Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from David Liebeck (Chair and representative of Warner Estate Residents’ Association), Denis Heathcote (Muswell Hill and Fortis Green Residents’ Association), Jackie Baker (Palace Gates Residents’ Association), Rebecca Kane (Managing Director - Alexandra Palace Trading Limited), Councillor Martin Newton and Councillor Sheila Rainger.

Councillor Susan Oatway (Vice-Chair) chaired the meeting.

Members of the Committee are invited to disclose any interest they may have in any of the items appearing on this agenda.

There were no declarations of interest in relation to items on the agenda.

i)          To approve the minutes of the Advisory Committee held on 3^rd November 2009 (attached).

ii)         To note the draft minutes of the meeting of the Consultative Committee held on 17^th November 2009 (attached).

iii)        To note the draft minutes of the meeting of the Alexandra Palace and Park Board held on 24^th November (attached) and 12^th January 2010 (TABLED)

1.         Alexandra Park and Palace Advisory Committee minutes

The Committee noted the table of resolutions from the meeting held on 3^rd November, which included the Board’s responses.

            RESOLVED

i.          That the minutes were agreed as a correct record of the meeting.

ii.         That a table of resolutions from its meeting on 10^th February 2009 remained unanswered, although the matters had been discussed at various Board meetings. Accordingly, these should be re-submitted with the request that the responses be consolidated and progress on them advised. The original table is attached as B hereto.

2.         Alexandra Palace and Park Consultative Committee minutes

RESOLVED to note the minutes of the Consultative Committee held on 17^th November 2009.

3.         Alexandra Palace and Park Board minutes

            i.          6^th October 2009 (tabled)

RESOLVED that the board minutes of the meeting held on 6^th October be noted.

ii.         15th October 2009 (tabled)

RESOLVED that the board minutes of the meeting held on 15^th October be noted.

iii.        24^th November 2009

In response to concerns raised about the closure of the ice-rink to enable repairs (minute APBO66(iii)), the Committee noted that the ice rink would be closed during low season.

In relation to minute APBO66, resolution iii, the Committee highlighted that charging for use of the Palace car-parks might have an adverse effect on surrounding roads.  Mr Andrew Gill, Interim General Manager – Alexandra Palace, advised that a scoping paper had been considered by the Board on 12^th January 2010 detailing potential options for increasing income at the Palace.  The report included potentially charging for the use of car parks but the Advisory Committee would be consulted before any final decisions were made.

RESOLVED that the board minutes of the meeting held on 24^th November be noted.

            iv.        12^th January 2010

The minutes of the meeting held on 12^th January were not available and would be considered at the next meeting of the Advisory Committee.

To receive the report of the Park Manager, Alexandra Palace, updating the Advisory Committee on events and works within the park.

The Committee received the report of the Alexandra Park Manager, Mark Evison, updating on recent activities in the Park.

Road Closure for maintenance

Committee Members expressed disappointment at the lack of signs displayed in the Park warning of the diversion of the W3 bus during the road closure.  The Park Manager, Alexandra Palace, informed the Committee that he was surprised that the bus company, Arriva, had not displayed any signs at the time or updated the dot matrix displays.  Mr Evison had organised for notices to be erected by the Palace as soon as possible and would keep such signs available for any future bus diversions.

Paragraph 6.8 - Gritting

Committee Members expressed disappointment that the Dukes Avenue entrance to the Park and the Grove area had not been gritted during the time of heavy snow and were informed by the Park Manager that the Palace had simply run out of salt as did most of the country.

Spring Watch Event

The Park Manager informed the Committee that the BBC Springwatch Wild Day Out would be held in Alexandra Park on Saturday 5^th June.  This event will be a family event with a roadshow and activities, such as worm charming, that relate to biodiversity.  In response to the Committee enquiring the Park Manager advised that the Springwatch event would be advertised in the Haringey People publication and on bus-stops.  The BBC would also promote the event through the radio and television.

Committee Members asked to be informed of the details so that they could publicise the event among Residents’ Associations members.

Action: Park Manager

RESOLVED

That the report be noted.

To receive the report of the Managing Director, Alexandra Palace Trading Limited (APTL) advising the Advisory Committee on forthcoming events to the end of the financial year.

The Committee received the report introduced by the Chair.  It was noted that the table of events only went as far as March 2010 and members expressed concern that no more concerts had been scheduled.

Monica Myers, representative of Muswell Hill and Fortis Green Association, congratulated the Palace on holding 2 concerts last year with no complaints about noise from the Association.

RESOLVED

That the report be noted.

