Agenda and draft minutes

The outgoing Chair will ask Members of the Committee for any nominations.  These nominations must be seconded by another Member of the Committee.  If more than one nomination is received, then a vote will be taken.

The outgoing Chair, Colin Marr, opened the meeting and asked for nominations for Chair of the Joint Informal meeting of the Alexandra Park & Palace Statutory Advisory Committee and the Alexandra Palace & Park Consultative Committee for the 2013/14 Municipal Year.

Jacob O’Callaghan nominated Colin Marr, and Denis Heathcote seconded the nomination.

There being no further nominations it was

RESOLVED that Colin Marr be elected as Chair of the Joint Informal meeting of the Alexandra Park & Palace Statutory Advisory Committee and the Alexandra Palace & Park Consultative Committee for the 2013/14 Municipal Year.

Colin Marr in the Chair

The outgoing Chair will ask Members of the Committee for any nominations.  These nominations must be seconded by another Member of the Committee.  If more than one nomination is received, then a vote will be taken.

Following a discussion with the Committee, it was decided that a Vice-Chair would be elected as and when one would be required.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Jane Hutchinson, Gordon Hutchinson and Councillors Beacham, Dogus, Newton (Councillor Erskine substituted), Jenks, Gibson, Gorrie and Griffith.

Apologies for lateness were received from Val Paley.

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

i)          To approve the minutes of the Joint Informal Meeting of the Statutory Advisory Committee and Consultative Committee held on 13 May 2013.

ii)         To note the minutes of the Statutory Advisory Committee meeting held on 13 May 2013.

i)          The minutes of the Joint Informal Statutory Advisory and Consultative Committee held on 13 May 2013 were approved as a correct record.

ii)         The minutes of the Statutory Advisory Committee meeting held on 13 May 2013 were noted.

The Clerk advised that the draft Alexandra Palace and Park Board minutes were not available for noting, as they had not been cleared by the Chair.

To receive the report of the Chief Executive – Alexandra Palace and Park – advising the Committees’ on:

·               Alexandra Palace regeneration project progress report

·               Events report, including 150^th anniversary event update and Red Bull event

·               Car parking review project report

·               Governance – appointment of new Board member (advisory)

RECEIVED the report of the Chief Executive – Alexandra Palace and Park – as set out in the agenda pack.

NOTED:

·               The procurement phase of the HLF project had begun, and OJEU procedures had to be followed.  This meant that a design team would not be appointed earlier than November / December 2013.

·               Quantity surveyors were due to be appointed, and project managers would be appointed in Summer 2013.  The intention was to appoint a ‘lead designer’ responsible for a modern design in a historical context – this would require heritage, architectural and other specialist skills.

·               The aim was to complete the design, validate it and produce costs for the HLF Stage Two submission by the end of 2014.  If the bid was successful then building works would commence in early 2015, for completion by 2017.

·               The design team would be an independent practice, the contract would be with the Council, on behalf of the Trust.

·               A formal bid for match-funding had not been made to the Council, the Palace was looking to see what funding might be available from external sources before preparing a bid.

·               The Regeneration Working Group (which comprised Council and AP staff) would continue as it previously had done, but the membership and role was being reviewed.  The Chair requested closer links with the RWG and that a separate report be presented to the SAC/CC meeting to outline any issues / feedback from RWG meetings.

ACTION: Chief Executive

·               Fundraising would be carried out by either an external consultant or an individual on a short term contract.  The focus would be on institutions – GLA, Trusts and Foundations.

·               Richard Hooper had been appointed as a non-voting advisory member to the Alexandra Palace and Park Board.

·               Open House – some members expressed concerns over the planning of the tours around the Palace.  It was felt that the time allocated for these tours had been underestimated and could be looked at again. 

·               Open House – Studios A & B would not be included in the tours due to the presence of asbestos.  Some members expressed concerns over this and suggested that restricted access should be provided for small parties.  Duncan Wilson explained that this was a health and safety issue, and it was the responsibility of the Palace to ensure that people were not put at any risks.  Whilst small parties could be admitted to Studio A by appointment, under carefully supervised conditions, the risks with larger groups would be more difficult to manage and control.  The situation had changed somewhat since disturbance associated with testing as part of the HLF bid assessment.

·               Car parking – Duncan Wilson advised that work was underway on evaluating the feasibility / desirability of introducing car parking charges at Alexandra Palace.  Once this had been assessed, a full options appraisal would be carried out and brought to the SAC/CC for comment before being considered by the main Board.  A full public consultation would need to be carried out if the decision was made to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 125.

To receive the report of the Park Manager – Alexandra Palace and Park – updating the Committees’ on various events in the Park and the 150^th Anniversary projects.

Duncan Wilson introduced the report as set out in the agenda papers on behalf of the Park Manager.

