Agenda and minutes

Venue: The Londesborough Room, Alexandra Palace, Alexandra Palace Way, N22 7AY

Contact: Felicity Foley, Committees Manager 

Items
No. Item

100.

FILMING AT MEETINGS

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.

Minutes:

The meeting was not filmed.

101.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Duncan Neill and Nigel Willmott.

102.

URGENT BUSINESS

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 12 & 20 below)

Minutes:

None.

103.

DECLARATIONS OF INTERESTS

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.

Minutes:

None.

104.

QUESTIONS, DEPUTATIONS OR PETITIONS

To consider any questions, deputations or petitions received In accordance with Part 4, Section B29 of the Council's Constitution.

Minutes:

The Chair advised that Mr Jacob O’Callaghan had submitted questions in advance of the meeting.  Mr O’Callaghan raised his questions at the meeting, and responses were provided by the Chair as below:

 

1.      To ask if the Board as the Charity's Charity Trustees, and as such with final responsibility for the Charity, will resolve to indeed in future take such final responsibility at meetings of the Alexandra Palace and Park Committee, for considering and agreeing on which days/evenings to light the Mast for commemorative, celebratory, and other non-commercial purposes (unless the Full Council as trustee resolves to do so itself) 

 

The Board’s role is to ensure the Charity is fulfilling its charitable purposes, by providing strategic direction.  The Policy for lighting the mast is set by the Board in line with its duty to ensure the Trust’s resources are used to deliver its charitable purposes.

 

The CEO is responsible for ensuring the activities of the Trust remain within the policies set by the Board. The Trustee Board would therefore not be consulted on individual applications to light the mast. 

 

The Application Form states that lighting requests should align with our charitable purposes. We have been transparent in how such operational decisions are made. However, the Trustee Board will Review its policy and process to ensure that it is as clear and transparent as it can be.

 

2.      To ask if the Board will resolve that (in line with the Palace's status as a charitable trust, and a Listed building) such purposes will have priority over coloured lighting for commercial purposes, and exceptions to this should be determined by the Board itself. 

 

The Policy states that any lighting of the mast should be within the Trust’s charitable purposes. The purposes include to provide recreation and entertainment. The activities of the Trust that provide recreation and entertainment, that are deemed commercial in nature are contained within its trading subsidiary Alexandra Palace Trading Ltd (APTL). The profits from APTL’s activities are gifted by a charitable donation to the Trust and contribute, with the licence fee and restoration levy, over 50% of the Trust’s operating costs annually. Requests by APTL to light the mast are therefore within the charitable purposes and in the Trusts best interests.

 

3.         To ask if they will further resolve to obtain the assurances of officers that those who suggest occasions on which the mast be lit for non-commercial purposes, are in future always informed of the date and time of such meeting and be allowed to make representations to the Board should they wish. 

 

The requests to approve the lighting of the mast are reviewed against the policy and if appropriate authorised by the CEO or the Deputy CEO, depending on availability. Ordinarily no meeting takes place as it is not required. A recent request was made for an annual commitment, as such the longer-term implications of such a commitment were reviewed, at the request of the CEO, by an internal group of senior staff to assess those consequences,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 104.

105.

MINUTES

i.              To confirm the unrestricted minutes of the Alexandra Palace and Park Board held on 29 March 2021 as an accurate record of the proceedings. (To follow)

ii.            To confirm the unrestricted minutes of the Alexandra Palace and Park Panel held on 7 June 2021 as an accurate record of the proceedings. (To follow).

 

Minutes:

The minutes of the last meeting were unavailable for approval.

106.

APPOINTMENTS TO COMMITTEES pdf icon PDF 140 KB

To ratify the memberships To ratify the memberships of the Advisory and Consultative Committees for 2021/22, and to appoint: members of FRRAC (Finance, Risk, Resource and Audit Committee), directors of APTL (Alexandra Palace Trading Limited), Programme Board members and lead Trustees for Safeguarding, Whistleblowing and EDI (Equity, Diversity & Inclusion). 

Minutes:

RESOLVED

 

1.         To note membership of the Alexandra Park and Palace Statutory Advisory Committee, as listed in Appendix 1 of the report;

2.         To note the membership of the Alexandra Park and Palace Consultative Committee, as listed in Appendix 1 of the report;

3.         To appoint Councillors Carlin, Hare, Stennett and Weston as Trustee Board members for the Finance, Resource, Risk and Audit Committee (FRRAC);

4.         To agree that Councillor Weston will act as Chair of FRRAC;

5.         To appoint Councillors da Costa, Carlin, Hearn and Stennett to act as APTL Company Directors;

6.         To appoint Councillors Carlin and Hare to the Programme Board;

7.         To appoint:

i.          Councillor Weston as Lead Safeguarding trustee;

ii.         Councillor Weston as Lead Whistleblowing trustee;

iii.        Councillor Hearn as Lead Equity, Diversity and Inclusion trustee.

107.

