Agenda and draft minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

The Committee noted that Faye Thomas (Co-opted member) was not available to attend the meeting.

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 18 June 2025 as an accurate record.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting held on 18 June 2025 were agreed as an accurate record.

To note and approve all matters in the report.

AEM Masterplan Procurement and Timetable

Vicki Abel (Development Manager) provided an update on progress towards awarding the AEM Masterplan capital works and maintenance contracts. Vicki explained that after the tender was first published in June 2025, the procurement process had to be terminated temporarily due to a technical issue in one of the tender documents. The amended tender was republished in August and the four bids received were now under evaluation with the successful tenderers planned to be known by mid-October.  It was expected that the contractor, after signing the contract detailing the programme of works around mid-December, would start mobilizing for the works to commence in early February 2026.  The capital works would take approximately six to nine months to complete depending on the weather conditions and after which, the management and maintenance plan would start.

Replying to Councillor Dominic Stanton’s question, Vicki Abel noted that the original plan was to start on-site work in early January 2026 which was now delayed by about four weeks.

Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen (Co-opted Member) asked whether the work would be deferred under exceptional wet weather.  Vicki Abel confirmed there would need to be flexible in the programme to ensure that work was only on site in appropriate weather conditions.   However, a lot of work was seasonal. For example, a main part of the capital work was the planting of over 300 trees, which, if weather conditions in February were too warm or too wet, would be delayed to autumn 2026. Another seasonal example was excavation works under the Sustainable Urban Drainage scheme which was programmed to take place in the drier spring months but ground conditions would determine exactly when it could start.

Sir Waley-Cohen noted the proper timing of tree planting under the present context of climate changes was between October and January. Vicki Abel agreed that tree planting should happen next October/November if weather conditions in February were not conducive to planting.

The Committee noted the update.

Old Oak Common Lane diversion via UTX site

Osama El-Amin (Trust Manager) updated members on the planned diversion of Old Oak Common Lane via the HS2 UTX site and the mitigation measures. He said that several utilities running beneath the carriageway would be excavated and diverted along a section of the road which ran parallel to the Scrubs. To keep vehicle traffic flowing, HS2 had proposed a traffic diversion via the UTX site (under compulsory purchase) for a period of up to 3 years.

Officers had reviewed the design package and approved the diversion, with the following measures to be adopted:

• To mitigate any of the surface water runoff flowing into the scrubs from laying a new carriageway, HS2 agreed to build an additional drainage channel into the construction.
• To allow the Trust to accurately assess the environmental impact of bringing the roadway closer onto the Scrubs and contextualise any future mitigation requests, pre-construction and post-diversion soil contamination surveys would be conducted by the Trust if HS2 failed to take them up.
• To  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The next meeting will take place on 2^nd December 2025..

The Chair noted that the date of next meeting would be moved from 2 December 2025 to January 2026 and a date was being identified.