Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Jon Pickstone (Strategic Director of Economy), Councillor Andrew Jones (Cabinet Member for the Economy), Councillor Sharon Holder (Cabinet Member for the Public Realm) and Councillor Liz Collins.

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 Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting and note any outstanding actions.

The minutes of the Economy, Arts, Sports and Public Realm Policy and Accountability Committee meeting held on 29 March 2023 were approved.

This report updates the Committee on progress in developing a five-year Sport & Physical Activity Strategy.

Simon Ingyon, Assistant Director Parks and Leisure,introduced the item. He explained that the draft strategy and action plan was close to completion, but that officers were seeking the Committee’s views on the five priorities of the new strategy.

He provided a presentation which covered the following aspects:

·       An overview of the five key elements, integral to the strategy

·       The strategy vision and structure

·       Successes and ongoing areas of work

·       The links to the Health and Well-Being Priorities

·       The proposed themes for the new strategy

·       Areas of work for new strategy themes

·       The next steps

Councillor Adam Peter Lang highlighted that the previous week, the Council was awarded a further Green Flag award for Wormwood Scrubs. He asked about parks and leisure, the use of open spaces by young people and how officers envisioned these areas could be used creatively as part of the sport and physical activity strategy.

Councillor Adam Peter Lang commended rowing as an activity and the goal of offering this to all young people (in the borough), however, he asked if there were any perceived gaps such as skateboarding, mountain biking and walking football that had been missed from the list of activities. In addition, he highlighted the tight timescale for the strategy going out to consultation in September 2023 and whether officers were confident this was feasible and realistic. He highlighted it was important the Council considered how it would engage the community in the consultation process, in addition to the traditional route of canvassing sports clubs and societies.

In relation to young people, Simon Ingyon confirmed the Council worked closely with Young Hammersmith and Fulham which were one of the key stakeholder and consultation groups and it was noted the Council had a good working relationship with less traditional forms of sport forms like skateboarding.  With regards to the tight consultation timeframe, Simon Ingyon confirmed officers would start the consultation process at the end of September which would last for between 4 and 6 weeks. The information which had been collected would then be consolidated in November 2023 and used to inform the final strategy. He was confident that there was sufficient time, as the Council had already been in contact with some of the consultees and they were aware of the process the Council was following. Finally, in relation to rowing, Simon Ingyon confirmed that this was a manifesto pledge and so it had been specifically included, however, he was keen that children had the opportunity to experience a widespread range of sports in the future.

Councillor Ashok Patel commented that the challenge was to try and get young people off their screens (telephones and tablets) and on to playing fields. He asked if there was any reason community sport providers list did not include any schools. He also noted that schools were being encouraged to use public parks and whether this was part of the strategy. In response, Simon Ingyon confirmed that schools were already using park facilities, and one of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

This report outlines the progress to date of the first tree strategy for Hammersmith & Fulham, detailing the vision of the strategy, how this will be achieved, and why the borough needs a tree strategy.

Eugene McGee (Arboricultural Officer) introduced the draft tree strategy which had been compiled with a significant amount of input from internal and external stakeholders. He explained the rationale behind the strategy was that in 2019 the Council declared a climate emergency and made a commitment to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2030. Trees are known to be highly efficient at reducing carbon emissions, and as a result, effective tree management has been weaved into both national and international policy. Eugene McGee provided details of Trees and Woodland Strategy toolkit (commissioned by Defra) which had been used to inform Hammersmith and Fulham’s Tree Strategy.

Eugene McGee and Jessica Bastock (Service Manager Healthy Streets) provided a presentation which covered the following aspects:

·       The need for a tree strategy.

·       The structure of the tree strategy.

·       The vision (and process for developing the vison) of the tree strategy.

·       Delivering the vision.

·       The Tree Strategy - next steps.

·       Details of ongoing consultations.

The Committee noted that the strategy included three main aims: increasing the canopy cover, preserving and improving existing trees and working closely with residents and stakeholders. Details were provided of how these three core areas broke down into a further twelve sub-sections.

Councillor Ashok Patel asked three questions. Firstly, if officers could provide some idea of what the likely costs would be involved in the tree strategy (and to what extent was the Council relying on private funding). Secondly, he commented that he was surprised that Hammersmith and Fulham was only 28 greenest borough (out 32) and asked for some feedback on that. And finally, he asked for further information to be provided on the private land (and the vision of planting one tiny forest per year and promoting Forest Schools). He asked how many Forest Schools there were currently.

In response, Eugene McGee explained that, thankfully, there were a considerable number of funding opportunities available. At present, two funding applications were ongoing (The Urban Tree Challenge Fund and Local Authority Treescapes Fund). Eugene McGee confirmed that all the action points within the draft strategy had been costed, with the majority of these being met internally, however, officers would be looking for as many external funding opportunities as possible. Jessica Bastock explained that the Tree Service was cross-cutting throughout the Council (Planning, Climate Change, Parks) and the actions had been costed and built by the service areas responsible for delivering them.

Clarifying the statistic, 28^th greenest borough, Eugene McGee explained this referred to access to green space, so this needed to be reworded when the draft strategy was finalised. With regards to private land, Eugene McGee confirmed that the only influence the Council had was in relation to protecting trees through the planning process or by encouraging the land owner to plant trees and working in partnership with land owners the Council held joint assets with like TfL. In relation to the tiny forests, Jessica Bastock confirmed there were a couple already and officers would be looking within parks  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.