Agenda and draft minutes

There were none.

Don’tthintherTo agree the public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 25 November 2020.

RESOLVED, that the public minutes of the meeting held on 25 November 2020 were approved as a correct record.

Covid-19 update

The Superintendent provided an update relating to issues and matters concerning the Covid-19 pandemic. The Superintendent highlighted the importance of the Open Spaces following the announcement of the third national lockdown and Officers were anticipating another very busy weekend. Managing the heavily used public toilets and keeping them safe was a significant issue and Officers were working with DBE for extra staff to provide additional resilience.

Officers continued to work on and balance a programme of works and recovery programmes to be included in the AWP which would take several years to complete. It was also noted that following Committee approval of dog licensing scheme at the last meeting, Officers had a useful meeting with the recently set up Hampstead Dog Walking Association took place in December. The next step was an Expression of Interest to gather better data on dog walker numbers at the Heath. This information would assist the development of the detail of the scheme and the applications.

A Member was concerned regarding the Queen’s Park Toilet project which was not accounted for in the proposed budget and requested an update. The Superintendent confirmed that whilst the project received gateway 2 clearance from the Committee and Projects Sub Committee, this project was deferred twice by the Resource Allocations Sub Committee (RASC)then came off the list when projects were reprioritised. Subsequently, funds of £30k have been allocated in the CWP to cover maintenance works.

In response to a query regarding accessibility, it was not that there were two accessible toilets available, the issue was safeguarding concerning access from the Children’s Sandpit and Officers were looking at options. The Chair confirmed a full update on all capital projects

Joint report of the Chamberlain and Director of Open Spaces.

The Committee considered a joint report of the Chamberlain and Director of Open Spaces regarding the Departmental and Service Committee Budget Estimates and high-level summary Business Plan 2021/22 for the Open Spaces Department.

The Chamberlain set out the revenue position stating that there were three main changes from the current year: 1) a reduction in the local risk budget totalling £660k which was mostly in relation to the 12% savings figure agreed at Resource Allocation Sub Committee (RASC) in December; 2) a reduction in the planned Cyclical Works Programme (CWP) totalling £732k; and 3) a reduction in the cost of support services totalling £249k. Overall, this totalled a decrease of £1.624M compared with the 2020/21 budget.

The Superintendent summarised the proposed budget savings for Hampstead Heath, Highgate Wood and Queen’s Park. These included reviewing staffing arrangements, operational efficiencies, commercial licensing opportunities, donations, new events, a change to an online only Heath diary, and a number of operational reviews.

In response to a query from the Chair requesting the rationale behind the substantial reduction of the CWP as a result Covid-19, the City Surveyor confirmed this was twofold. The aim was to transfer to a new CWP approach to reduce the backlog going forward; however, Covid-19 delayed matters as there was a period of three months in the first lockdown preventing access to sites to undertake works. It was noted that all urgent health and safety and business critical projects were included in the 2021/22 bid and it was expected that normal funding would resume in 2022/23 bidding round.

The Chair questioned, if works could not take place for three months, then why was there not more money in the budget instead of less. The City Surveyor confirmed there was no resource issue, the money was transferred across. As a consequence,

There were no questions.

There were no items.

MOTION: That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

RESOLVED - That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

To agree the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 25 November 2020.

RESOLVED, that the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 25 November 2020 were approved as a correct record.

There were no questions.

There were no items.

Apologies were received from William Upton QC, Chris Byers, Adeline Siew Yin Au and Yianni Andrews.