Transcript

Transcript

Good evening, I am Councillor Ella Rose, Chair of the North Area Committee. Thank you for attending our committee meeting this evening. Please note that meetings may be recorded and broadcast as allowed for in-law or by the Council. By attending either in person or online you may be picked up on recordings. Council recordings are covered by a privacy notice which can be found on the Barnet Council website and retained and made available online. Tonight I would like to welcome the head of Friends of Stonyfield Park, Tony Sabini, to the meeting who will be presenting their bid this evening. Tony, you have three minutes to speak. There will then be an opportunity for members to ask questions of the speakers. Please can everyone ensure that after you finish speaking you press your microphone to ensure there is no feedback. I would like to welcome Councillor Baker to her first Council meeting following her successful by-election earlier in the summer. Welcome. I would also like to note that it is my understanding that tonight is the first all-female Councillor meeting potentially ever of Barnet Council. So congratulations to us. May we continue to smash glass ceilings. I would also like to note that this is the anniversary of 9/11 and to commemorate and remember the lives lost that day and in all of the wars since. I do note that it does not feel like the world is a safer place than those days and may the world become a safer place for us all in the coming years and months. Right, minutes of the previous meeting. Does anyone have any, I started very on time Councillor Cornelius, my apologies. Does anyone have any comments on the minutes of the previous meeting or can we approve those? Approved? Thank you very much. I will sign those. I have apologies for Councillor Tim Roberts who is being substituted by Councillor Baker. Do we have any other apologies? Nope. All good. Wonderful. Any declarations of members' interests please? Councillor Simberg and I are both committee members of the Friends of Mill Hill Park. Thank you very much and the officers remind me that you will therefore still make your decisions without prejudice or interference. Wonderful. Thank you very much. To my knowledge there are no dispensations granted by the monitoring officer. Item 5, petitions. Petitions with signatures of up to 500 will be dealt with by either the appropriate department or cabinet member. The petitions received thus far require response from the relevant cabinet member or officer. Responses to petitions will be covered on the e-petitions section of the website. Once an officer has responded, updates will be shared with committee members in due course. Item 6, residence issues. None. 7, deputations. None. 8, public questions and comments. None. 9, members items. None. Item 10, area committee grants, funding, ENSL and road safety and parking fund updates. We have two appendices on this item. I open the floor to any questions on said appendices. Councillor Weiser. Thank you, Chair. Just a couple of the bids that I've had earlier in this council have asked how they get their money so if someone could drop me an email and I can direct them to the right place that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Thank you. If officers could be in touch with Councillor Weiser to progress those bids. Keen to see all of the bids progress to their final statuses. Any other questions? No? Okay. In which case North Area committee members are asked to, number 1, note the community infrastructure levy SIL funding available for the allocation 2425 as set out in paragraph 5.4 of this report in appendix 1. Number 2, note the SIL amount and reallocated under spends and overspends in paragraph 1.6 of this report in appendix 1.3, note the road safety and parking fund application available for allocation during 2425 in paragraph 5.8 and set out in appendix 2. Is everyone happy to note those three things? Agreed. Wonderful. Item 11. If everyone is happy, I'm just going to move them around slightly to allow our visitors to get home earlier. Therefore, I will take the Stonyfield's Park gym item first and I've had noticed that Anthony is going to speak. So, Anthony, you have three minutes. You are welcome. I would like to thank the committee for this opportunity to buy their case from the friends of Stonyfield and the community for an outside gym in Stonyfield Park. I'll be brief. Stonyfield Park is not the very last park, around four hex acres of lush green wooded areas, two large greens, has a substantial man-made lake with a path around it and a spectacular waterfall that feeds it to synth street. Within the area there are a varied community of people from all nations and religions who have nothing in common but the love of their park. They bring their children to its playground and push their buggies and take their children to feed the ducks. Children learn to ride their bikes like mine many years ago. And then your grandchildren. There's a great love of our park, a small yet untapped community spirit. And why? Because there is nothing else which they have which will bring them together. We're all aware that exercise in any form is good for us. That is why so many people can be seen throughout the day jogging, walking, with or without a dog around the lake. When the playground is empty, the equipment is used for exercise. The high bars for pull-ups and push-ups, the slides for sit-ups. Park benches with footprints on show someone that's been doing step-ups. A gym in our park would not only be something for the health and well-being of a community of all ages and abilities, it has the potential to be a lot more. The gym would be a focus point in the community, a place where you can go to keep fit perhaps, or just get some mobility, or recover from an injury or operation. But while there, you might open up and talk to others about the weather or how to use the equipment and appreciate what has been provided. See someone there regular and make conversation, possibly a new friend. I asked the committee, no, ask is not the right word. I begged the committee, which would not only benefit the health and well-being of the community, but which has the possibility to be inclusive for the community. Thank you. Thank you very much. If you could just tap your microphone off, I'll call Councillor Wardle and then we'll open to questions for both of you. Yeah, I've not got too much to add on top of what Tony has just said, but this has been an application that's very much been led from a grassroots level, obviously by the Friends of Stonyfield Park. We have had a number of developments within the ward itself and for those of you who know Edgewood Burry, it doesn't necessarily have the facilities like other parts of the borough, it isn't as well connected. These green spaces really are the central focal points and Stonyfield Park in particular really does connect two parts of the communities together. And I think everyone obviously got to grips more with their local area from COVID, come up with a lot of ideas on how to better use their local areas and how they can be improved. And really Tony set out very convincingly, obviously all of the health and well-being benefits from this park. We've had a number of different meetings and sort of consultations about the content of it, the location, so really would hope that. It's fairly straightforward and members are happy to say yes to this one. Thank you, and it should be noted the sheer amount of emails we've had on this, it is very clear the community support behind this and the work that you all have done in order to make this happen, so thank you for your engagement with the council and quite frankly please stop emailing us. Does anyone have any questions? I can see Councillor David and then Councillor Baker, sorry for your first question Councillor Baker. Thank you, thank you chair. My question is, has the community raised any other funding to support, do you have any other funds raised? So you've not done any kind of fundraising towards it. We've been a friends group now since 2001, we're a very new friends group, about 40 who we can call volunteers and call on, half a dozen who do litter pics or so. We are at the moment looking for some crowd funding which has only just started. We're an infant in this, we're very young, we don't know what to do. I'm on various groups, I'm on Barnet Green Open Spaces, some of you might know VCFSC and Green Party, and various other groups. Because we don't have a chair secretary funding, we haven't had money come in, so there's very little reason to have that. We just organise ourselves on Whatsapp groups and Facebook and we come and do what we can in the park. We do a monthly litter pic, we prune branches etc when they overhang and they're dangerous, we clear leaves when they're slippery, we pester the park to do things when they do it, so really that's what we have going for us at the moment. I was just going to say, just to add to that, they're not necessarily set up in the same way as the other friends groups that we've got within the borough, such as the Friends of Mill Hill Park, but obviously the questions around things like maintenance, obviously the application states that actually the maintenance costs have been limited and already covered for within the sort of capital expenditure of green spaces. Councillor Baker. Hi, has there any thought gone into how, is there any costing for how the equipment's going to be maintained? Yeah, so I've just outlined that, it's also within the report, so the maintenance of the equipment, although it's anticipated to be fairly low in terms of lifetime costs, that is already provided for within the budget for green spaces, so there is no further maintenance funding sought from the committee. Wonderful, because we cannot do maintenance funding, so that's good to know. Any other questions on this item? Councillor Weisel. Thank you, Chair, obviously I live near a gym in New Barnet, in the East Barnet in Victoria Park, a lot of the equipment is geared to adults, and you've said you wanted to be inclusive across ages, I don't know if this is a question for Councillor Ward and we'll be able to answer about how it's inclusive across ages from toddlers all the way up, or you know, what age range this will cover? I think if we can look at the example in other parks, there's actually quite a lot of children do use some of the adult equipment, and although there is already a play area within the park itself, so all ages will now be catered for, the range of equipment, sort of the step-ups, the pull-up bars can be sort of applicable for all ages. Any further questions? Are we happy to take it to a vote? Encouraging all ages to use the equipment safely and guided by what is said on the equipment? I think for me, due to the overwhelming community voice on this, I would suggest that we award funding fully. I don't believe we need to be attaching any conditions, but we do need to note the implication to the committee's ENSL budget for this, should we approve it, it is obviously quite a large item. Is everyone happy to agree to that? Great, wonderful, you have your budget. Feel free to send us a photo of people using it. Lovely. Councillor Jastrzynzki, I think, are you going to be speaking on behalf of Councillor Simberg's application? In which case, the next one we are taking is the Mill Hill Park toddler's play area for £82,299.95. Councillor Jastrzynzki, you have three minutes. This came about because in Mill Hill Park, near the children's play area and near the café, there is an enclosed area which used to be used for mini golf and a long time ago, the café owner was prepared to organise the, I don't think it was renting, but lending out of the equipment, this