Agenda item

Any Other Business That the Chairman Considers Urgent

Meeting of Hampstead Heath Consultative Committee, Monday, 20th January, 2014 7.15 pm (Item 7.)

Minutes:

Sculptures

The Chairman informed the Committee there was a possibility that the City of London may secure the Jake & Dinos Chapman sculptures The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - currently located near the Gherkin in the City – for display in Golders Hill Park from Spring 2014. Should this be likely, a paper would be tabled to the next meeting of the Committee.

World War I Centenary

In response to a question from Ian Harrison the Leisure and Events Manager confirmed that planned City of London Festival events on the Heath would feature commemoration of the WWI Centenary. The Operational Services Manager added that poppies would be planted in Golders Hill Park.

Simon Lee

The Chairman noted that this was the last meeting of the Committee at which Simon Lee would be present in his current role as Superintendent, as he would soon be moving to take up his new role as Chief Executive of Wimbledon & Putney Commons. He remarked that Simon had been Superintendent of Hampstead Heath for nearly half of the time since the Heath came into the City of London’s custodianship in 1989. During this time many Chairmen and Committee Members had come and gone, noting that the Heath we see today was largely his legacy. Throughout, Simon had managed to balance many competing interests with tact and sensitivity, often managing to successfully ‘square the circle’. The Chairman expressed thanks therefore, on behalf of everyone present and moreover for all the Londoners who came to enjoy the Heath, for all of the work Simon had done over the years.

Jeremy Wright echoed these sentiments on behalf of the Heath & Hampstead Society and took the opportunity to welcome Bob Warnock to his new role. He added that the Heath & Hampstead Society was holding a reception on 6 February and that invitations should have been received by all of those present.

Simon Lee thanked those present for their kindness and remarked that one of his early committee meetings had discussed the display of the 9 metre high The Writer sculpture, which had polarised opinion – the suggestion therefore that a sculpture was returning to the Heath in the Spring was a welcome bookend to his time here therefore, and he fully supported it.