Agenda item

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, although it should be pointed out that this request also fell outside the mast lighting policy.

 

4.         To ask if the Board as Charity Trustees, will consider resolving to apply for a variation of planning permission to allow the mast to be lit (other than in a special colour, for particular occasions such as above) permanently at night (in line with Planning Guidelines, and in line with the practice of other landmark buildings in the capital and country), and also to consider improving the lighting for the purpose of enhancing the  architectural features of the mast and Palace in accordance with Historic England guidelines. 

 

The Trust has not identified any reasons why an extension to the planning permission is required to deliver its purposes. The planning permission was granted following the necessary consultation processes and is sufficient to meet our requirements. We do not have the resources to extend the lighting further and are mindful of our impact on the environment, which we are working hard to reduce across the site.

 

The reasons for the limits of the planning application are to protect the significance of the host property and other heritage assets.

 

5.      To ask if the Chair of the Alexandra Palace Committeewill ask the Democratic Services and Scrutiny Manager to take steps to ensure, with the co-operation of Alexandra Palace staff, that their meetings are open to the public, and ensure that their agendas, the time and place of meetings, and the fact that the beneficiaries of the charity (the public)  are welcome to attend, are advertised prominently on the websites and social media of Alexandra Palace and Park, and in the entrances to the Palace itself. And that further, the governance and management structure should be better explained to the public on those sites, for instance by publishing a management structure chart to explain what entities are responsible for what functions and decisions. 

 

All Board and Committee meetings are open to the public, and agendas (including time and place of meeting) are published five clear days before every meeting.  The agendas, papers and minutes are published on the Council’s website.

 

Internal staff meetings are not open to the public and it would be highly unusual for any organisation to adopt such an approach.

 

The Governance of the Charity is set out as required in the Annual Report. It is summarised on the AP website https://www.alexandrapalace.com/about-us/the-charity/  and  https://www.alexandrapalace.com/about-us/our-people/ .

 

As part of our Governance Improvement Programme, we had plans to improve the information on these pages and will do so as soon as possible (within the resources available). This will include links to the AP meetings pages on Haringey’s website and responsibility of functions can be included.

 

6.         To ask if the Chair of the Alexandra Palace Committee and her colleagues will resolve to consider how the beneficiaries of the Charity, the people of London (not just Haringey), can be represented, or better represented on the Board of the Charity. 

 

The Governance Change Programme, halted due to the pandemic and the need for all of the Trusts resources to be focussed on our response and recovery, proposed that the Governance of the Charity, whilst compliant with Charity Law and Regulation could be further improved. It was proposed that a Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee was possible and would provide the Charity with the opportunity to recruit openly to achieve the skills, expertise and diversity required of a modern charity.

 

In addition, it was proposed that the Consultative Committee should be opened into a wider stakeholder forum administered by the charity. This was set out in the Governance Report to the SAC/CC on 23 January 2018.

 

There were other members of the public in attendance who had also submitted questions, however these were not received by the deadline as set out in the Council’s Constitution.  It was noted that the Council’s rules for submitting questions could be seen as complicated and bureaucratic, however, Louise Stewart, Chief Executive Alexandra Palace, advised that questions could be emailed directly to her at any time