Agenda and minutes

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Noted.

The Clerk invited nominations for chair of the Joint Advisory and Consultative Committee for the 2015/16 municipal year. Colin Marr nominated Gordon Hutchinson, this was seconded by Councillor Adam Jogee and, there being no further nominations, it was:

RESOLVED that Gordon Hutchinson be elected as Chair of the Joint Advisory and Consultative Committee for the 2015/16 municipal year.

The Chair invited nominations for vice-chair of the Joint Advisory and Consultative Committee for the 2015/16 municipal year. Colin Marr nominated Councillor Adam Jogee, this was seconded by the Chair and, there being no further nominations, it was:

RESOLVED that Councillor Adam Jogee be elected as Vice-Chair of the Joint Advisory and Consultative Committee for the 2015/16 municipal year.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Liz McShane, Denise Marshall and Charles Wright, Jenny Bourne-Taylor, Caroline Hayter, David Liebeck and Duncan Neill.

Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal interests and prejudicial interests are defined at Paragraphs 5-7 and Appendix A of the Members’ Code of Conduct.

a.         Councillor Hare declared a personal interest in relation to the membership as Chair of the Alexandra palace Allotments Association.

b.         John Thompson, Alexandra Palace Television Group, declared a pecuniary interest in item 8e, as he would be advising Alexandra Palace on any historical items found in the television studios for a short time during the clearing of the studios prior to the regeneration works.

i.          To approve the minutes of the informal Joint Statutory Advisory and Consultative Committees held on 14 April 2015.

ii.         To note the minutes of the Advisory Committee held on 14 April 2015.

iii.        To note the draft minutes of the meeting of the Alexandra Palace and Park Board held on 28 April 2015.

a.         Joint Statutory Advisory and Consultative Committees

The minutes of the meeting of the informal Joint Statutory Advisory and Consultative Committees held on 14 April 2015 were confirmed and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

b.         Advisory Committee

The minutes of the Advisory Committee held on 14 April 2015 were noted.

c.         Alexandra Palace and Park Board

The draft minutes of the meeting of the Alexandra Palace and Park Board held on 28 April 2015 were noted.

To note the report of the Chief Executive, Alexandra Palace, Emma Dagnes, updating on plans to revisit the Vision and Values and to make recommendations regarding the feedback from the Trust’s lawyers on the formal constitution of the Joint Advisory and  Consultative Committee.

RECEIVED the report of the Interim Chief Executive, Alexandra Palace and Park, Emma Dagnes, introduced as laid out on pages 23-25 of the agenda pack.

NOTED that 

a.         proposals to revisit the Alexandra Park and Palace Strategic Vision would be presented to the Board in the future. In response to questioning it was explained that:

·         it was necessary to re-visit the organisations Strategic Vision to ensure that it bridged the present to the future in the context of the HLF project as well as new initiatives at Alexandra Park and Palace;

·         all SAC (Statutory Advisory Committee) and CC (Consultative Committee) members would have the opportunity to be involved in consultations about the Vision;

b.         Emma Dagnes acknowledged concerns raised at the meeting about the reference to CC members acting as “observers” to the SAC in paragraph 7.4 of the report.  Emma Dagnes explained that the paragraph quoted advice from Alexandra Palace’s lawyers, Baits Wells Braithwaite (BWB) and, therefore, it was not appropriate to change the language used;

c.         a discussion about the governance section of the report followed which clarified that a formal merge of the SAC and CC was not permissible without a change to primary legislation;

d.         many committee members expressed support for a formal joint committee in order to reduce the formality of the SAC having to meet separately and to secure the current position of the CC.  It was observed that the current arrangement worked well in terms of having collective discussion which also included Board members;

e.         further to concerns raised, it was emphasised that the Board had a statutory duty to consider the advice of the SAC and that any new arrangements would not seek to remove the responsibilities of the SAC;

f.          a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) was generally agreed as a good way forward.

RESOLVED to note report.

To note the report of the Interim Regeneration Director, Tot Brill, updating on regeneration, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) project and fundraising.

RECEIVED the Regeneration Report, including the HLF (Heritage Lottery Fund) update.  The report was introduced by Tot Brill, Interim Regeneration Director, Alexandra Palace, as laid out on pages 27-30 of the agenda pack.

NOTED, following discussion of the report, that:

a.         further to a request Tot Brill clarified the process of appointing a contractor through the North London-wide Framework Contract, whereby contractors (most of whom would be well-known for previous, similar projects) had already been through the necessary formalities;

b.         in response to questions: it was expected that the same contractor would conduct both phases of the restoration works (the enabling and the main works) and a number of specialist sub-contractors were likely to be used;

c.         as part of the HLF bid contractors would be required to employ some local people and set up apprenticeships;

d.         paragraph 9.1 (page 29) should read £1.4 as a target for fundraising (rather than £1.1m).  The organisations which sat on the SAC and CC would be contacted separately to support the fundraising;

e.         experienced curators would ensure artefacts found during clearing of the theatre and BBC areas were preserved. Bruce Castle archivists would support the archiving process and the Palace had appointed a new staff member with archiving experience;

Clerk’s note: At this point in the meeting John Thompson, Alexandra Palace Television Group, declared a pecuniary interest in item 8e above, as he would be advising Alexandra Palace for a short term on any historical items found the clear out of the television studios prior to the regeneration works. There was no further discussion on the matter and it had not been necessary for Mr Thompson to withdraw from the meeting.

f.          further to additional questions:

·         Asbestos surveys were being conducted in advance of both the enabling works and the main construction contracts.

