Agenda and minutes

Apologies had been received from Deputy Ginsburg, Deputy McGuiness, Verderer Morris, Anthony Thomas, Geoff Brown and Paul Thomas.

There were none.

To agree the public minutes of the previous meeting.

Resolved: That the minutes be deferred to the next Committee meeting.

Report of the Head of the Epping Forest Field Centre.

The Committee considered the report of Steve Bunce, Head of the Epping Forest Field Centre. Members noted the following:  

·       Our operations were highly effective in 2013. We achieved really well against KPIs and important objectives, overcoming the challenges of 9% fewer contracted staff days in 2013 than 2012 and with 63 days lost to sick leave.

·       22,304 Learner experiences took place in 2013, and 99.20% expectations were met or exceeded.

·       100% of criteria met for the Northgate Arisnso Gold Shield Health & Safety Award. In addition the projected deficit was turned into a modest surplus as predicted in the October report.

·       We delivered learning experiences to learners of all ability levels, aged from four to 'experienced', from a very diverse range of ethnic/social groups. We used 46 well researched learning sites within and outside of Epping Forest, frequently taking learning nearer to the learners.

·       2,664 grant funded learner experiences were delivered in 2013 – (giving rise to a total of 8,620 which, after just three years, exceeds the target figure of 8,000 (10% of target for total learner experiences) in the four year business plan.

·       The EU funded Lessons from Nature (LfN) project, developed and delivered with our European NGO partners, came to end in the autumn and the EU Assessor has subsequently affirmed that the Project delivery was of an appropriate standard. The project has enabled us to build on LfN learning pioneered at EFFC in 2008. The creation of the LfN website with its very significant learning resources has helped us to take a huge step towards the aspiration in the 2011-2014 EFFC Plan to make LfN a major part of the learning provision of the Centre. The challenge for 2014 and beyond would be to promote this resource and the related services to schools and to

Report of the Head of the Epping Forest Field Centre.

The Committee considered the report of Steve Bunce, Head of the Epping Forest Field Centre. Members noted the following:

·       One of our Team Leaders left in April after nearly ten years at the Centre to take a senior role at FSC Malham Tarn. As an interim step Officers had replaced her with a new member of our education team so that Officers could continue to deliver courses without disruption. The Bursar/Administrator left on 9 May.

·       Further remedial works arising from the Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) undertaken in the summer of 2012 was due to take place in the near future (order 601319). The Contractor had indicated that they would shortly come on site to plan and schedule the work. This should address most outstanding FRA remedial actions.  The possible exceptions to this relate to the testing of the lightning conductor and also to the advice to install emergency lighting in the adult toilets. The intentions regarding these were still unclear to me at the time of reporting.

·       The boilers for the main building were taken out of commission on 17 January when they were declared unsafe by contractors. Whilst the support from the Superintendent and his team (temporary use of the Visitor Centre and a supply of portable electrical heaters) has been much appreciated the absence of appropriate heating has created a number of issues. Officers thanked the Superintendent of Epping Forest and his team for their constant support during this difficult time/

·       These difficulties for Centre staff had also been compounded by the present arrangements for maintenance.  Whilst some maintenance receives exemplary attention and the direct City staff contacts were always very helpful, Officers said it was sometimes difficult to understand why other maintenance issues are dealt with in a protracted way where there seems to be a considerable

There were none.

There was one item of urgent business.

Members are requested to agree the date of the next meeting.

Resolved: That the date of the next meeting would be confirmed via email.