Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

The Democratic Services Officer will draw attention to the emergency evacuation procedure as set out on the Agenda.

The Democratic Services Officer read out the emergency evacuation procedure.

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Joanna Wright.

At this point in the meeting declarations of interest are received from Members in any of the agenda items under consideration at the meeting. Members are asked to indicate:

a)  The agenda item number in which they have an interest to declare.

b)  The nature of their interest.

c)  Whether their interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an other interest, (as defined in Part 4.4 Appendix B of the Code of Conduct and Rules for Registration of Interests).

Any Member who needs to clarify any matters relating to the declaration of interests is recommended to seek advice from the Council’s Monitoring Officeror a member of his staff before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

There was no urgent business.

There were no items from the public.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of 29 June 2021 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Cllr Rob Appleyard, Chair of Alice Park Trust Sub-Committee presented the report and gave an update as follows:

1.  The Sub-Committee was working as a solid unit with all members having the same objective.

2.  The annual accounts had been approved and the Trust was looking to the future in developing a 10-year programme with a view to becoming cost neutral including charging for commercial activities.  The Trust had adopted the B&NES rates for commercial use whilst applying discretion where appropriate to ensure inclusivity. 

3.  The Trust was currently running on a deficit, which was subsidised by the Council’s Parks Department. 

4.  In terms of operation, the Trust tried to maintain the ethos of the park as a family destination.

5.  Two pieces of work had come to fruition, the skate park which offered something for young people and the re-laying of the tennis courts to encourage greater use.  This in turn added to the sustainability of the café.  The café owner was active in promoting the park and worked well with the Trust.

6.  The Trust had embarked on a project to refurbish the children’s play area and bring it in line with Council run parks.  A full consultation process had been undertaken, led by Cllr Joanna Wright and independent member, Holly Dabbs.  The next stage was the procurement work being led by Cllrs Sally Davis and Joanna Wright.  The final stage of the process would be raising the funds to complete the project.  This was estimated at £150k including equipment and ground works.  The plan was to complete the work in 2-3 tranches and secure a range of facilities to serve different age groups.  The Sub-Committee may need to come back to the Charitable Trust Board with a view to securing resources, but there was likely to be opportunities from Bath Community Infrastructure Levy and private funding.

7.  During the Covid pandemic, the value of the park was proven to be something the community valued.

Cllr Rob Appleyard concluded by thanking both elected members and independent members of the Sub-Committee as well as officers in Finance, Legal and Democratic Services and in particular, the Parks Team. 

He responded to questions as follows:

1.  In terms of grounds maintenance, the Trust had a service level agreement (SLA) with the Council’s Parks Team.  This was due to be revised to give clearer definition of the scope of the SLA but this process may end up increasing costs. 

2.  He asked the Legal Officer to investigate whether the Trust could apply for lottery funding as it was noted that the Sydney Gardens improvements had benefitted from lottery funding.  It was also suggested that the Parks Team may be able to advise on available funding streams.

The Chair thanked the Trust for their work and noted that Alice Park was a popular community park which offered a range of facilities to suit different groups.

RESOLVED – that the Annual Report of the Alice Park Trust Sub-Committee 2020-21 be noted.