NOTED:

·               The Red Bull and 150^th anniversary event were the two major events due to take place at the Park.  These events had been designed in a way to protect the Park and it was hoped that they would be hugely successful.

·               Park furniture painted with the dark green paint would be installed in the Rose Garden so that members could see an example of and make comments on the colour.

RESOLVED to note the report.

To receive the report of the Chief Executive - Alexandra Palace and Park - seeking the Committees’ views on the prospect of bringing back a public firework display in Alexandra Park, in November 2013, on a self-financing commercial basis.

RECEIVED the report of the Chief Executive – Alexandra Palace and Park – as set out in the agenda pack.

NOTED:

The consensus was generally positive, although some serious concerns were raised. 

Comments included the following:

·               Friends of the Park – majority of members were ‘for’ the fireworks, although some committee members had been against it. Objections were raised with regards to ticket prices, closure of the Park and the risk of damage to the Park from the moving and installation of fencing (and whether repair costs would be covered by the company).

·               Similarly, members of the Alexandra Residents Association were positive, although their representatives were more concerned. Particular worries were about stewarding at the entrances, people who try to get in free and large amounts of cash being collected. 

·               Past fireworks events had seen a ‘pressure-point’ around the Warner Estate – people had attempted to climb over the fencing and cause general disorder.

·               It was important that the Police were consulted and involved, and were made aware of areas where potential disorder could occur.

·               There were concerns that many people would turn up and expect to get in free, or try to view from just outside the restricted area  and crowds of people may gather in adjoining streets with the potential for disorder. 

·               Gates at Park Avenue North entrance had fencing which could easily be cut open – the police or stewards need to be made aware of this.

·               Some concerns were raised over the closure of entrances, particularly those along Newland Road, which had in the past been a popular access point from Campsbourne and the east – this could lead to bad feelings.

·               Some people would find the entrance fee for a family to be prohibitively expensive.

·               There were concerns over the closure of the road and the stoppage of the W3 bus route although in the past this had not been problematic.

·               It was wonderful that the fireworks were going to come back to Alexandra Palace.  A suggestion was made that if people were aware of why the event was no longer free (due to being a loss-making event in the past), then they would not mind paying an entrance fee.

·               Thought needed to be given to car parking – if the road would be closed from midday then this could stop some spectators from attending if there was no car parking available.  It could also lead to parking congestion in adjoining roads, which in the past had also been congested by pedestrians.

·               The pricing structure was not outrageous – the event was being planned by an experienced operator, and the pricing would be in line with other events carried out by the promoter.

·               Members thought that it might be useful to have another meeting before the decision needed to be taken.  Duncan Wilson would report back to Members based on the issues raised, and a decision would then be taken as to whether an emergency SAC meeting was necessary.

·               Councillor Scott added that there was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 127.

There were no such items.

The Chair asked the Chief Executive for feedback on the SAC/CC on the Board decision with regards to taking legal action against the former Trust solicitors, which the SAC had requested in 2011.  Duncan Wilson provided the following response:

At its meeting on 6 November 2012 the Board of APPCT considered advice specifically commissioned from its new solicitors on the question as to whether any legal action should be taken against its former solicitors, in respect of decisions taken in 2006 and 2007 on the Firoka project.  Following careful consideration of that advice the Board resolved not to take any action, on the basis that the former solicitors had given advice strictly in accordance with their remit and could not be held more widely accountable for those decisions taken by the Board.

Jacob O’Callaghan, who had first raised this (among other questions to the Board) responded – he first said how pleased he was with the success of the HLF bid and it was unfortunate that the answer from the Board had been so long in coming.  He noted that the previous Trust solicitor’s explanation was apparently (according to the Walklate report) that he had, in fact, notified the General Manager (Keith Holder) of the risks of the licence to Firoka, and that therefore Mr Holder and the Chairman (Charles Adje) could and should have acted to protect the charity.  Whatever the truth was, lessons should have been leaned from this whole sorry experience.

David Liebeck commented that he was pleased to see the extent to which the committee’s discussion had moved on from the time when lawyers were called upon to attend meetings – he went on to thank Jacob for his efforts in pursuing this matter.

Nigel Willmott disagreed with Jacob O’Callaghan for pursuing with this and urged that these matters should now be put aside to allow the Palace to take advantage of the opportunities which now presented themselves.

The Chair concurred with the need to put these matters aside, which he thought was the consensus view, and closed the discussion on that point.

Roger Tucker raised his concern about an unfortunate clash of dates between events related to the Organ Appeal and the Theatre.  It was resolved that better communication between interest groups was necessary to avoid such clashes.

To note the dates of future meetings:

10 October 2013

28 January 2014

NOTED the dates of future meetings – 10 October 2013 and 28 January 2014.