then stopped, so this has just been an empty area for a very long time. So we were looking at it and thinking, well, it's already there, it's got some nice trees so it's sheltered, it's completely enclosed with fencing, so it would be an incredibly useful place to have an area for our toddlers and parents and carers. There are a couple of benches and tables there at the moment. We've spent some time talking to groups of parents and carers who were sitting using this space and said, look, we're hoping to see if we could turn this into a dedicated toddler's area. How would that be? We got amazing feedback from different groups we've spoken to, including a group of nursery teachers who were there one day and suggested the kind of equipment would be the sort of things that you don't find in a normal playground, but experiential type equipment. And because we're talking about toddler's things so that they can learn to balance and, yeah, that kind of thing, improve their motor skills, basically. So that's how this came about. Connected to that, we worked with our green spaces team and having a look at the toilets, which are more or less opposite. And if I was a toddler, I'd be kind of pretty scared to go in there. It's not pleasant. And we were thinking that if we could bring the toddlers and the parents and carers into this space and really get use out of it, and we could improve the toilets at the same time, make something that was suitable for very small children, like they have in primary schools, low wash basins, low toilets, things like that. There's no hot water in there at the moment. And they have, the officers said that they can connect pipes to a nearby boiler and bring, you know, we've got toddlers, babies, nappies, muddy children. It would be amazing if we could have that much more serviceable for the community who use it. So that's what this is about. We've looked at, with green spaces, some ideas for some really imaginative kinds of equipment to go in this space. And all it needs now is a really big sign saying dedicated toddlers area, no dogs. And I think this would be adding something quite special, quite different to a part of the community that's perhaps not very well served at the moment. Thank you. Councillor Baker. Sorry, I'm catching up on reading lots of papers at the moment. Has this area had any funding recently in terms of play provision or park provision? There have been massive problems with an area for older children's play equipment. There's not very much because of the topography of Mill Hill Park. It slopes down into that area. And we've had all sorts of problems with green spaces trying to come up with solutions to this. And we did manage to get a bid through a year or so ago to instead of trying to fight the fact that it's muddy and wet most of the year, the idea was to start putting things like willow tunnels and willows in which would start mopping up some of the water so that it's much more usable most of the year. So that was a previous bid that we have had for the adult children's. It's not been possible actually because of the state of the ground to proceed with the plans yet. So we are still waiting. I believe the plans at the moment are that it will happen this autumn. So does that answer your question? Partially, has there been any specific funding for any play equipment or park equipment? Not very much. Instead of going for dedicated play equipment for this area, there's going to be things like willow tunnels and some rock boulders and things that kids can play on, but it won't matter. I mean, they're going to get wet. It's going to be muddy, but it is trying to accommodate and include a few new things for the older kids to experience that. Thanks. Councillor Weiser, I saw a hand. Thank you, Chair. Just a follow up on that. Can I just confirm, is that the bid that was from March this year for the play area of the 30, I think it was 34,700. So that was within the last calendar year, because normally we don't, we've had, we've said to a lot of things that they can't revisit us for money within short periods of time. And a lot of bids have been, certainly bids I've made and bids other councillors have made, one of the big stipulations put on their bid is they're not going to come back for more money very soon after. And this is within six months of that bid, another bid for the park. So I'm just wondering why the totality wasn't brought together so that we could consider the whole park as one as a committee. Maybe, Chair, confirm if that is now part of the area committee rules. In a long time back when I was Chair, that was certainly never a condition of applications. If it is now, I'd be pleased to hear that. Not a condition per se, but I think there's a recognition that there is limited money and this park having had 35K basically, you know, only two meetings ago, I think there is certainly a feeling, I certainly feel that it's had a lot of money recently and therefore would the money be more fairly distributed amongst other bids as well, considering we are still quite early on, we have another two meetings to go in this cycle alone and low budgets. So we may have a conversation about deferring it to come back at a later stage. So for clarification, I was also talking about the fact that the application form that we as councillors have to fill out does ask that there's no ongoing revenue cost. Obviously this park as a whole, this would be another revenue cost for that park. In the same way that I recently applied for money for the rugby club, we were doing quite a large renovation. If I were to come back and say, I know I asked for floodlights in July, can I now have pitches? I think the committee would look at me with quite a lot of scepticism. I've done two bids for Mill Hill, for Darland, so this is more of a discussion to be had about how we fairly disagree with the money. I would also say that the issues with the older children's playground have been going on, I think we could check with Cassie, for probably about five years. And I know a group got together some time back and came up with some ideas on how to remedy the various problems with the muddiness and the flooding. They came up with some ideas which were very expensive and had to be put to one side. Certainly because this has been going on for a long time, we've reached a point now where it is finally being dealt with. And it's almost as though I think we've kind of put it to one side, thank goodness. That's something that's now in the past and is being dealt with. The issue of the unused golf area came up at a meeting with Greenspaces quite recently, where we had a discussion that this is an area that's completely underused. What could we do? And these were the ideas that developed quite recently from those discussions, which is why I'm now in a position to kind of bring them forward to committee to see if they can be considered here. I'm certainly amenable to the bid. I have a very close friend with a toddler and we go to that park a lot. I do understand the issues, I'm trying to make sure that we have equitable distribution of the funds, not only amongst different locations but different wards as well. And there are two bits coming from tonight. Councillor Ward, did Councillor Begg want to ask a question? No, she's answered it. Wonderful. I was just going to ask, in terms of the split of the costs, obviously the weighting is more towards the restoration and the refurbishment of the toilets. Do you think that the toddler area works on its own or is one intrinsically linked with the other? I think that the toddler area and the toilets and the hot water would go together very well if we could, if we could reduce the costs and just get those parts done, then I think that would be a real benefit. I'll take Councillor David and then Councillor Begg, thank you. So am I right in thinking that the fund you've had, PLEDC, that's not been utilised? Not yet, no. Right, so we have that in the report. We do, that's a counter thing. Right. For the other work. And that funding is allocated specifically to that? It's allocated, yes. Yes, we can't change that now. So which is priority now? Is it this work or the other work? Because what we did, what we did consider in East Burnett was when fund was allocated and we had similar thing, we needed to consider if we needed to prioritise and check which of them is more eminently needed, so that we go with that. Because when there's limited fund, unless you've got other funds, support coming from elsewhere, then what one does is to prioritize and see which one is most needed. You're asking me to choose between older children and toddlers. We already have the allocation for the older children. I would like some additional funding for our toddlers. We cannot open the previous bid which has been passed and supported. Councillor Begg. Just a very quick question to ask. How do you establish the demand and the need for the toilets to be used? It's already well two-place toilets in the middle of a park, but would they actually be used? That's a lot of money that's going to go in there to supply hot water supply. So I'm just wondering, how have you made that assumption? I don't know if I should come to Cassie at this point. I think the park is incredibly well used. We've got sports groups, we've got the bowling club, we've got a nursery, we've got all sorts of activities, we've got the children's playground, we've got a cafe. I would say there's a massive demand for public park toilets, yes. And particularly with the number of children that use the park, I would think good toilets and hot water would be a given. No, I was just wondering because there haven't been any toilets for so long, so people are managing, aren't they? Councillor Weiser. Thank you, Chair. On the toilets, I just want to check because I'm looking at the photo, I think I'm looking at the right photo of the right toilets because I know we've got two sets of toilets now. Are there just two cubicles in the toilets? So if one of them is lowered for children to use, how will that affect accessibility for disabled people or people with special needs? Because obviously that's quite limiting. A lot of adults, especially who have mobility problems, who may need to use the toilet more than other people, will find that very difficult to use and it therefore cuts in half the number of toilets available for them in this block. And has that been considered in this bid and the redevelopment of the toilets? Yes, it has. And in the papers, it does mention that the one way of dealing with this and accommodating the toddlers is to have a double toilet seat. So one is layered within. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but that's how the proposal has been put together. Sorry, because I'm just trying to understand if everything's been lowered, that's often the problem with people with mobility issues. I know this, my father recently had a stroke that everything kind of has to be at a certain height or he cannot get physically up or down from it. If it's been lowered, I don't know if he has, what do we know that double toilet seat will actually affect accessibility for people with mobility issues? Sorry, it sounds like there'll be a higher and lower within one stall. Is that correct? I don't know anything about this. Without risking getting into a cultural war of toilets, I am hugely sympathetic to the needs of this. I have expressed my view about it being about the money being shared and also the agency of you two as councillors being on the committee and more bids coming from this park. Can I make the suggestion, and I appreciate that everyone might not vote for this, that we defer this application into the new cycle year so that we retain some more budget for wards and for parks and locations that haven't had the opportunity to bid for funding yet. And I am sorry to have to do that because I do know that work goes into this, but I'm keen to be fair and equitable going through this, and it would be assured of my support certainly later on. Is that, I'm going to, should I take a vote? Sorry. Can I just ask, do we actually have the budget in this committee? We do have the budget in this committee, but it would leave us very short the next two rounds before the budget reset at the new council year. It would leave us with less than the sum of this bid. So we'd be overspending the amount that has sort of hypothetically been allocated for this committee. We would not, there is no chance of us going to overspend today by my maths, which is not brilliant, it must be said. I understand. I did the same calculation, that is why. We would end up with, I think, about 70 grand to spend across two cycles, two bids, two meetings, that's what I was looking for, which is less than the sum of this bid in total. Okay. Would someone like to propose an alternative voting method or are we happy to vote for deferring to the next cycle? Agreed? Okay. Understood and grateful for that. Would you like to go onto your next bid next or would you like a break? Carry on. Wonderful. Thank you. And I appreciate that that's not an easy message to deliver back to residents. I'm happy to have conversations if that's helpful. Councillor Loeschinski, you have another bid on the Millhills Hounds Square Christmas tree and seating area, which, be assured, cannot be deferred. I understand where Christmas is, despite the fact that I don't celebrate it. I'm making a square that joins to the roadway, but that was done some years ago and we have some concrete benches and a couple of planters there at the moment. At Christmas time, we do have a Christmas tree. I've actually paid for it once or twice and the Northwest 7 Hub has paid for it as well. And last year we decided to go much greener and arranged with anti-tipping and that we could have a smaller Christmas tree that was planted, at least for the Christmas period. We've set up a community group which includes all of the local churches, synagogue and community groups, obviously, and Christmas has become quite a big thing. So the last couple of years we've had Christmas carol events and we also have a menorah in the square. So there are quite big Hanukkah celebrations and for the lighting of the first lamp, we usually get three or four hundred people coming into the square to celebrate. So there's a lot of activity around that time of year. We were offered the possibility of having a permanent Christmas tree from the Mill Hill Preservation Society and we then need to get it planted, which turns out to be much more complicated than anyone would expect. You need to check cables underneath the square and water and all sorts of other things and then dig holes. Anyway, that would be really nice. So the idea is that we have a permanent fir tree at the back of the square and that will still leave room for all kinds of Christmas celebrations and for the menorah to be placed, which is there for a couple of weeks during December as well. In following lots of discussions about how to do this, we understood from officers that it would be necessary to extend a power cable if there were to be Christmas lights and I understand that Paul Sears is responsible for that. He tells me that there would be an ongoing cost to this. So I have contacted Iceland, who have a store in Mill Hill Broadway, almost opposite the square. They have written to the head office and what I've asked for would they donate, would they commit to donating eight hundred pounds each December, which apparently is the cost of us providing the lights. And we're asking for a commitment of between three and five years, ideally five years, so that we really know. As I haven't heard back from Iceland before this meeting, I have approached another restaurant in the Broadway who's confirmed absolutely that he would be willing to support this initiative if Iceland can't. So there will be no ongoing costs. Additionally, we're asking for a couple of extra benches and some planters. We have a group again of people who volunteered to come and look after the plants if there is a water source. And one of our kind officers visited and said, yes, it's possible to provide water in the town square. The tree will be looked after by Andy going forward and the plants will be looked after, planters will be looked after by our volunteers. And it is used a lot. A lot of people there during lunch times. And I really I think I've put I've seen kids, but little kids with sort of tricycles and balance wheels and things like that and scooters because it's a nice square flat space. We're all using it now and we're just trying to make it more usable. Just a technical question first. Can we get that in writing that the other company will support? Yeah, definitely. Thank you. And just another very technical question for me about the revenue plan, which officers will need to be in place six weeks before the last date of installation, because there needs to be a lead in time for installing all of this stuff, which would be the 4th of October. So all of the paperwork needs to be sorted by then, which will have to be a condition of the funding. Absolutely. And otherwise, there's no point having Christmas tree for next year. Yes. So I just wanted to yeah, because otherwise it doesn't quite work in terms of making sure that the revenue and the costings of the lights and all of that sort of stuff is in place. So a small extension to this because I recognize it's not all in place. And clearly it's done a lot of work on the interfaith element of this as well, which speaks particularly nicely to those of us who don't actually celebrate Christmas. Does anyone have any questions about this application? Can I just quickly ask, you mentioned a male health preservation society. Would they help with the upkeep if the trees were dying or needed any kind of maintenance? Our tree people, they're going to plant it to make sure that it's planted in a way that they think is suitable and deep enough. And it's a big hole. So and it will have some kind of protective cage as well. So they're going to be totally responsible for the tree as part of the tree service in the borough. Thank you. I think the permanent Christmas is really innovative and really cool. And it's really nice. Do we have any questions on this? Just check the offices. I've covered off all of the relevant bits on. Can we ensure that an agreement is established that identifies the responsibilities of the group, including any insurances and risk management plans are in place, especially in relation to maintenance. For the square, which is held by Adam Morley of the Northwest 7 hub who holds the lease. Wonderful. If we could also get all that information in by October 4th and all those confirmations in place. Sorry, the personal injury lawyer in me goes from my workout that would need to be updated to include the tree, because I'm going to guess it does not include the Christmas tree and that would leave us open to liability. That's why we're needing to get the extra 800 for Paul Sears to come and do the lighting rather than letting volunteers or residents attempt to climb ladders. I was saying if there is a risk assessment for the square already, this is my lawyer hat on, it will not probably mention the tree, which means if something happens to the tree and someone gets injured and we have to disclose that, we would not be covered. So it would need to be updated to cover risks to do with the tree to make sure it's fully compliant and that we are. That would be for the health and safety officer. I can't give any further legal advice. The easiest way to formally note this is that on the papers at the lead officer review assessment and recommendation, there are a number of questions they would need to be completed and answered to the officer's satisfaction by the 4th of October. If no further questions, we are all happy to award funding fully on the conditions that I have pre-stated, that the lead officer questions in the assessment and review section of the papers are agreed, and that we note the implication to the ENSL budget by the 4th of October. Everyone happy? Please God the tree will be planted in time for Christmas. Lovely. Look forward to it. Finally, we have an item on children's centre toilets from Councillor Begg. Councillor Begg, you have three minutes. So we have a children's centre in Underhill Ward, which is used 52 weeks of the year by so many different members of the community. So we have babies, two pensioners coming there. We have groups such as speech and language, midwives, health visitors, mother and toddler groups, father groups, adult learning groups. So there's a huge usage of the children's centre. And this funding application is purely about the facilities used, particularly the toilets in the children's centre. There is a huge demand, obviously, with so many visitors using these toilets, but they are toilets that have kind of been left over from Underhill School. They stopped using those, passed them over to the children's centre, and they have been using these toilets. Currently, they are in a very dilapidated state, the toilets, and in particular, I am told that the smell of urine is upsetting everybody. People don't want to use it, particularly pregnant women are saying they actually feel sick going into the toilets in their current situation. In addition to that, there is no facilities for disabled people to use the toilets at all there, so that has also been brought to our attention. So I am asking for this application to be agreed to allow these toilet facilities to be improved. And I will take any questions. Thank you very much. Can you assure us that the toilets that would be put in would be fully accessible? What happens to the toilets whilst the toilets are being redone? Are we leaving pregnant women without toilets? Whilst the works are happening, are we leaving pregnant women without toilets? And is there any mitigation in place for whilst this work is... If the centre is open 52 weeks, ah, staff toilets, great. So the staff toilets will be open... mic, sorry. So the staff toilets will be used while the refurbishment is going on. Thank you. Councillor David, did you have a question? Does the Children's Centre have any funds to contribute? So that's always been the problem, why it's been so delayed, they don't have the funds and they never have had the funds to do the refurbishment. Councillor Weisel. Given your description of the toilets, which I don't really want to revisit, what is the cleaning and maintenance programme that will be in place once the toilets are repaired? So it's the school business manager who will be in charge of the maintenance for the whole facilities, in charge of the construction work while it's going on, and then will take over the maintenance programme. Okay, any further questions? Okay, in which case I suggest that we award funding with the conditions that there would be newly created disabled access and children access of the toilets, and that we note the implication to the ENSL funding budget. Is that agreed? Wonderful. That is all of the bids. Item 12, any other items that the chair decides are urgent, I deem no other items to either exist or be urgent, and therefore I am closing the meeting at 7.44. Thank you all. [BLANK_AUDIO]

Transcript

