Agenda item

Report of the Superintendent of Hampstead Heath.

The Committee received a report of the Superintendent of Hampstead Heath that set out the proposed fees and charges for a range of facilities and services provided at the Heath for 2015/16.

In response to a question from Richard Sumray, the Superintendent advised that the cost of the weekly two hour tennis coaching sessions had increased by more than 2.4% because benchmarking of other tennis coaching providers in the area showed that the previous charge was very low. He added that the reason for the increased adult all-swimming facilities six month season ticket charge was due to the fact that the six month season ticket for the Lido only was the same price, which was an oversight. In the past, customers had been reluctant to buy a Lido season ticket when they could get more usage from the all-facilities ticket.

In response to a question from Simon Taylor, the Operational Services Manager advised that there was little difference between the proposed charges for the Athletics Track compared with Ealing Council’s charges for Perivale Park Athletics Track. Simon Taylor suggested that a quarterly season ticket be considered for the Athletics Track at the Heath. The Operational Services Manager explained that the administration cost of introducing another ticket would outweigh the benefits.

In response to a question regarding the charges for swimming at the mixed ponds, the Superintendent advised that the daily charge would remain the same but swimmers would not be excluded if they chose not to pay. From time to time, staff would be required to manage crowds queuing to enter the facilities and would use these opportunities to encourage swimmers to pay if they had not done so already.

RESOLVED – That the proposed fees and charges for 2015/16 be noted.