Issue - meetings

Report of the Superintendent of Hampstead Heath.

Members considered a report of the Superintendent of Hampstead Heath providing an update on the proposed revised timeline for the tendering of the Parliament Hill Café, Parliament Hill Fields Lido Café and the Golders Hill Park Café.

Members were informed that the leases for the Parliament Hill Café, Parliament Hill Fields Lido Café and Golders Hill Café were due to expire on 12 January 2021. However, due to Covid-19 and the subsequent impact on Officer workload, the tenders for the cafés had been delayed.

Feedback was provided by the Golders Hill Park Café User Engagement who had concerns regarding the lease extension to the existing tenant which was not regarded as a long enough time period. They requested that this be extended by two years.

A Member (Representative of Clubs using facilities on the Heath) noted that the procurement exercise began in 2015 which was significant time ago. Officers confirmed that a decision was made after the 2015 exercise to take five years. The tender would have begun in 2020 but the impacts of Covid had delayed the process by a year. A new process would be used going forward which would include significant local engagement.

RESOLVED – That Members:

·         Provide feedback on the proposed revised timeline, as set out in paragraph 7;

·         Note the feedback and recommendations from the Golders Hill Park Café User Engagement - outcome report (appendix 1).

Report of the Superintendent of Hampstead Heath.

Members received a verbal update from the Superintendent of Hampstead Heath concerning the dog walker code of conduct and licence consultation.

The Superintendent confirmed that the report from the consultant with the draft scheme had not been finalised and would now come to the April HHCC meeting for feedback. The next step was to form a small working party looking in detail at the draft code of conduct and the licensing scheme consultation. Key issues to address was providing clarity between private and commercial gain and defining the byelaw for effective control.

A Member (Hampstead Garden Suburb Residents' Association) felt that the current wording was constrictive for non-commercial dog walkers and recommended a change in tone.      

Members agreed that the number of dogs that could be walked at one time was the key issue and that it needed to be explicit that dog waste was a health hazard. A Member (Highgate Society) also recommended changing the wording “dog social skills” to “well behaved and social”.

In response to a question (Hampstead Rugby Club) concerning how to identify a commercial dog walker from a normal dog walker, Members were informed that commercial walkers would wear something identifiable (?) but walkers would stand out from how regularly they visited the Heath if they did not have a licence. This would be defined in the code of conduct.