Good evening, I am Councillor Ella Rose, Chair of the North Area Committee. Thank you for attending our committee meeting this evening. Please note that meetings may be recorded and broadcast as allowed for in-law or by the Council. By attending either in person or online you may be picked up on recordings. Council recordings are covered by a privacy notice which can be found on the Barnet Council website and retained and made available online. Tonight I would like to welcome the head of Friends of Stonyfield Park, Tony Sabini, to the meeting who will be presenting their bid this evening. Tony, you have three minutes to speak. There will then be an opportunity for members to ask questions of the speakers. Please can everyone ensure that after you finish speaking you press your microphone to ensure there is no feedback. I would like to welcome Councillor Baker to her first Council meeting following her successful by-election earlier in the summer. Welcome. I would also like to note that it is my understanding that tonight is the first all-female Councillor meeting potentially ever of Barnet Council. So congratulations to us. May we continue to smash glass ceilings. I would also like to note that this is the anniversary of 9/11 and to commemorate and remember the lives lost that day and in all of the wars since. I do note that it does not feel like the world is a safer place than those days and may the world become a safer place for us all in the coming years and months. Right, minutes of the previous meeting. Does anyone have any, I started very on time Councillor Cornelius, my apologies. Does anyone have any comments on the minutes of the previous meeting or can we approve those? Approved? Thank you very much. I will sign those. I have apologies for Councillor Tim Roberts who is being substituted by Councillor Baker. Do we have any other apologies? Nope. All good. Wonderful. Any declarations of members' interests please? Councillor Simberg and I are both committee members of the Friends of Mill Hill Park. Thank you very much and the officers remind me that you will therefore still make your decisions without prejudice or interference. Wonderful. Thank you very much. To my knowledge there are no dispensations granted by the monitoring officer. Item 5, petitions. Petitions with signatures of up to 500 will be dealt with by either the appropriate department or cabinet member. The petitions received thus far require response from the relevant cabinet member or officer. Responses to petitions will be covered on the e-petitions section of the website. Once an officer has responded, updates will be shared with committee members in due course. Item 6, residence issues. None. 7, deputations. None. 8, public questions and comments. None. 9, members items. None. Item 10, area committee grants, funding, ENSL and road safety and parking fund updates. We have two appendices on this item. I open the floor to any questions on said appendices. Councillor Weiser. Thank you, Chair. Just a couple of the bids that I've had earlier in this council have asked how they get their money so if someone could drop me an email and I can direct them to the right place that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Thank you. If officers could be in touch with Councillor Weiser to progress those bids. Keen to see all of the bids progress to their final statuses. Any other questions? No? Okay. In which case North Area committee members are asked to, number 1, note the community infrastructure levy SIL funding available for the allocation 2425 as set out in paragraph 5.4 of this report in appendix 1. Number 2, note the SIL amount and reallocated under spends and overspends in paragraph 1.6 of this report in appendix 1.3, note the road safety and parking fund application available for allocation during 2425 in paragraph 5.8 and set out in appendix 2. Is everyone happy to note those three things? Agreed. Wonderful. Item 11. If everyone is happy, I'm just going to move them around slightly to allow our visitors to get home earlier. Therefore, I will take the Stonyfield's Park gym item first and I've had noticed that Anthony is going to speak. So, Anthony, you have three minutes. You are welcome. I would like to thank the committee for this opportunity to buy their case from the friends of Stonyfield and the community for an outside gym in Stonyfield Park. I'll be brief. Stonyfield Park is not the very last park, around four hex acres of lush green wooded areas, two large greens, has a substantial man-made lake with a path around it and a spectacular waterfall that feeds it to synth street. Within the area there are a varied community of people from all nations and religions who have nothing in common but the love of their park. They bring their children to its playground and push their buggies and take their children to feed the ducks. Children learn to ride their bikes like mine many years ago. And then your grandchildren. There's a great love of our park, a small yet untapped community spirit. And why? Because there is nothing else which they have which will bring them together. We're all aware that exercise in any form is good for us. That is why so many people can be seen throughout the day jogging, walking, with or without a dog around the lake. When the playground is empty, the equipment is used for exercise. The high bars for pull-ups and push-ups, the slides for sit-ups. Park benches with footprints on show someone that's been doing step-ups. A gym in our park would not only be something for the health and well-being of a community of all ages and abilities, it has the potential to be a lot more. The gym would be a focus point in the community, a place where you can go to keep fit perhaps, or just get some mobility, or recover from an injury or operation. But while there, you might open up and talk to others about the weather or how to use the equipment and appreciate what has been provided. See someone there regular and make conversation, possibly a new friend. I asked the committee, no, ask is not the right word. I begged the committee, which would not only benefit the health and well-being of the community, but which has the possibility to be inclusive for the community. Thank you. Thank you very much. If you could just tap your microphone off, I'll call Councillor Wardle and then we'll open to questions for both of you. Yeah, I've not got too much to add on top of what Tony has just said, but this has been an application that's very much been led from a grassroots level, obviously by the Friends of Stonyfield Park. We have had a number of developments within the ward itself and for those of you who know Edgewood Burry, it doesn't necessarily have the facilities like other parts of the borough, it isn't as well connected. These green spaces really are the central focal points and Stonyfield Park in particular really does connect two parts of the communities together. And I think everyone obviously got to grips more with their local area from COVID, come up with a lot of ideas on how to better use their local areas and how they can be improved. And really Tony set out very convincingly, obviously all of the health and well-being benefits from this park. We've had a number of different meetings and sort of consultations about the content of it, the location, so really would hope that. It's fairly straightforward and members are happy to say yes to this one. Thank you, and it should be noted the sheer amount of emails we've had on this, it is very clear the community support behind this and the work that you all have done in order to make this happen, so thank you for your engagement with the council and quite frankly please stop emailing us. Does anyone have any questions? I can see Councillor David and then Councillor Baker, sorry for your first question Councillor Baker. Thank you, thank you chair. My question is, has the community raised any other funding to support, do you have any other funds raised? So you've not done any kind of fundraising towards it. We've been a friends group now since 2001, we're a very new friends group, about 40 who we can call volunteers and call on, half a dozen who do litter pics or so. We are at the moment looking for some crowd funding which has only just started. We're an infant in this, we're very young, we don't know what to do. I'm on various groups, I'm on Barnet Green Open Spaces, some of you might know VCFSC and Green Party, and various other groups. Because we don't have a chair secretary funding, we haven't had money come in, so there's very little reason to have that. We just organise ourselves on Whatsapp groups and Facebook and we come and do what we can in the park. We do a monthly litter pic, we prune branches etc when they overhang and they're dangerous, we clear leaves when they're slippery, we pester the park to do things when they do it, so really that's what we have going for us at the moment. I was just going to say, just to add to that, they're not necessarily set up in the same way as the other friends groups that we've got within the borough, such as the Friends of Mill Hill Park, but obviously the questions around things like maintenance, obviously the application states that actually the maintenance costs have been limited and already covered for within the sort of capital expenditure of green spaces. Councillor Baker. Hi, has there any thought gone into how, is there any costing for how the equipment's going to be maintained? Yeah, so I've just outlined that, it's also within the report, so the maintenance of the equipment, although it's anticipated to be fairly low in terms of lifetime costs, that is already provided for within the budget for green spaces, so there is no further maintenance funding sought from the committee. Wonderful, because we cannot do maintenance funding, so that's good to know. Any other questions on this item? Councillor Weisel. Thank you, Chair, obviously I live near a gym in New Barnet, in the East Barnet in Victoria Park, a lot of the equipment is geared to adults, and you've said you wanted to be inclusive across ages, I don't know if this is a question for Councillor Ward and we'll be able to answer about how it's inclusive across ages from toddlers all the way up, or you know, what age range this will cover? I think if we can look at the example in other parks, there's actually quite a lot of children do use some of the adult equipment, and although there is already a play area within the park itself, so all ages will now be catered for, the range of equipment, sort of the step-ups, the pull-up bars can be sort of applicable for all ages. Any further questions? Are we happy to take it to a vote? Encouraging all ages to use the equipment safely and guided by what is said on the equipment? I think for me, due to the overwhelming community voice on this, I would suggest that we award funding fully. I don't believe we need to be attaching any conditions, but we do need to note the implication to the committee's ENSL budget for this, should we approve it, it is obviously quite a large item. Is everyone happy to agree to that? Great, wonderful, you have your budget. Feel free to send us a photo of people using it. Lovely. Councillor Jastrzynzki, I think, are you going to be speaking on behalf of Councillor Simberg's application? In which case, the next one we are taking is the Mill Hill Park toddler's play area for £82,299.95. Councillor Jastrzynzki, you have three minutes. This came about because in Mill Hill Park, near the children's play area and near the café, there is an enclosed area which used to be used for mini golf and a long time ago, the café owner was prepared to organise the, I don't think it was renting, but lending out of the equipment, this then stopped, so this has just been an empty area for a very long time. So we were looking at it and thinking, well, it's already there, it's got some nice trees so it's sheltered, it's completely enclosed with fencing, so it would be an incredibly