TO CONSIDER ANY ADVICE OR COMMENTS FROM RECENT SAC/CC MEETINGS pdf icon PDF 193 KB

To note the minutes of the SAC and SAC-CC meetings held on 15 March 2021 and any advice contained therein.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The contents of the minutes of the meetings held on 15 March 2021 were noted.

108.

FRRAC CHAIR'S REPORT pdf icon PDF 72 KB

To note the feedback from the Finance, Risk, Resource & Audit Committee (FRRAC) meeting on 21 June 2021.

Minutes:

Councillor Carlin introduced the report as set out.  Work was underway on the rewiring and fire detection work following receipt of a grant from the Local Authority.  The accounts were due to be completed and signed off in September 2021.  Significant fundraising had been raised in difficult circumstances, and ticket sales for Kaleidoscope were doing well.

 

RESOLVED

 

i            To note the report;

 

ii.         To be mindful of the progress made on the governance improvements programme, when considering agenda item 7 (Appointments to Committees) and continues to appoint a FRRAC Chair who is not also Chair of the APPCT Board.

 

iii.       To consider for approval the 2020/21 End of Year Report and Accounts, when presented in September 2021, subject to there being no further queries or comments raised by FRRAC.

109.

2021/21 - END OF YEAR MONITORING REPORT pdf icon PDF 154 KB

To note the annual summary of complaints, theatre activity and the outdoor event monitoring framework.

Minutes:

Louise Stewart, Chief Executive Alexandra Palace, introduced the report as set out.

 

In response to a question from a Board Member, it was noted that the Outdoor Events Monitoring report would likely skip a year, and the difficulty of linking impact on the Park with events was proved in the past year.

 

RESOLVED to note the report.

110.

CEO'S REPORT pdf icon PDF 190 KB

To note the update on current issues, projects and activities.

Minutes:

Louise Stewart, Chief Executive Alexandra Palace, introduced the report as set out, and responded to questions from Members:

-           The Lateral Flow Test centre in the Transmitter Hall was in the process of closing down, but there was no information on how long the PCR test centre would remain in the Paddock (although they were aware that they would need to vacate by September for the first large event).

-           Fundraising – because the full amount had not been raised, donations would be returned to the donors.

 

DorotaDominiczak provided an update on the financial position:

 

Unrestricted reserves and cash flow

-           2021/22 was presented as a deficit revenue budget but in terms of bankrolling this budget there were cash resources brought to April 2021 of £1.270m.  Based on end of June figures, the management accounts did not show any material difference.

-           Income in total is £2.2m compared to last year income achieved of £5.2m, which included emergency grants and £615k Gift Aid.  This year there would be no emergency funding or Gift Aid.

-           The risk was in the 2021/22 cash flow.  The current cash flow was showing a cash deficit of just under £200k in March 2022.

 

Capital projects

-           Rewiring, alarms and lighting = £1.358m.  This would be funded from a £858k special capital grant from LBH and £500k sustainability loan from Salix.  Any overspend could be met from existing capital resources.

 

Risks beyond March 2022

-           Unrestricted cash flow in 2022/23 – currently being modelled, assuming no additional unrestricted funding and no Gift Aid from Trading (means no profit made in 2021/22) so there would be an unbalanced cash flow from November/December 2022. 

-           It had been agreed with the Corporate Trustee that no loan repayments would be made until April 2022.  If repayments were demanded in 2022/23, cash flow would be worse than predicted.

 

RESOLVED to note the report.

111.

ANY OTHER UNRESTRICTED BUSINESS THE CHAIR CONSIDERS TO BE URGENT

Minutes:

None.

112.

FUTURE MEETINGS

11 October 2021

13 December 2021

24 January 2022

15 March 2022

Minutes:

11 October 2021

13 December 2021

24 January 2022

15 March 2022

113.

EXCLUSION OF THE PUBLIC AND PRESS

Items 15-20 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 3 - information relating to the business or financial affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).

 

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of items 15-20 as they contain exempt information as defined in Section 100a of the Local Government Act 1972; Para 3 - information relating to the business or financial affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).

114.

EXEMPT - MINUTES

To confirm the exempt minutes of the Alexandra Palace and Park Board held on 29 March 2021 as an accurate record of the proceedings (To follow).

Minutes:

The minutes of the last meeting were unavailable for approval.

115.

EXEMPT - EQUITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION ACTION PLAN

To approve the final EDI Action Plan and authorise the CEO to prepare a summary report for publication.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The recommendations in the report were approved.

116.

EXEMPT - APTL CHAIR'S REPORT

To note the update from APTL

Minutes:

The recommendations in the report were approved.

117.

EXEMPT - SAFEGUARDING / WHISTLEBLOWING

An opportunity for the Board to consider its’ collective responsibilities and enable the CEO to report (by exception) any safeguarding or whistleblowing matters.

Minutes:

The recommendations in the report were approved.

118.

EXEMPT - LEASED PROPERTIES

Verbal update.

Minutes:

This item was deferred to a future meeting.

119.

ANY OTHER EXEMPT BUSINESS THE CHAIR CONSIDERS TO BE URGENT

Minutes:

None.