Agenda item

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 members’ views.

RESOLVED

i)          That the contents of the report be noted.

ii)         That the design proposals as described at sections 4-7 of the report be endorsed, for consideration by the Alexandra Palace and Park Board.