Agenda and minutes

Please note that this meeting may be filmed or recorded by the Council for live or subsequent broadcast via the Council’s internet site or by anyone attending the meeting using any communication method. Although we ask members of the public recording, filming or reporting on the meeting not to include the public seating areas, members of the public attending the meeting should be aware that we cannot guarantee that they will not be filmed or recorded by others attending the meeting. Members of the public participating in the meeting (e.g. making deputations, asking questions, making oral protests) should be aware that they are likely to be filmed, recorded or reported on. 

By entering the meeting room and using the public seating area, you are consenting to being filmed and to the possible use of those images and sound recordings.

The chair of the meeting has the discretion to terminate or suspend filming or recording, if in his or her opinion continuation of the filming, recording or reporting would disrupt or prejudice the proceedings, infringe the rights of any individual or may lead to the breach of a legal obligation by the Council.

The Chair referred Members present to agenda Item 1 as shown on the agenda in respect of filming at this meeting, and Members noted the information contained therein’.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Berryman, Councillor Hare, Colin Marr, Councillor Jogee and Neil Coe (Alexandra Palace and Park Estate Manager).

Apologies for lateness were received from Councillors Christophides and Stennett.

COUNCILLOR TIM GALLAGHER IN THE CHAIR

Whilst the meeting was quorate with two voting members present, in accordance with Part 4, section B, Committee Procedure Rules, of the Council’s constitution, three voting members were required to transact any business.  Therefore, it was:

RESOLVED that, the order of the agenda be varied to enable information items 9, 10, 13 and 15 to be considered first.

Clerk’s note: Councillor Christophides arrived at 20:05 hours and took the Chair for items 4, 6, 7, 8, 11,12, 14-20.

Councillor Stennett arrived at 20:35 hours.

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of urgent business. (Late items will be considered under the agenda item where they appear. New items will be dealt with at items 16 & 21 below)

None.

None.

None.

i.              To confirm the unrestricted minutes of the Alexandra Palace and Park Board held on 23 June 2015 as an accurate record of the proceedings. (Pages 1-5)

ii.            To receive the minutes of the Alexandra Park and  Palace Advisory  Committee held on 9 June 2015, and to consider any recommendations from that Committee. (Pages 7-10)

iii.           To receive and consider the draft minutes of the informal Joint Alexandra Palace and Park Consultative Committee, and Alexandra Park and  Palace Advisory  Committee held on 9 June 2015. (TO FOLLOW)

iv.           To receive the draft minutes of the Alexandra Palace and Park Consultative Committee held on 9 June 2015. (TO FOLLOW)

The minutes of the meeting held on 23 June 2015 were confirmed and signed by the Chair as a correct record of the meeting.

To receive the report of the Interim Chief Executive, Emma Dagnes, seeking approval of the programme of priority works and Fabric Maintenance Plan.

RECEIVED the report of the Interim Chief Executive, Alexandra Palace and Park (APP), Emma Dagnes, on the proposed programme of works, as laid out on pages 11 to 23 of the agenda pack).

NOTED that

a.         Board members would be given the opportunity to tour the areas of work once the roof works had been completed and areas were safe;

Action: Emma Dagnes and Neil Coe

b.         in response to Board members concerns

·         that lower-priced deferred works could cost more if delayed.  This was accepted by Emma Dagnes who emphasised that the budget was limited and judgements were based on priority.  The Estate Manager, Neil Coe was sourcing the best prices for work in order to stretch that budget;

·         all work would be in line with conservation documents and work would be done for a long term approach, rather than patchwork;

c.         in relation to the pigeon guano removal highlighted on plan on page 17, Emma Dagnes agreed to investigate whether past use of hawks/ falcons to remove pigeons from the Palace building had been successful.  The Board agreed that if this method was to be considered Park users must be sufficiently warned (to avoid the risk of small dogs being targeted);

d.         the gas main replacement would be routed through the golf course and discussions were taking place with the operators.  Further to an enquiry by Gordon Hutchinson, Emma Dagnes explained that an option suggested by the Friends of the Park to avoid digging up the ground had been considered.  She would report to the Board the reason why this was found not to be a viable option.

ACTION: EMMA DAGNES

RESOLVED to approve the proposed programme of priority works and delivery programme for 2015/16, with the proposed Fabric Maintenance Plan work packages to be deferred into future years, and, to note the update on the Fabric Maintenance Plan and services.

To note and reconfirm the decision of the Board taken on 23^rd June 2015 in respect of the four nominated members to the Board of Alexandra Palace Trading Limited (APTL).

RECEIVED the report confirming the four nominated members of the Alexandra Palace Trading Company (APTL) Board, pages 25-27 of the agenda pack.

