday 10 October 2013

Tuesday 28 January 2014

NOTED the dates of future meetings:

Tuesday 18 June 2013

Thursday 10 October 2013

Tuesday 28 January 2014