To receive an update on the continued progress of the Governance and Future Vision project work to secure a sustainable and bright future for Alexandra Park & Palace including consideration of the NCVO Good Governance code which trustees will consider at their forthcoming Board meeting (2 March 2010).

The Committee received the NCVO (National Council for Voluntary Organisations) Good Governance code and tabled presentation slides, introduced by the Interim General Manager, Alexandra Palace who apologised on behalf of Rebecca Kane, who was unwell. Mr Gill emphasised that the potential structural models of governance for Alexandra Palace were still under consideration. The pros and cons of all the options, , will be presented to Trustees at their meeting on 2^nd March 2010 where the Board will be recommended to adopt the NCVO Code of Good Governance , ultimately made bespoke to reflect the outcomes of the trustee and stakeholder away days and the particular circumstances of Alexandra Palace & Park.  The Code is based on  7 key principles:

1.                  Board leadership

2.                  The Board in Control

3.                  The high performance Board

4.                  Board review and renewal

5.                  Board delegation

6.                  Board and Trustee integrity

7.                  Board Openness

The Committee noted that relevant information will be available on the Alexandra Palace website from 2^nd March 2010 and that an open day will be organised to enable members of the public to be consulted on the future of Alexandra Palace and Park.

The Committee was informed that future stages would be to develop policies and procedures, a scheme of delegation and Trustee inductions.  The Chair enquired about the timeframe for completing the review of the code and was informed that making the code bespoke to AP  could take more than a year to complete. By May 2010 Palace officers aimed to be using the NCVO toolkit and would identify areas of non-compliance with the NCVO Code of Good Governance. 

Referring to Page 50, the Board in Control section of the Good Governance Code, Jane Hutchinson, Alexandra Residents’ Association, highlighted the potential change in Trustees of the Palace after the May 2010 election and that having political members on the Board presented conflicts of interests. The Interim General Manager recognised that it was not ideal to have a turnover of Trustees but, in response to potential conflicts of interests, stated that Council Trustees were regularly reminded that they must set aside any personal or political considerations.   Council Members were also required to declare their Trusteeships at other Council Meetings and will in most cases remove themselves from debates. 

David Frith, The Rookfield Association, reminded officers that at the stakeholder away day interested groups were unanimous in their recommendation that all Trustees should be independent.  In response, the Interim General Manager, Alexandra Palace, explained that this would require a change in the Alexandra Park and Palace 1985 Act of Parliament. The Interim General Manager highlighted that a recent meeting with the Charity Commission discussed this issue and he advised that he would report back to the Advisory Committee on this in due course once Trustees had been informed of the discussions.

In response to Committee Members comments the Interim General Manager, Alexandra Palace emphasised that current Trustees were experienced professionals but agreed that the Palace would benefit from having more experienced  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37.

Little Dinosaurs Play area

Monica Myers (Muswell Hill and Fortis Green) and Ms Hutchinson visited the Little Dinosaurs play area, which was situated in the old Workshop building within the Park. Ms Myers and Ms Hutchinson reported to the Advisory Committee that the new business seemed to be running well, although they had concerns regarding ruts in the mud caused by heavy vehicles, an additional storage area and large orange containers at the back of the building and a new concrete path, all of which detracted from the views of the Park.

The Park Manager informed the Committee that the orange containers were gas cylinders, which the Park Manager could ask the Tenant to screen.  The ruts in the mud were caused by builders converting the Workshop building and BT engineers who had been attending to the nearby 345 Club.  The Workshop Tenant had agreed to flatten the ruts.  Regarding the concrete path, the Park Manager explained that this was a temporary path installed to prevent Little Dinosaurs staff from slipping when accessing the storage area as the grass had been wet and slippery. The path could be taken up and the grass re-seeded.

The Grove Café

Ms Hutchinson asked if more could be done regarding security and highlighted issues including that the Grove Café had been subject to vandalism and parents using the playground by the boating lake had highlighted that they felt unsafe.

The Park Manager stated that CCTV would be a future consideration and the signs in the playground were being reviewed and would be replaced next year and would include telephone numbers for Park users to call including the Police Safer Neighbourhood Team and perhaps the Police Safer Parks Team.  Members were reminded that the Palace and Park security guards regularly patrolled the Park.  The Park Manager would ask the Palace Security Guards to patrol the  play area more often.

Action: Park Manager

The next meeting of the Advisory Committee will be held on Tuesday 30^th March 2010.

RESOLVED

i.          That the meeting scheduled for 30 March be cancelled (due to the “purdah” period which means political sensitivity is required in the run up to the election).

ii.         That a new meeting be organised to allow Committee Members to peruse the Governance and Branding information presented to the Alexandra Palace and Park Board on 2^nd March and to make their own comments.