RESOLVED to

a.         reconfirm the four nominated Alexandra Palace and Park Charitable Trust Board members: (agreed at the 23 June meeting) Councillors Christophides, Berryman, Hare and Stennett as Directors of the Alexandra Palace Trading Company (APL) Board, and;

b.         to approve the appointment of the London Borough of Haringey’s Assistant Director of Finance and the existing Non-Executive Director (Rick Wills) appointments to the Trading Company Board to allow the business of the Trading Company to proceed.

To receive the report of the Alexandra Park Manager, Mark Evison, updating on park activities.

RECEIVED the report of the APP Park Manager , Mark Evison, as laid out on pages 20-43 of the agenda pack).

REPORTED that

a.         a local resident and neighbour of the Park for more than 60 years had expressed to Mark Evison that the Park had never looked so good;

b.         the outcome of the grounds maintenance contract review, paragraph 6.2, would be reported to the Board later in the year;

c.         Go Ape had been on site to finalise plans for the installation of the tree-top adventure course and details would be further reported.  Planning permission had not yet been sought;

d.         the tenants of the Campsbourne Centre had made an offer in response to proposed new lease terms, which was being considered by the Park Manager and legal representatives.

NOTED in response to questions and discussion:

e.         it was emphasised that the Park discussion vision document, produced by landscape architects, was not a planning application or masterplan document.  It had been presented to the various stakeholders listed in paragraph 6.1 and included conversations with Alexandra Palace staff about how the Park affected events operations;

f.          a common area of contention which arose from discussions was the sharing of space, notably, pedestrians and cyclists;

g.         Alexandra Park staff had built a good working relationship with the Chairman and Secretary of the Cricket and Football Clubs.

RESOLVED to note the report.

Clerk’s note: Mark Evison left the meeting at the end of this item (19:45 hrs).

To receive the update report from the Head of Learning and Community Programmes, Melissa Tettey.

RECEIVED the report of the Head of Learning and Community Programmes APP (pages 45-50 of the agenda pack), Melissa Tettey, who provided the following update:

a.         the exhibition had now welcomed 3094 people.  Additional material had been added to the exhibition, including;

·         The original Kenner watercolour loaned from the Imperial War Museum;

·         Two silver tennis cups;

·         Weekly visitors permit;

·         Pewter ring.

Members of the Board were encouraged to revisit the exhibition and a press release would notify existing visitors and encourage new visitors;

b.         a four week photography project inspired by the stories of the Belgian Refugees and German Internees took place involving five NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) participants. Some of the photographs were being showcased on the Palace’s Facebook account.  One participant, based on the number of likes their photographs receive, will have the opportunity to shadow a professional photographer at an Alexandra Palace event this year;

c.         since May 2015 the learning programme had welcomed over 900 pupils.  A new learning leaflet was being designed to send to all schools at the start of the new academic year.  The focus will be to engage existing and new schools from Haringey, Barnet, Islington and Enfield;

d.         planning was underway to develop additional workshops and resources to engage pupils and families during the summer holidays;

e.         bookings had been taken for a Teddy Bears Picnic for new Year 1’s from St Mary’s N8 at the end of August, and a visit from Heartland High’s new Year 7’s for mid August.

NOTED thanks to Melissa Tettey, who was leaving Alexandra Palace, for all her hard work in leading the learning and community programmes team.  Nigel Willmott expressed particular thanks to Melissa on behalf of the Friends of Alexandra Palace Theatre.

RESOLVED to note the recent progress with the Trust’s learning and community programmes.

To receive the report of the Director of Finance and Resources, Alexandra Palace, Dorota Dominiczak on the performance of the Alexandra Palace and Park Charitable Trust (APPCT).

RECEIVED the report setting out the results for the Alexandra Palace and Park Charitable Trust (APPCT) for the 2 month period ending 31 May 2015, pages 51 – 55 of the agenda pack, introduced by Dorota Dominiczak, Director of Finance and Resources (APPCT).

NOTED, further to discussion of the figures on page 53, that

a.         a more detailed format of incoming and outgoing resources of the Trust and HLF Project was introduced to report a performance vs budget targets as rigorous monitoring was a key to successful managing of finances of both;

b.        in 2015-16 LBH’s financial support was being paid as a grant rather than a loan; a monthly phasing was difficult to profile in the first year of this new arrangement and a regular re-forecasting was undertaken to monitor resources;

c.         the 2015/16 self-fundraising target of £840,000 towards the HLF (Heritage Lottery Fund) project was recognised as an ambitious amount to raise in 2015/16; furthermore it was acknowledged that it was not unusual for a capital project of this type to fund-raise substantial amounts at later stage of a project development due to public awareness and publicity. 

RESOLVED to note the performance of the Trust as laid out in the report.