useful place to have an area for our toddlers and parents and carers. There are a couple of benches and tables there at the moment. We've spent some time talking to groups of parents and carers who were sitting using this space and said, look, we're hoping to see if we could turn this into a dedicated toddler's area. How would that be? We got amazing feedback from different groups we've spoken to, including a group of nursery teachers who were there one day and suggested the kind of equipment would be the sort of things that you don't find in a normal playground, but experiential type equipment. And because we're talking about toddler's things so that they can learn to balance and, yeah, that kind of thing, improve their motor skills, basically. So that's how this came about. Connected to that, we worked with our green spaces team and having a look at the toilets, which are more or less opposite. And if I was a toddler, I'd be kind of pretty scared to go in there. It's not pleasant. And we were thinking that if we could bring the toddlers and the parents and carers into this space and really get use out of it, and we could improve the toilets at the same time, make something that was suitable for very small children, like they have in primary schools, low wash basins, low toilets, things like that. There's no hot water in there at the moment. And they have, the officers said that they can connect pipes to a nearby boiler and bring, you know, we've got toddlers, babies, nappies, muddy children. It would be amazing if we could have that much more serviceable for the community who use it. So that's what this is about. We've looked at, with green spaces, some ideas for some really imaginative kinds of equipment to go in this space. And all it needs now is a really big sign saying dedicated toddlers area, no dogs. And I think this would be adding something quite special, quite different to a part of the community that's perhaps not very well served at the moment. Thank you. Councillor Baker. Sorry, I'm catching up on reading lots of papers at the moment. Has this area had any funding recently in terms of play provision or park provision? There have been massive problems with an area for older children's play equipment. There's not very much because of the topography of Mill Hill Park. It slopes down into that area. And we've had all sorts of problems with green spaces trying to come up with solutions to this. And we did manage to get a bid through a year or so ago to instead of trying to fight the fact that it's muddy and wet most of the year, the idea was to start putting things like willow tunnels and willows in which would start mopping up some of the water so that it's much more usable most of the year. So that was a previous bid that we have had for the adult children's. It's not been possible actually because of the state of the ground to proceed with the plans yet. So we are still waiting. I believe the plans at the moment are that it will happen this autumn. So does that answer your question? Partially, has there been any specific funding for any play equipment or park equipment? Not very much. Instead of going for dedicated play equipment for this area, there's going to be things like willow tunnels and some rock boulders and things that kids can play on, but it won't matter. I mean, they're going to get wet. It's going to be muddy, but it is trying to accommodate and include a few new things for the older kids to experience that. Thanks. Councillor Weiser, I saw a hand. Thank you, Chair. Just a follow up on that. Can I just confirm, is that the bid that was from March this year for the play area of the 30, I think it was 34,700. So that was within the last calendar year, because normally we don't, we've had, we've said to a lot of things that they can't revisit us for money within short periods of time. And a lot of bids have been, certainly bids I've made and bids other councillors have made, one of the big stipulations put on their bid is they're not going to come back for more money very soon after. And this is within six months of that bid, another bid for the park. So I'm just wondering why the totality wasn't brought together so that we could consider the whole park as one as a committee. Maybe, Chair, confirm if that is now part of the area committee rules. In a long time back when I was Chair, that was certainly never a condition of applications. If it is now, I'd be pleased to hear that. Not a condition per se, but I think there's a recognition that there is limited money and this park having had 35K basically, you know, only two meetings ago, I think there is certainly a feeling, I certainly feel that it's had a lot of money recently and therefore would the money be more fairly distributed amongst other bids as well, considering we are still quite early on, we have another two meetings to go in this cycle alone and low budgets. So we may have a conversation about deferring it to come back at a later stage. So for clarification, I was also talking about the fact that the application form that we as councillors have to fill out does ask that there's no ongoing revenue cost. Obviously this park as a whole, this would be another revenue cost for that park. In the same way that I recently applied for money for the rugby club, we were doing quite a large renovation. If I were to come back and say, I know I asked for floodlights in July, can I now have pitches? I think the committee would look at me with quite a lot of scepticism. I've done two bids for Mill Hill, for Darland, so this is more of a discussion to be had about how we fairly disagree with the money. I would also say that the issues with the older children's playground have been going on, I think we could check with Cassie, for probably about five years. And I know a group got together some time back and came up with some ideas on how to remedy the various problems with the muddiness and the flooding. They came up with some ideas which were very expensive and had to be put to one side. Certainly because this has been going on for a long time, we've reached a point now where it is finally being dealt with. And it's almost as though I think we've kind of put it to one side, thank goodness. That's something that's now in the past and is being dealt with. The issue of the unused golf area came up at a meeting with Greenspaces quite recently, where we had a discussion that this is an area that's completely underused. What could we do? And these were the ideas that developed quite recently from those discussions, which is why I'm now in a position to kind of bring them forward to committee to see if they can be considered here. I'm certainly amenable to the bid. I have a very close friend with a toddler and we go to that park a lot. I do understand the issues, I'm trying to make sure that we have equitable distribution of the funds, not only amongst different locations but different wards as well. And there are two bits coming from tonight. Councillor Ward, did Councillor Begg want to ask a question? No, she's answered it. Wonderful. I was just going to ask, in terms of the split of the costs, obviously the weighting is more towards the restoration and the refurbishment of the toilets. Do you think that the toddler area works on its own or is one intrinsically linked with the other? I think that the toddler area and the toilets and the hot water would go together very well if we could, if we could reduce the costs and just get those parts done, then I think that would be a real benefit. I'll take Councillor David and then Councillor Begg, thank you. So am I right in thinking that the fund you've had, PLEDC, that's not been utilised? Not yet, no. Right, so we have that in the report. We do, that's a counter thing. Right. For the other work. And that funding is allocated specifically to that? It's allocated, yes. Yes, we can't change that now. So which is priority now? Is it this work or the other work? Because what we did, what we did consider in East Burnett was when fund was allocated and we had similar thing, we needed to consider if we needed to prioritise and check which of them is more eminently needed, so that we go with that. Because when there's limited fund, unless you've got other funds, support coming from elsewhere, then what one does is to prioritize and see which one is most needed. You're asking me to choose between older children and toddlers. We already have the allocation for the older children. I would like some additional funding for our toddlers. We cannot open the previous bid which has been passed and supported. Councillor Begg. Just a very quick question to ask. How do you establish the demand and the need for the toilets to be used? It's already well two-place toilets in the middle of a park, but would they actually be used? That's a lot of money that's going to go in there to supply hot water supply. So I'm just wondering, how have you made that assumption? I don't know if I should come to Cassie at this point. I think the park is incredibly well used. We've got sports groups, we've got the bowling club, we've got a nursery, we've got all sorts of activities, we've got the children's playground, we've got a cafe. I would say there's a massive demand for public park toilets, yes. And particularly with the number of children that use the park, I would think good toilets and hot water would be a given. No, I was just wondering because there haven't been any toilets for so long, so people are managing, aren't they? Councillor Weiser. Thank you, Chair. On the toilets, I just want to check because I'm looking at the photo, I think I'm looking at the right photo of the right toilets because I know we've got two sets of toilets now. Are there just two cubicles in the toilets? So if one of them is lowered for children to use, how will that affect accessibility for disabled people or people with special needs? Because obviously that's quite limiting. A lot of adults, especially who have mobility problems, who may need to use the toilet more than other people, will find that very difficult to use and it therefore cuts in half the number of toilets available for them in this block. And has that been considered in this bid and the redevelopment of the toilets? Yes, it has. And in the papers, it does mention that the one way of dealing with this and accommodating the toddlers is to have a double toilet seat. So one is layered within. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but that's how the proposal has been put together. Sorry, because I'm just trying to understand if everything's been lowered, that's often the problem with people with mobility issues. I know this, my father recently had a stroke that everything kind of has to be at a certain height or he cannot get physically up or down from it. If it's been lowered, I don't know if he has, what do we know that double toilet seat will actually affect accessibility for people with mobility issues? Sorry, it sounds like there'll be a higher and lower within one stall. Is that correct? I don't know anything about this. Without risking getting into a cultural war of toilets, I am hugely sympathetic to the needs of this. I have expressed my view about it being about the money being shared and also the agency of you two as councillors being on the committee and more bids coming from this park. Can I make the suggestion, and I appreciate that everyone might not vote for this, that we defer this application into the new cycle year so that we retain some more budget for wards and for parks and locations that haven't had the opportunity to bid for funding yet. And I am sorry to have to do that because I do know that work goes into this, but I'm keen to be fair and equitable going through this, and it would be assured of my support certainly later on. Is that, I'm going to, should I take a vote? Sorry. Can I just ask, do we actually have the budget in this committee? We do have the budget in this committee, but it would leave us very short the next two rounds before the budget reset at the new council year. It would leave us with less than the sum of this bid. So we'd be overspending the amount that has sort of hypothetically been allocated for this committee. We would not, there is no chance of us going to overspend today by my maths, which is not brilliant, it must be said. I understand. I did the same calculation, that is why. We would end up with, I think, about 70 grand to spend across two cycles, two bids, two meetings, that's what I was looking for, which is less than the sum of this bid in total. Okay. Would someone like to propose an alternative voting method or are we happy to vote for deferring to the next cycle? Agreed? Okay. Understood and grateful for that. Would you like to go onto your next bid next or would you like a break? Carry on. Wonderful. Thank you. And I appreciate that that's not an easy message to deliver back to residents. I'm happy to have conversations if that's helpful. Councillor Loeschinski, you have another bid on the Millhills Hounds Square Christmas tree and seating area, which, be assured, cannot be deferred. I understand where Christmas is, despite the fact that I don't celebrate it. I'm making a square that joins to the roadway, but that was done some years ago and we have some concrete benches and a couple of planters there at the moment. At Christmas time, we do have a Christmas tree. I've actually paid for it once or twice and the Northwest 7 Hub has paid for it as well. And last year we decided to go much greener and arranged with anti-tipping and that we could have a smaller Christmas tree that was planted, at least for the Christmas period. We've set up a community group which includes all of the local churches, synagogue and community groups, obviously, and Christmas has become quite a big thing. So the last couple of years we've had Christmas carol events and we also have a menorah in the square. So there are quite big Hanukkah celebrations and for the lighting of the first lamp, we usually get three or four hundred people coming into the square to celebrate. So there's a lot of activity around that time of year. We were offered the possibility of having a permanent Christmas tree from the Mill Hill Preservation Society and we then need to get it planted, which turns out to be much more complicated than anyone would expect. You need to check cables underneath the square and water and all sorts of other things and then dig holes. Anyway, that would be really nice. So the idea is that we have a permanent fir tree at the back of the square and that will still leave room for all kinds of Christmas celebrations and for the menorah to be placed, which is there for a couple of weeks during December as well. In following lots of discussions about how to do this, we understood from officers that it would be necessary to extend a power cable if there were to be Christmas lights and I understand that Paul Sears is responsible for that. He tells me that there would be an ongoing cost to this. So I have contacted Iceland, who have a store in Mill Hill Broadway, almost opposite the square. They have written to the head office and what I've asked for would they donate, would they commit to donating eight hundred pounds each December, which apparently is the cost of us providing the lights. And we're asking for a commitment of between three and five years, ideally five years, so that we really know. As I haven't heard back from Iceland before this meeting, I have approached another restaurant in the Broadway who's confirmed absolutely that he would be willing to support this initiative if Iceland can't. So there will be no ongoing costs. Additionally, we're asking for a couple of extra benches and some planters. We have a group again of people who volunteered to come and look after the plants if there is a water source. And one of our kind officers visited and said, yes, it's possible to provide water in the town square. The tree will be looked after by Andy going forward and the plants will be looked after, planters will be looked after by our volunteers. And it is used a lot. A lot of people there during lunch times. And I really I think I've put I've seen kids, but little kids with sort of tricycles and balance wheels and things like that and scooters because it's a nice square flat space. We're all using it now and we're just trying to make it more usable. Just a technical question first. Can we get that in writing that the other company will support? Yeah, definitely. Thank you. And just another very technical question for me about the revenue plan, which officers will need to be in place six weeks before the last date of installation, because there needs to be a lead in time for installing all of this stuff, which would be the 4th of October. So all of the paperwork needs to be sorted by then, which will have to be a condition of the funding. Absolutely. And otherwise, there's no point having Christmas tree for next year. Yes. So I just wanted to yeah, because otherwise it doesn't quite work in terms of making sure that the revenue and the costings of the lights and all of that sort of stuff is in place. So a small extension to this because I recognize it's not all in place. And clearly it's done a lot of work on the interfaith element of this as well, which speaks particularly nicely to those of us who don't actually celebrate Christmas. Does anyone have any questions about this application? Can I just quickly ask, you mentioned a male health preservation society. Would they help with the upkeep if the trees were dying or needed any kind of maintenance? Our tree people, they're going to plant it to make sure that it's planted in a way that they think is suitable and deep enough. And it's a big hole. So and it will have some kind of protective cage as well. So they're going to be totally responsible for the tree as part of the tree service in the borough. Thank you. I think the permanent Christmas is really innovative and really cool. And it's really nice. Do we have any questions on this? Just check the offices. I've covered off all of the relevant bits on. Can we ensure that an agreement is established that identifies the responsibilities of the group, including any insurances and risk management plans are in place, especially in relation to maintenance. For the square, which is held by Adam Morley of the Northwest 7 hub who holds the lease. Wonderful. If we could also get all that information in by October 4th and all those confirmations in place. Sorry, the personal injury lawyer in me goes from my workout that would need to be updated to include the tree, because I'm going to guess it does not include the Christmas tree and that would leave us open to liability. That's why we're needing to get the extra 800 for Paul Sears to come and do the lighting rather than letting volunteers or residents attempt to climb ladders. I was saying if there is a risk assessment for the square already, this is my lawyer hat on, it will not probably mention the tree, which means if something happens to the tree and someone gets injured and we have to disclose that, we would not be covered. So it would need to be updated to cover risks to do with the tree to make sure it's fully compliant and that we are. That would be for the health and safety officer. I can't give any further legal advice. The easiest way to formally note this is that on the papers at the lead officer review assessment and recommendation, there are a number of questions they would need to be completed and answered to the officer's satisfaction by the 4th of October. If no further questions, we are all happy to award funding fully on the conditions that I have pre-stated, that the lead officer questions in the assessment and review section of the papers are agreed, and that we note the implication to the ENSL budget by the 4th of October. Everyone happy? Please God the tree will be planted in time for Christmas. Lovely. Look forward to it. Finally, we have an item on children's centre toilets from Councillor Begg. Councillor Begg, you have three minutes. So we have a children's centre in Underhill Ward, which is used 52 weeks of the year by so many different members of the community. So we have babies, two pensioners coming there. We have groups such as speech and language, midwives, health visitors, mother and toddler groups, father groups, adult learning groups. So there's a huge usage of the children's centre. And this funding application is purely about the facilities used, particularly the toilets in the children's centre. There is a huge demand, obviously, with so many visitors using these toilets, but they are toilets that have kind of been left over from Underhill School. They stopped using those, passed them over to the children's centre, and they have been using these toilets. Currently, they are in a very dilapidated state, the toilets, and in particular, I am told that the smell of urine is upsetting everybody. People don't want to use it, particularly pregnant women are saying they actually feel sick going into the toilets in their current situation. In addition to that, there is no facilities for disabled people to use the toilets at all there, so that has also been brought to our attention. So I am asking for this application to be agreed to allow these toilet facilities to be improved. And I will take any questions. Thank you very much. Can you assure us that the toilets that would be put in would be fully accessible? What happens to the toilets whilst the toilets are being redone? Are we leaving pregnant women without toilets? Whilst the works are happening, are we leaving pregnant women without toilets? And is there any mitigation in place for whilst this work is... If the centre is open 52 weeks, ah, staff toilets, great. So the staff toilets will be open... mic, sorry. So the staff toilets will be used while the refurbishment is going on. Thank you. Councillor David, did you have a question? Does the Children's Centre have any funds to contribute? So that's always been the problem, why it's been so delayed, they don't have the funds and they never have had the funds to do the refurbishment. Councillor Weisel. Given your description of the toilets, which I don't really want to revisit, what is the cleaning and maintenance programme that will be in place once the toilets are repaired? So it's the school business manager who will be in charge of the maintenance for the whole facilities, in charge of the construction work while it's going on, and then will take over the maintenance programme. Okay, any further questions? Okay, in which case I suggest that we award funding with the conditions that there would be newly created disabled access and children access of the toilets, and that we note the implication to the ENSL funding budget. Is that agreed? Wonderful. That is all of the bids. Item 12, any other items that the chair decides are urgent, I deem no other items to either exist or be urgent, and therefore I am closing the meeting at 7.44. Thank you all. [BLANK_AUDIO]

Transcript

