Agenda and minutes

To approve as an accurate record, and the Chairman to sign, the minutes of the meeting held on 22 June 2017.

Miriam Shea noted the following amendment under item 3 – Minutes of Previous Meeting: To amend the date of the meeting from 6 December 2017 to 20 March 2017.

Councillor Elaine Chumnery requested that the minutes from the ‘Wormwood Scrubs Special Meeting’ held on 10 July 2017 be added to the agenda for the next Wormwood Scrubs meeting.

Action: Amrita Gill

The Committee approved the minute’s subject to the above amendments.

RESOLVED

The minutes of the meeting held on 22 June 2017 were approved and signed by the Chair.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Joe Carlebach, Farrah Rossi (Project Manager), and Jem Kale (Events).

If a Councillor has a disclosable pecuniary interest in a particular item, whether or not it is entered in the Authority’s register of interests, or any other significant interest which they consider should be declared in the public interest, they should declare the existence and, unless it is a sensitive interest as defined in the Member Code of Conduct, the nature of the interest at the commencement of the consideration of that item or as soon as it becomes apparent.

At meetings where members of the public are allowed to be in attendance and speak, any Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest or other significant interest may also make representations, give evidence or answer questions about the matter.  The Councillor must then withdraw immediately from the meeting before the matter is discussed and any vote taken.

Where Members of the public are not allowed to be in attendance and speak, then the Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest should withdraw from the meeting whilst the matter is under consideration. Councillors who have declared other significant interests should also withdraw from the meeting if they consider their continued participation in the matter would not be reasonable in the circumstances and may give rise to a perception of a conflict of interest.

Councillors are not obliged to withdraw from the meeting where a dispensation to that effect has been obtained from the Audit, Pensions and Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

This report presents the Trust’s Annual Trustee’s Report which includes the draft 2016/17 finanacial accounts. The external auditors (KPMG LLP) require the Trust to approve a letter of representation.

Mark Jones presented the Wormwood Scrubs Charitable Trust Annual Trustee’s Report which included the draft 2016/17 financial accounts. He noted that financial performance for the Trust was £21,860 better when compared to last year, with the Trust almost breaking even on income and expenditure. The amount carried forward consisted of unrestricted income funds of £217,279 and designated funds relating to the valuation of land and building of £5,000,001.

Jenny Townsend (KPMG) presented the external auditor’s report and highlighted the following key points:

•       The auditor would issue an unqualified audit opinion which indicated that they had found no significant accounting issues and the Trust’s policies were considered appropriate.

•       There was one material audit adjustment detailed in Appendix B of the report but no major weaknesses were found.

•       There were no significant regulatory or tax matters that came to the attention of KPMG during normal audit work.

Councillor Harcourt queried the long term viability of the Charity and asked if the income this year would balance. Mark Jones said that we would expect a stronger financial year due to the income generated from the rental of Kensington Aldridge Academy (approximately £280k) and the UKPN refund. The reserves from the additional income would last at least 10 years. He also confirmed that the income from the KAA would definitely come to the Trust.

Miriam Shea requested the following changes:

•       In the second paragraph (page 28) under Contribution to Linford Christie Stadium –The first sentence be removed.

•       On page 28 under Grounds Maintenance – The section to be reworded and circulated to the Committee for agreement.

Action: Mark Jones

The Committee agreed the recommendations, subject to the points raised above.

RESOLVED:

1.         That the Committee noted the content of the draft 2016/17 financial accounts for Wormwood Scrubs Charitable Trust.

2.         That the Committee approved delegation of authority to the Director for Finance & Resources, Environmental Services for the approval of the audited 2016/17 Statement of Accounts and Trustee’s report in the event of auditor changes subsequent to this Committee meeting.

3.         That the Committee approved the management representation letter, attached as Appendix 2 of the report.

4.         That the Committee approved the Trustee’s Annual Report, attached as Appendix

5.         That the Committee noted the contents of the annual risk assessment (contained in the Trustee’s report on pages 25-26).

The Committee is asked note all matters in the report.

HS2 Bill – Proposed Wetland Mitigation Legal Agreement

Mark Jones provided an overview and noted that officers met with HS2 in May to progress the project. It was agreed that a Development Manager with ecology experience would be appointed to oversee the project. The deadline for application submissions was 11 September and it was hoped that an officer would be in post shortly after the interview process. Ian Ross confirmed that the sole role of the induvial would be to deliver the ecological mitigation and would assist with the website and social media aspects on an ad hoc basis.

HS2 Bill – Re-Routing Stamford Brook Sewer Legal Agreement

Mark Jones noted that officers had secured a legal agreement from HS2 regarding the re-routing of the Stamford Brook sewer through the northern edge of the scrubs.

Councillors asked for further clarification on who would be liable for an incident arising from the installation of the boreholes. HS2 officers confirmed that the contractor who installed the borehole would be taking periodic monitoring measurements from any that were installed with equipment. These locations would be the responsibility of the principal contractor until they were novated over to another principle contractor for early works or they were decommissioned and removed. Any post de-commissioning report would require a site condition handback to the Council to verify and accept.

Stephen Waley-Cohen asked when the works for the Stamford Brook sewer were expected to start. Mark Jones said that he would provide an update on this.

Action: Mark Jones

Filming and Events Update

Mark Jones noted that Secret Cinema had provisionally been booked for July/August 2018. The maximum net income would be £150k for 5 viewings in a week for 4 weeks. He added if the temporary school still occupied the Red Gra next year, a temporary secure marshalling area would be created.

The large winter wonderland project proposer had not provided financial details so far. The Council had requested the information to be provided by October 2017. Stephen Waley-Cohen advised not to rely on this information to be provided by the suggested deadline and recommended that other options be explored.

Community Safety Update

Mark Jones provided an overview and noted that Parks Police had carried out 102 patrols of WWS during quarter one and dealt with 31 incidents. These included the discovery of a number of concealed weapons including six crossbow bolts, a 9mm automatic pistol and two paintball rifles.

Miriam Shea asked for the location of where these were found on the Scrubs. Ian Ross said along Braybrook Street. Miriam Shea highlighted that the issue around people feeling unsafe on the Scrubs had been raised more often than usual and suggested that we posted a clear message on the website (when up and running) to reassure people that there had only been a very few number of reported incidents that had taken place.

Stephen Waley-Cohen also expressed some concerns around a motor bike incident that took place around the Scrubs Lane entrance. Ian Ross thanked  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Mark Jones provided a verbal update and noted this was progressing well. He added that the school had requested car park permits. Councillors felt that they didn’t want to encourage driving in the Borough as the transport links for tubes and buses were very accessible in the area. Councillor Harcourt proposed that the school should have no more than four.

Action: Mark Jones

The next meeting will be held on 11 December 2017.

The next meeting will be held on 11 December 2017.

That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, that the public and press be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the following items of business, on the grounds that they contain the likely disclosure of exempt information, as defined in paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the said Act, and that the public interest in maintaining the exemption currently outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

RESOLVED

That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, that the public and press be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the following items of business, on the grounds that they contain the likely disclosure of exempt information, as defined in paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the said Act, and that the public interest in maintaining the exemption currently outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

To approve the exempt minutes of the meeting held on 22 June 2017.

RESOLVED

The minutes of the meeting held on 22 June 2017 were approved and signed by the Chair.

The exempt elements of the report were noted.