Agenda item

Report of the Superintendent of Hampstead Heath.

The Constabulary and Queen’s Park Manager introduced an update report on public sex environment outreach work and noted that he was seeking the Consultative Committee’s endorsement of continued partnership working with the Terrence Higgins Trust and associated stakeholders.

Colin Gregory commented that the report showed that the current arrangements and relationships between various parties were working well. Jeremy Wright noted that the report focused on the area of West Heath, but that public sex activity took place on other areas of the Heath as well.

The Constabulary Manager agreed that outreach work focused on West Heath, and that the Constabulary worked with their colleagues in the Keeper/Ranger Teams to identify other areas where public sex took place so that appropriate education could take place.

Jeremy Wright referred to a paragraph within the report which referred to ‘users’ and ‘stakeholders’ – he suggested that greater effort should be made to engage with wider users of the Heath to establish their views on the use of areas of the Heath for public sex.

In response to a question from Ellin Stein, the Constabulary Manager replied that a rough analysis of social media suggested that the number of persons using West Heath was on a downward trend. In response to Jeremy Wright’s earlier observation, he emphasized that the Constabulary sought to engage with all users of the Heath.

RESOLVED, that the Consultative Committee support the continuation of partnership work on Hampstead Heath during 2015 by the Hampstead Heath Constabulary, Terrence Higgins Trust, and other stakeholders and partners.