RECEIVED the report on the amendments to the Annual Review 2014/15, detailed on pages 57 and 58 of the agenda pack.

NOTED that the amendments had been approved by the Charitable Trust’s auditors.

RESOLVED to approve the Annual Review 2014/15.

To note the report of the Interim Regeneration Director, Tot Brill, updating on the Heritage Lottery Fund project.

RECEIVED the report of the Interim Regeneration Director, Alexandra Park and Palace Charitable Trust, Tot Brill, detailing key dates and progress for the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) Project.

NOTED that

a.         it was expected that further survey works in the theatre (mentioned in paragraph 7.2) would be carried out as part of the enabling works in November 2015 rather than before.  This was due to a delay in survey bids being returned by some contractors.

            In response to questioning it was clarified that there were no particular issues in the market place. There was one particular contractor the Palace would like to be included in the list of potential bidders, but they had not returned a bid in time for the survey works to be carried out in advance of the enabling works;

b.         three contractors had returned Expressions of Interest (paragraph 7.3) and were all considered to be competent contractors.  The Palace was in the process of short-listing and it was expected that all three would be invited to submit fuller tenders.

RESOLVED to note the contents of the report.

To receive the report of the Interim Director of Regeneration, Tot Brill, seeking approval of the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) project fundraising programme.

RECEIVED the report on Fundraising for the Heritage Lottery Funded Restoration Project (pages 117-122 of the agenda pack), seeking agreement to support the fundraising programme, introduced by Tot Brill.

NOTED that

a.         the Palace had been approached by a major fundraising organisation to be a donation recipient;

b.         Trustees’ were requested to support the fundraising campaign by contributing and putting their names on the fundraising page;

c.         an Artistic Policy for the theatre had been drafted focusing on music theatre and music performances and would be shared with the Friends of the Theatre once signed off by the Interim Chief Executive.

RESOLVED to agree the fundraising commitment in Sections 8 and 9 of the report and the recommendations at paragraph 9.3.    

To receive the report of the Commercial Director, Lucy Fenner, Alexandra Palace, updating on commercial activities including the Fireworks Projects Plan.

RECEIVED the Commercial Director’s report, presented by Lucy Fenner (Commercial Director), updating on commercial activity and events. 

REPORTED that

a.         Prince William had attended the Jewish Care charity 25^th anniversary fundraising dinner in the West Hall (paragraph 6.7);

b.         the Foodies Festival held on 3-5 July had been well attended and feedback had been positive;

c.         16,000 visitors attended the Redbull event, which had been televised on the Dave channel where viewers had increased by 35% compared to the previous year. In response to a question relating to the event’s 20,000 tickets having sold out it was explained that there had been a significant number of drop-outs which had been expected;

d.         the capacity for the darts event had increased to 3,000 visitors per session;

e.         Warner Estate residents had provided positive feedback in relation to the management of events at its meeting the previous week;

NOTED in response to questions and comments:

e.         the Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) had hosted its first event at the Palace;

f.          the ‘beach park’ was the area outdoor beer garden;

g.         the beer craft festival brought new audiences to the Palace even when it rained;

h.         many of the upcoming events were advertised in the Metro and in Time Out (numerous times) as well as through other online promotions and e-shots;

i.          Gordon Hutchinson expressed that the Foodies Festival and Red Bull events were both good examples of large events held without causing nuisance to local residents and park users.  The events had been set up without the need to close the Park and were well sign-posted.

RESOLVED to note the contents of the report; the Park activity; and that planning for the 2015 fireworks event was underway.

Clerk’s note: Lucy Fenner left the meeting after consideration of this item (19:55 hrs).

None.

22 September 2015

17 November 2015

16 February 2016

Noted the following dates:

22 September 2015

17 November 2015

16 February 2016

Items 19 & 20 are likely to be subject of a motion to exclude the press and public from the meeting as they contain exempt information as defined in Section 100a of the Local Government Act 1972; Para 1 – information relating to any individual, Para 2 – Information which is likely to reveal the identity of an individual,  Para 3 - information relating to the business or financial affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information), and Para 5 – Information in respect of which a claim to legal professional privilege could be maintained in legal proceedings.

RESOLVED to exclude the press and public from the meeting for items 32 – 34, as they were likely to contain exempt information as defined in Section 100a of the Local Government Act 1972; Paragraph 3 – Information relating to the business or financial affairs or any particular person (including the authority holding that information).

To confirm the exempt minutes of the Alexandra Palace and Park Board held on 23 June 2015  as an accurate record of the proceedings.

The exempt minutes of the meeting held on 23 June 2015 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

To note the performance of the Trading Company (APTL) for the period ending 31 May 2015.

RESOLVED to note the performance of the Trading Company for the period ended 31 May 2015.