Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Kevin Stanfield, Roger Tucker, Caroline Hayter, Jacob O’Callaghan and Councillors Beacham, Demirci, Griffith and Cooke.

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.

Councillor Hare declared a personal interest as Chairman of the Alexandra Palace Allotments Association.

Councillor Jenks declared a personal interest as a member of the Warner Estate Resident Association.

i)          To approve the minutes of the Advisory Committee held on 9 June 2015.

ii)         To receive the draft minutes of the meeting of the Alexandra Palace and Park Board held on 23 June 2015 and 15 July 2015 to be noted.

iii)        To receive the draft minutes of the meeting of the Consultative Committee held on 9 June 2015 to be noted.

RESOLVED that

i.          The minutes of the informal Joint Statutory Advisory and Consultative Committees held on 18 June 2013 be approved.

ii.         The minutes of the Consultative Committee held on 18 June 2013 be approved.

iii.        The informal note taken at the inquorate Statutory Advisory Committee held on 18 June 2013 be noted.

iv.        The minutes of the Alexandra Palace and Park Board held on 23 May 2013 be noted.

v.         The draft minutes of the Alexandra Palace and Park Board held on 16 July 2013 be noted.

Return of delegate nominations from member bodies – Consultative Committee.

Those who have not returned nomination forms or provided AGM minutes are requested to do so by 10 October 2013.

The Chair requested that Consultative Committee groups who had not returned the required membership form and AGM minutes do so by the next meeting on 28 January 2014.  Failure to do so would result in the deletion of the membership.

Action: For the Clerk to chase memberships.

The Chair informed members that, as agreed, he had raised again the subject of governance and the structure of meetings with the Chief Executive and there will be a report back on this at the next meeting.

To receive the report of the Chief Executive, Alexandra Park and Palace.

Duncan Wilson introduced the report as set out.

NOTED:

·               The Annual Report would be available for distribution next week.

·               The Red Bull and 150^th Anniversary events had taken place since the last meeting in June 2013.  Both were very successful and popular.

·               It was anticipated that a smaller scale event based on the 150^th Anniversary could be continued in the future – one suggestion for example was that the Park would be an attractive venue for the Muswell Hill Festival.  However this would depend on resources and funding.  Any ideas would be reported back to the Committee.

·               There had been noise complaints received with regards to the circus – however this was from one resident, the Council’s Noise team had visited the property to measure the noise and it was not found to be above the limits set by the authority.  When events were held in the Palace and Park, there were parameters set by the Licensing Authority which the Palace had to comply with.  Some Committee Members commented that there may be occasions where noise from events can be heard in neighbouring streets, but local residents should be prepared to accept some noise, given that they had full use of the Park all year round.

Fireworks

·               Officers had met with the Safety Advisory Group, who were pleased with the progress so far.  The points raised by the Committee at the last meeting had been raised with SAG.

·               Residents would be contacted with regards to road closures in due course.  This information would also be made available on the website.

·               Tickets were available via the Alexandra Palace website and c.5000 tickets had already been sold.

Learning & Community

·               Isobel Aptaker – Learning Officer – circulated a leaflet which promoted the educational offer from the Palace.  It outlined the 3 Key Stage 2 programmes, and had been sent to all primary schools in the borough.  So far, there had been positive feedback.  Members welcomed this and were appreciative of this work.

·               Ms Aptaker would be attending the Secondary Headteacher Forum to discuss the possibility of extending the programme to secondary schools.

Open House

·               Ms Aptaker provided an update on the Open House tour.  490 people had attended a tour, and of those who had provided feedback, 100% said that they had enjoyed themselves.  The team were now looking to run regular tours, and there were currently 108 people on the waiting list.

·               18 volunteers had been used, each of whom have said that they would like to return for further work.

·               The Palace had also taken the opportunity to have a donation box, and £234 had been raised.

HLF bid – WW1 project

·               Melissa Tettey – Head of Learning and Community Programmes – outlined the details of the HLF bid.  A grant of £59,400 had been allocated to the Palace’s project to commemorate the centenary of the First World War.

·               Middlesex University were the project partners, and would be creating a short film and a media application which would work  ...  view the full minutes text for item 136.

To receive the report of the Regeneration and Property Director, Alexandra Park and Palace.

Kerri Farnsworth – Director  of Regeneration and Property – introduced the report as set out.

NOTED:

·               The Park had retained Green Flag status for the 6^th year running, and had been awarded a silver-gilt in the Large Park category for London in Bloom.

·               The Section 106 project to improve the Park at the Campsbourne end was underway.

Little Dinosaurs

·               The application had been withdrawn.

·               David Frith raised concerns at the way the application had been dealt with.  His view was that the APP Board should give clear guidance on what would and wouldn’t be acceptable in advance of  all planning applications which affected the Park.

·               The Chair also made a plea that all future applications should  follow guidance from the Board after inputs from the SAC/CC.

·               Duncan Wilson responded that it would not be wise to end up with a situation where unreasonable delays would be caused to applications due to consultation with the SAC/CC/APPB.  It would be more reasonable to advise applicants that they need to provide as much detail and information to the SAC/CC/APPB at the early stages so that advice can be provided to the Planning Authority without undue delay.

Capital Gardens

·               Duncan Wilson introduced Tim McLeod-Rice (Capital Gardens) and Alun Jones (Dow Jones Architects Ltd).

·               Alun Jones outlined the application.  Capital Gardens were seeking to remove two existing stores within the site and replace with one timber-clad building, to be used as office accommodation for the garden centre.  The existing boundary wall would remain intact, and the building would not be visible from the outside.  The pre-planning advice from the Planning Authority was positive, but they had also advised that the applicant should seek advice from Alexandra Palace.

·               The building would only be used by Capital Gardens, and the old office would be used as storage space.

·               Members requested that the condition of the meadow at the entrance be improved – Tim McLeod-Rice agreed to report this back to his Managing Director.

·               Members commented that the open meadow by the entrance, which had been a condition of the original lease should be improved – Tim McLeod-Rice agreed to report this back to his Managing Director.

Fabric Repair project

·               The fabric repair project had now been completed.

·               Interim repairs were in progress on the Theatre and the North Wall.

·               Purcell had been appointed as Surveyor to the Fabric – the first task would be to develop a fabric maintenance plan to cover the next ten years. 

HLF project

·               Good progress had been made on the project.  Discussions were taking place with a number of potential partner organisations, including the BBC.

·               The Palace were in the process of recruiting a Fundraising Manager, who would have a key focus on identifying funding opportunities from trusts, foundations and major bodies.  The response to the advertisement had been limited.

·               There would be a special Alexandra Park and Palace Board meeting in November to confirm recommendation for the appointment of a design team.

·               The Chairman commented that the procurement programme for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 137.

None.

None.

Gordon Hutchinson raised an issue with regards to posters at the entrances to the Park, and showed pictures of entrances with numerous and unattractive  posters on display.  Although it was accepted that people needed to be made aware of events happening at the Park, Gordon stated that he did not think that the amount of posters gave a particularly good impression of the Park.

Duncan Wilson undertook to ensure that all out of date posters were removed, and agreed that the Palace could look at the design, scale and location of future posters.

Tuesday 28 January 2014

NOTED the date of the next meeting – 28 January 2014.