Agenda item

The Superintendent to be heard.

Members considered a tabled paper of the Superintendent regarding potential options for Queen’s Park Café and the following points were made.

·         The Queen’s Park Manager noted that Members had before them four anonymised bids for the licence to operate Queen’s Park Café. They had been graded using a matrix of 60% quality and 40% price. Of the four bids, bid 6 and bid 12 had proved most popular in terms of their menus during public consultation.

·         In response to a question from the Chairman, the Park Manager confirmed that each potential café operator’s social offering had been evaluated as part of the catering concept element of their bid. He agreed to amend the title of that section accordingly to reflect the fact it included a social offering.

Giovanna Torrico left at this point of the meeting.

·         The Park Manager noted that bids 6 and 12 had plenty of catering experience but not necessarily in a park context. Bid 1 had less experience and was more geared towards hot drinks. Bids 1, 6 and 12 were all local to the Queen’s Park area.

·         The Chairman noted that she would welcome a community statement from bid 1.

·         A Member commented that she would welcome a provider was creative in terms of menu, and planned to use the whole range of space in the café.

·         A Member encouraged the Park Manager to interview all four bids, not just the top two. If only two bids were brought forward for interview, officers should be clear on their reasons for not inviting the other two bids.

·         In response to a question, the Superintendent agreed to confirm whether the Chairman and the Chair of the Queen’s Park Area Residents’ Association could observe the forthcoming interviews. The Park Manager noted that the interviews were scheduled for mid-January 2018.

RESOLVED, that the report be noted.