Agenda and minutes

Apologies had been received from Alderman Haines.

There were no declarations.

Report of the Director of Open Spaces.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Open Spaces informing Members that following the corporate cross cutting review of grants, the Open Spaces Committees agreed to establish a working party to consider the current position and to make recommendations in respect of establishing a ‘jointly governed and accessible to all’ grants programme for open spaces.

Members thanked Officers for compiling the report and noted that the City of London, acting through the Common Council was the corporate trustee of the open spaces charities and under the current Committee terms of reference delegated the exercise of those trustee functions to various Committees of the Common Council.

Members noted that currently there was very limited monitoring in place and grants were given without outcomes being specified and agreed.  Officers said that Members may find it helpful to consider instructing Officers to develop a consistent and proportionate framework for specifying and monitoring outcomes for grants. 

The Working Party noted that currently the open spaces committees provided some £90,000 of grant funding to local groups, however Members noted that a number of these grants could be considered ‘commissioned projects’ or ‘events supported by the City of London Corporation’. Members noted that the majority of the grant funding was provided to the Field studies Council, Lower Mole Countryside Management Project and Downlands Countrywide Management Project.

The Director said that a further £140,000 was provided through benefits in kind. The Superintendent of Epping Forest informed Members that some of the amounts listed were currently being reviewed, such as the benefit of providing land for parking; this would be considered by the Epping Forest and Commons Committee in due course. In response to a query regarding providing insurance to friends groups and volunteer organisations, Members suggested that Officers should investigate the use of protocols

There were no questions.

There was no urgent business.