Agenda and minutes

No apologies for absence were received.

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.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 4^th December 2024.

Matters arising:

Stephen Waley-Cohen (Co-opted Member) asked there was any intention to replant the hedge which was removed between the Kensington Dragon works and the children’s playground, to which Osama El-Amin (Trust Manager) replied that had been budgeted for and the hedge would be replanted once the works were completed.

RESOLVED

The minutes of the meeting held on 4^th December 2024 were agreed as an accurate record.

Appointment of Auditors

Nick Falcone (Advisor to the Trust) asked the Committee to approval the appointment of MHA as the auditor for the Trust’s 2024/25 accounts for a fee of £11,700 (+VAT). There was a modest increase of around 1.7% from the 2023-24 fees and the working relationship between MHA and Council staff had been good with the former being the Trust’s auditor since the 2019/20 financial year. The audit would be conducted around October and November 2025 for the audited accounts to be reported to the December 2025 meeting.

The Chair was delighted at the relatively low increase in fees.

Councillor Dominic Stanton queried about the process for the reappointment of auditors. Nick Falcone replied that retendering had to take place every ten years, and so far, MHA had been reappointed because of their satisfactory performance. The Chair added that a procurement exercise was conducted six years ago when MHA came up significantly ahead of other options. They had been offering a competitive rate, and the Committee had been happy with their work.

The Committee approved the appointment of MHA as the Trust’s external auditor for the accounting year 2024/25 and approved their proposed fee of £11,700 (+VAT).

Procuring the AEM Masterplan

Victoria Abel (Advisor to the Trust) reported on the progress made on the procurement of the AEM Masterplan work. Four out of the five main tender documents had been finalised. However, two new contracts had to be drafted for each phase – a JCT contract for the capital work and a high value contract for the management and maintenance plan. As a result, not all documents were ready by 24^th February 2025 when the new procurement regulations came into effect and any tenders not submitted by that date needed to be amended to reflect the new regulations. The new regulations required a new document, the Invitation to Tender (ITT), which was more comprehensive than the previous version and involved additional steps to be completed. The overall procurement timetable was likely to take longer than the nine months initially stated but the pre-market engagement could begin soon to let potential contractors know about the tender and gauge the level of interest.

Councillor Dominic Stanton asked how far the deadline had been missed by, to which Victoria Abel replied that the overall delay would be about 5 to 6 weeks.

Councillor Stanton expressed his disappointment with the delay and enquired about the updates regarding planning permission. Victoria Abel noted that planning permission was not being pursued anymore as it attracted several objections, including from Sport England. As this would mean that the application would go to the Secretary of State to determine and the timescale of that was uncertain, a decision was made to reduce the scope of the work in the masterplan so planning permission was not needed. The Chair added that the Trust was under the impression that the application would not be successful had it gone ahead. The Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The next meeting is due to take place on 18^th June 2025.

The Committee noted the date of the next meeting scheduled to be held on 18^th June 2025.