Good evening, I am Councillor Ella Rose, Chair of the North Area Committee. Thank you for attending our committee meeting this evening. Please note that meetings may be recorded and broadcast as allowed for in-law or by the Council. By attending either in person or online you may be picked up on recordings. Council recordings are covered by a privacy notice which can be found on the Barnet Council website and retained and made available online. Tonight I would like to welcome the head of Friends of Stonyfield Park, Tony Sabini, to the meeting who will be presenting their bid this evening. Tony, you have three minutes to speak. There will then be an opportunity for members to ask questions of the speakers. Please can everyone ensure that after you finish speaking you press your microphone to ensure there is no feedback. I would like to welcome Councillor Baker to her first Council meeting following her successful by-election earlier in the summer. Welcome. I would also like to note that it is my understanding that tonight is the first all-female Councillor meeting potentially ever of Barnet Council. So congratulations to us. May we continue to smash glass ceilings. I would also like to note that this is the anniversary of 9/11 and to commemorate and remember the lives lost that day and in all of the wars since. I do note that it does not feel like the world is a safer place than those days and may the world become a safer place for us all in the coming years and months. Right, minutes of the previous meeting. Does anyone have any, I started very on time Councillor Cornelius, my apologies. Does anyone have any comments on the minutes of the previous meeting or can we approve those? Approved? Thank you very much. I will sign those. I have apologies for Councillor Tim Roberts who is being substituted by Councillor Baker. Do we have any other apologies? Nope. All good. Wonderful. Any declarations of members' interests please? Councillor Simberg and I are both committee members of the Friends of Mill Hill Park. Thank you very much and the officers remind me that you will therefore still make your decisions without prejudice or interference. Wonderful. Thank you very much. To my knowledge there are no dispensations granted by the monitoring officer. Item 5, petitions. Petitions with signatures of up to 500 will be dealt with by either the appropriate department or cabinet member. The petitions received thus far require response from the relevant cabinet member or officer. Responses to petitions will be covered on the e-petitions section of the website. Once an officer has responded, updates will be shared with committee members in due course. Item 6, residence issues. None. 7, deputations. None. 8, public questions and comments. None. 9, members items. None. Item 10, area committee grants, funding, ENSL and road safety and parking fund updates. We have two appendices on this item. I open the floor to any questions on said appendices. Councillor Weiser. Thank you, Chair. Just a couple of the bids that I've had earlier in this council have asked how they get their money so if someone could drop me an email and I can direct them to the right place that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Thank you. If officers could be in touch with Councillor Weiser to progress those bids. Keen to see all of the bids progress to their final statuses. Any other questions? No? Okay. In which case North Area committee members are asked to, number 1, note the community infrastructure levy SIL funding available for the allocation 2425 as set out in paragraph 5.4 of this report in appendix 1. Number 2, note the SIL amount and reallocated under spends and overspends in paragraph 1.6 of this report in appendix 1.3, note the road safety and parking fund application available for allocation during 2425 in paragraph 5.8 and set out in appendix 2. Is everyone happy to note those three things? Agreed. Wonderful. Item 11. If everyone is happy, I'm just going to move them around slightly to allow our visitors to get home earlier. Therefore, I will take the Stonyfield's Park gym item first and I've had noticed that Anthony is going to speak. So, Anthony, you have three minutes. You are welcome. I would like to thank the committee for this opportunity to buy their case from the friends of Stonyfield and the community for an outside gym in Stonyfield Park. I'll be brief. Stonyfield Park is not the very last park, around four hex acres of lush green wooded areas, two large greens, has a substantial man-made lake with a path around it and a spectacular waterfall that feeds it to synth street. Within the area there are a varied community of people from all nations and religions who have nothing in common but the love of their park. They bring their children to its playground and push their buggies and take their children to feed the ducks. Children learn to ride their bikes like mine many years ago. And then your grandchildren. There's a great love of our park, a small yet untapped community spirit. And why? Because there is nothing else which they have which will bring them together. We're all aware that exercise in any form is good for us. That is why so many people can be seen throughout the day jogging, walking, with or without a dog around the lake. When the playground is empty, the equipment is used for exercise. The high bars for pull-ups and push-ups, the slides for sit-ups. Park benches with footprints on show someone that's been doing step-ups. A gym in our park would not only be something for the health and well-being of a community of all ages and abilities, it has the potential to be a lot more. The gym would be a focus point in the community, a place where you can go to keep fit perhaps, or just get some mobility, or recover from an injury or operation. But while there, you might open up and talk to others about the weather or how to use the equipment and appreciate what has been provided. See someone there regular and make conversation, possibly a new friend. I asked the committee, no, ask is not the right word. I begged the committee, which would not only benefit the health and well-being of the community, but which has the possibility to be inclusive for the community. Thank you. Thank you very much. If you could just tap your microphone off, I'll call Councillor Wardle and then we'll open to questions for both of you. Yeah, I've not got too much to add on top of what Tony has just said, but this has been an application that's very much been led from a grassroots level, obviously by the Friends of Stonyfield Park. We have had a number of developments within the ward itself and for those of you who know Edgewood Burry, it doesn't necessarily have the facilities like other parts of the borough, it isn't as well connected. These green spaces really are the central focal points and Stonyfield Park in particular really does connect two parts of the communities together. And I think everyone obviously got to grips more with their local area from COVID, come up with a lot of ideas on how to better use their local areas and how they can be improved. And really Tony set out very convincingly, obviously all of the health and well-being benefits from this park. We've had a number of different meetings and sort of consultations about the content of it, the location, so really would hope that. It's fairly straightforward and members are happy to say yes to this one. Thank you, and it should be noted the sheer amount of emails we've had on this, it is very clear the community support behind this and the work that you all have done in order to make this happen, so thank you for your engagement with the council and quite frankly please stop emailing us. Does anyone have any questions? I can see Councillor David and then Councillor Baker, sorry for your first question Councillor Baker. Thank you, thank you chair. My question is, has the community raised any other funding to support, do you have any other funds raised? So you've not done any kind of fundraising towards it. We've been a friends group now since 2001, we're a very new friends group, about 40 who we can call volunteers and call on, half a dozen who do litter pics or so. We are at the moment looking for some crowd funding which has only just started. We're an infant in this, we're very young, we don't know what to do. I'm on various groups, I'm on Barnet Green Open Spaces, some of you might know VCFSC and Green Party, and various other groups. Because we don't have a chair secretary funding, we haven't had money come in, so there's very little reason to have that. We just organise ourselves on Whatsapp groups and Facebook and we come and do what we can in the park. We do a monthly litter pic, we prune branches etc when they overhang and they're dangerous, we clear leaves when they're slippery, we pester the park to do things when they do it, so really that's what we have going for us at the moment. I was just going to say, just to add to that, they're not necessarily set up in the same way as the other friends groups that we've got within the borough, such as the Friends of Mill Hill Park, but obviously the questions around things like maintenance, obviously the application states that actually the maintenance costs have been limited and already covered for within the sort of capital expenditure of green spaces. Councillor Baker. Hi, has there any thought gone into how, is there any costing for how the equipment's going to be maintained? Yeah, so I've just outlined that, it's also within the report, so the maintenance of the equipment, although it's anticipated to be fairly low in terms of lifetime costs, that is already provided for within the budget for green spaces, so there is no further maintenance funding sought from the committee. Wonderful, because we cannot do maintenance funding, so that's good to know. Any other questions on this item? Councillor Weisel. Thank you, Chair, obviously I live near a gym in New Barnet, in the East Barnet in Victoria Park, a lot of the equipment is geared to adults, and you've said you wanted to be inclusive across ages, I don't know if this is a question for Councillor Ward and we'll be able to answer about how it's inclusive across ages from toddlers all the way up, or you know, what age range this will cover? I think if we can look at the example in other parks, there's actually quite a lot of children do use some of the adult equipment, and although there is already a play area within the park itself, so all ages will now be catered for, the range of equipment, sort of the step-ups, the pull-up bars can be sort of applicable for all ages. Any further questions? Are we happy to take it to a vote? Encouraging all ages to use the equipment safely and guided by what is said on the equipment? I think for me, due to the overwhelming community voice on this, I would suggest that we award funding fully. I don't believe we need to be attaching any conditions, but we do need to note the implication to the committee's ENSL budget for this, should we approve it, it is obviously quite a large item. Is everyone happy to agree to that? Great, wonderful, you have your budget. Feel free to send us a photo of people using it. Lovely. Councillor Jastrzynzki, I think, are you going to be speaking on behalf of Councillor Simberg's application? In which case, the next one we are taking is the Mill Hill Park toddler's play area for £82,299.95. Councillor Jastrzynzki, you have three minutes. This came about because in Mill Hill Park, near the children's play area and near the café, there is an enclosed area which used to be used for mini golf and a long time ago, the café owner was prepared to organise the, I don't think it was renting, but lending out of the equipment, this then stopped, so this has just been an empty area for a very long time. So we were looking at it and thinking, well, it's already there, it's got some nice trees so it's sheltered, it's completely enclosed with fencing, so it would be an incredibly useful place to have an area for our toddlers and parents and carers. There are a couple of benches and tables there at the moment. We've spent some time talking to groups of parents and carers who were sitting using this space and said, look, we're