·         Plans still included the possibility of a hotel at Alexandra Palace and previous research would be used to inform the decision making process.

 RESOLVED to note report.

To receive the report of the Acting Commercial Director, Lucy Fenner, Alexandra Palace,  seeking views on recent APTL events and activity.

RECEIVED the report of the Commercial Director (pages 31-44 of agenda pack) presented by  Lucy Fenner (Acting Commercial Director, Alexandra Palace).

NOTED that

a.         the Cancer Research Waterslide was a pre-booked event and applicants would need to register their interest, paying £10 in advance.  Demand was expected to outweigh supply, therefore names would be drawn from a hat;

b.         in response to questioning about whether there had been any complaints about noise from The Prodigy concert it was stated that one complaint had been received at 9.30pm on one of the nights and one complaint had been posted on Twitter.  The committees acknowledged that the event was well planned  to minimise the disruption to the local community;

c.         capacity for the fireworks event had been increased to 50,000 (page 37) and a map showing the various zones and entrances in the Park was made available at the meeting.  The committees discussed the details, including:

·         additional entry points to ease congestion and early notices detailing the entrances that would be open for the event;

·         Alexandra Palace Way would be closed from 10pm on Friday 6 until 8am on Sunday 8 November but an area in ‘zone 6’ would remain open to enable dog walkers to access the Park;

·         There had been forced entry at the Campsbourne gate area at last year’s fireworks and the options for preventing the same occurring this year were being considered.

d.         local and community organisations were invited to host stalls in The Grove at the Summer festival including SAC/CC organisations.

RESOLVED to note the report, including the Park Activity and plans for the 2015 fireworks event.

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

RECEIVED the report of the Head of Learning and Community Programmes, Alexandra Park and Palace, introduced by Isobel Aptaker, Education Officer, as laid out on pages 45-49 of the agenda pack).

NOTED that

a.         the Imperial War Museum had confirmed the loan of an original George Kenner painting of ‘Men Exercising’ for the redisplay exhibition;

b.         the Children and the Great War event planned for the previous Saturday had been cancelled due to equipment failure and would be rearranged for July.

RESOLVED to note the update on the learning and community programme.

To note the report of the Park Manager, Mark Evison updating on Park activities.

RECEIVED the Park Update report, introduced by Emma Dagnes, Interim Chief Executive, Alexandra Palace and Park (as laid out in pages 51-53 of the agenda pack).

NOTED that

a.         an update on Go Ape would be presented to the Board on 15 July 2015;

b.         re paragraph 6.2 - the Joint Committee would receive an update on the Park Vision in October (rather than in the autumn, when no meeting was scheduled);

c.         during discussion of the request from Heartlands High School to use the Park for sports activities.  The School had started discussions with Alexandra Palace Football Club but apparently no agreement was reached.  Emma Dagnes offered to investigate why 2011 proposals to use the Club’s football pitches had not progressed.

Committee members accepted that more schools were using public spaces for sports and that the Palace and Park were required by the Alexandra Palace and Park Act, 1985 to consider any requests.  In response to questions it was explained that the School would not use the Park as a playground but as a sports pitch;

d.         members gave feedback from the Park Vision Workshop held on 3 June 2015, including suggestions for a Christmas Market and an outdoor ice-rink.  A discussion followed including that:

·         a temporary ice rink would: compete with the internal ice rink; be very expensive to set up but would be investigated;

·         considerations for a Christmas market included finding the right organiser or whether it could be operated in-house during a very busy month of events at the Palace.

e.         a number of members raised concerns about the close proximity of the graffiti wall to the children’s play area and the perceived health risks due to aerosol chemicals being carried in the air.  Emma Dagnes explained that she could formally address issues, which had been previously raised, at the 15 July 2015 Board meeting. 

RESOLVED to note the Park Update report.

NOTED that

a.         Nigel Willmott acknowledged the success of Alexandra Palace in securing Heritage Lottery Funding (HLF) for the regeneration project and John Boshier highlighted the successful HLF celebration event in the Theatre held on 30 April 2015;

b.         the Chair congratulated the Charitable Trust for presenting a positive budget for 2015/16.

None.

Tuesday 20 October 2015

Tuesday 2 February 2016

NOTED the dates for future meetings as follow:

Tuesday 20 October 2015

Tuesday 2 February 2015