Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Nick Bensted-Smith, Gregory Lawrence, Wendy Mead  and John Petrie.

There were no declarations.

To agree the public minutes of the meeting held on 26th May 2021.

RESOLVED – That the public minutes of the meeting held on 26 May 2021 be approved as a correct record subject to the following correction to the last sentence of resolution 5:

Delete “was working towards” and insert “had”.

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Committee considered a report of the Town Clerk tracking progress on actions outstanding from previous meetings.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted and completed actions removed.

The Superintendents to be heard.

The Committee heard oral updates from the Markets Superintendents on the matters set out below.

Billingsgate

1.    Coronavirus and Brexit impact – there had been little change since restrictions were eased with steady trade and tenants geared towards supplying local customers/businesses doing better than those geared towards supplying hotels/conference/banqueting/catering.

2.    Since the last Markets Committee, the three Market Superintendents had met with the Energy Team to gain an understanding of how energy was sourced and further updates would be provided following a planned tenants liaison meeting.

3.    The Lord Mayor visited the Market in June where the peppercorn rent of one salmon that the CoL pays to Tower Hamlets, was presented to the Speaker of the Council.

4.    There was close liaison with the Metropolitan Police who had visited the Market and delivered site specific training package called SCaN (See Check and Notify) geared towards all front facing roles focussing on how to recognise suspicious behaviour.

5.    Committee Members were invited to attend the annual committee visit to Billingsgate Market to be held on 9^th September 2021.  Invites would be sent in due course and Members were requested to RSVP to the Town Clerk’s Office.

New Spitalfields

Trade

Vehicle numbers have remained steady from April to June 2021 but there had been a 15% drop in vehicle numbers compared to the same period last year.  It was hoped that vehicle number would increase once all Covid restrictions were lifted on 19 July. Hospitality/event businesses re-opening would benefit catering supply businesses, some of whom were operating at about 30% of pre pandemic levels.

Climate action policy

From May 2020 to May 2021, more than 500 tonnes of food was donated to City Harvest. This equates to 1.2m meals and has offset 1,900 tonnes of Co2 emissions. From January 2020

Report of the Director of Markets & Consumer Protection.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Markets & Consumer Protection outlining management procedures in place to meet the requirements of the Corporate Risk Management Framework.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.

Joint report of the Chamberlain and the Director of Markets and Consumer Protection.

The Committee considered a joint report of the Chamberlain and the Director of Markets & Consumer Protection providing an update on the Markets Revenue Outturn for 2020/21.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.

Report of the Chamberlain.

The Committee considered a report of the Chamberlain providing an update on the Modern Slavery Statement for 2020/21.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.

There were no questions.

10a Markets Conditions Surveys

Officers reported that the survey reports had now been received and whilst there were no immediate dangers identified, there were several matter across Billingsgate and New Spitalfields Markets requiring attention including and a bid list would be created in order of priority works and a report on the strategy for delivering works would be presented to the Committee over the coming months.

In response to questions from Members, Officers stated that realistic timelines for releasing the draft surveys and preparing the strategy would be agreed in consultation with the Chairman, Director of Markets & Consumer protection and tenants

10b Retirement of Director of Markets & Consumer Protection

The Chairman gave a vote of thanks to Jon Averns given that this was the last Markets Committee meeting he was attending in his capacity as the Director of Markets and Consumer Protection.  Members echoed the sentiments of the Chairman and were very appreciate of Jon’s dedication and the support that he had provided to the Committee.

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 of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act as follows:-

To agree the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 26th May 2021.

The non-public minutes of the meeting held on 26 May 2021 were approved as a correct record.

The Superintendents to be heard.

The Committee considered an oral report from the Superintendents on non-public matters.

There were no questions.

There were no urgent items.