hoping to see if we could turn this into a dedicated toddler's area. How would that be? We got amazing feedback from different groups we've spoken to, including a group of nursery teachers who were there one day and suggested the kind of equipment would be the sort of things that you don't find in a normal playground, but experiential type equipment. And because we're talking about toddler's things so that they can learn to balance and, yeah, that kind of thing, improve their motor skills, basically. So that's how this came about. Connected to that, we worked with our green spaces team and having a look at the toilets, which are more or less opposite. And if I was a toddler, I'd be kind of pretty scared to go in there. It's not pleasant. And we were thinking that if we could bring the toddlers and the parents and carers into this space and really get use out of it, and we could improve the toilets at the same time, make something that was suitable for very small children, like they have in primary schools, low wash basins, low toilets, things like that. There's no hot water in there at the moment. And they have, the officers said that they can connect pipes to a nearby boiler and bring, you know, we've got toddlers, babies, nappies, muddy children. It would be amazing if we could have that much more serviceable for the community who use it. So that's what this is about. We've looked at, with green spaces, some ideas for some really imaginative kinds of equipment to go in this space. And all it needs now is a really big sign saying dedicated toddlers area, no dogs. And I think this would be adding something quite special, quite different to a part of the community that's perhaps not very well served at the moment. Thank you. Councillor Baker. Sorry, I'm catching up on reading lots of papers at the moment. Has this area had any funding recently in terms of play provision or park provision? There have been massive problems with an area for older children's play equipment. There's not very much because of the topography of Mill Hill Park. It slopes down into that area. And we've had all sorts of problems with green spaces trying to come up with solutions to this. And we did manage to get a bid through a year or so ago to instead of trying to fight the fact that it's muddy and wet most of the year, the idea was to start putting things like willow tunnels and willows in which would start mopping up some of the water so that it's much more usable most of the year. So that was a previous bid that we have had for the adult children's. It's not been possible actually because of the state of the ground to proceed with the plans yet. So we are still waiting. I believe the plans at the moment are that it will happen this autumn. So does that answer your question? Partially, has there been any specific funding for any play equipment or park equipment? Not very much. Instead of going for dedicated play equipment for this area, there's going to be things like willow tunnels and some rock boulders and things that kids can play on, but it won't matter. I mean, they're going to get wet. It's going to be muddy, but it is trying to accommodate and include a few new things for the older kids to experience that. Thanks. Councillor Weiser, I saw a hand. Thank you, Chair. Just a follow up on that. Can I just confirm, is that the bid that was from March this year for the play area of the 30, I think it was 34,700. So that was within the last calendar year, because normally we don't, we've had, we've said to a lot of things that they can't revisit us for money within short periods of time. And a lot of bids have been, certainly bids I've made and bids other councillors have made, one of the big stipulations put on their bid is they're not going to come back for more money very soon after. And this is within six months of that bid, another bid for the park. So I'm just wondering why the totality wasn't brought together so that we could consider the whole park as one as a committee. Maybe, Chair, confirm if that is now part of the area committee rules. In a long time back when I was Chair, that was certainly never a condition of applications. If it is now, I'd be pleased to hear that. Not a condition per se, but I think there's a recognition that there is limited money and this park having had 35K basically, you know, only two meetings ago, I think there is certainly a feeling, I certainly feel that it's had a lot of money recently and therefore would the money be more fairly distributed amongst other bids as well, considering we are still quite early on, we have another two meetings to go in this cycle alone and low budgets. So we may have a conversation about deferring it to come back at a later stage. So for clarification, I was also talking about the fact that the application form that we as councillors have to fill out does ask that there's no ongoing revenue cost. Obviously this park as a whole, this would be another revenue cost for that park. In the same way that I recently applied for money for the rugby club, we were doing quite a large renovation. If I were to come back and say, I know I asked for floodlights in July, can I now have pitches? I think the committee would look at me with quite a lot of scepticism. I've done two bids for Mill Hill, for Darland, so this is more of a discussion to be had about how we fairly disagree with the money. I would also say that the issues with the older children's playground have been going on, I think we could check with Cassie, for probably about five years. And I know a group got together some time back and came up with some ideas on how to remedy the various problems with the muddiness and the flooding. They came up with some ideas which were very expensive and had to be put to one side. Certainly because this has been going on for a long time, we've reached a point now where it is finally being dealt with. And it's almost as though I think we've kind of put it to one side, thank goodness. That's something that's now in the past and is being dealt with. The issue of the unused golf area came up at a meeting with Greenspaces quite recently, where we had a discussion that this is an area that's completely underused. What could we do? And these were the ideas that developed quite recently from those discussions, which is why I'm now in a position to kind of bring them forward to committee to see if they can be considered here. I'm certainly amenable to the bid. I have a very close friend with a toddler and we go to that park a lot. I do understand the issues, I'm trying to make sure that we have equitable distribution of the funds, not only amongst different locations but different wards as well. And there are two bits coming from tonight. Councillor Ward, did Councillor Begg want to ask a question? No, she's answered it. Wonderful. I was just going to ask, in terms of the split of the costs, obviously the weighting is more towards the restoration and the refurbishment of the toilets. Do you think that the toddler area works on its own or is one intrinsically linked with the other? I think that the toddler area and the toilets and the hot water would go together very well if we could, if we could reduce the costs and just get those parts done, then I think that would be a real benefit. I'll take Councillor David and then Councillor Begg, thank you. So am I right in thinking that the fund you've had, PLEDC, that's not been utilised? Not yet, no. Right, so we have that in the report. We do, that's a counter thing. Right. For the other work. And that funding is allocated specifically to that? It's allocated, yes. Yes, we can't change that now. So which is priority now? Is it this work or the other work? Because what we did, what we did consider in East Burnett was when fund was allocated and we had similar thing, we needed to consider if we needed to prioritise and check which of them is more eminently needed, so that we go with that. Because when there's limited fund, unless you've got other funds, support coming from elsewhere, then what one does is to prioritize and see which one is most needed. You're asking me to choose between older children and toddlers. We already have the allocation for the older children. I would like some additional funding for our toddlers. We cannot open the previous bid which has been passed and supported. Councillor Begg. Just a very quick question to ask. How do you establish the demand and the need for the toilets to be used? It's already well two-place toilets in the middle of a park, but would they actually be used? That's a lot of money that's going to go in there to supply hot water supply. So I'm just wondering, how have you made that assumption? I don't know if I should come to Cassie at this point. I think the park is incredibly well used. We've got sports groups, we've got the bowling club, we've got a nursery, we've got all sorts of activities, we've got the children's playground, we've got a cafe. I would say there's a massive demand for public park toilets, yes. And particularly with the number of children that use the park, I would think good toilets and hot water would be a given. No, I was just wondering because there haven't been any toilets for so long, so people are managing, aren't they? Councillor Weiser. Thank you, Chair. On the toilets, I just want to check because I'm looking at the photo, I think I'm looking at the right photo of the right toilets because I know we've got two sets of toilets now. Are there just two cubicles in the toilets? So if one of them is lowered for children to use, how will that affect accessibility for disabled people or people with special needs? Because obviously that's quite limiting. A lot of adults, especially who have mobility problems, who may need to use the toilet more than other people, will find that very difficult to use and it therefore cuts in half the number of toilets available for them in this block. And has that been considered in this bid and the redevelopment of the toilets? Yes, it has. And in the papers, it does mention that the one way of dealing with this and accommodating the toddlers is to have a double toilet seat. So one is layered within. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but that's how the proposal has been put together. Sorry, because I'm just trying to understand if everything's been lowered, that's often the problem with people with mobility issues. I know this, my father recently had a stroke that everything kind of has to be at a certain height or he cannot get physically up or down from it. If it's been lowered, I don't know if he has, what do we know that double toilet seat will actually affect accessibility for people with mobility issues? Sorry, it sounds like there'll be a higher and lower within one stall. Is that correct? I don't know anything about this. Without risking getting into a cultural war of toilets, I am hugely sympathetic to the needs of this. I have expressed my view about it being about the money being shared and also the agency of you two as councillors being on the committee and more bids coming from this park. Can I make the suggestion, and I appreciate that everyone might not vote for this, that we defer this application into the new cycle year so that we retain some more budget for wards and for parks and locations that haven't had the opportunity to bid for funding yet. And I am sorry to have to do that because I do know that work goes into this, but I'm keen to be fair and equitable going through this, and it would be assured of my support certainly later on. Is that, I'm going to, should I take a vote? Sorry. Can I just ask, do we actually have the budget in this committee? We do have the budget in this committee, but it would leave us very short the next two rounds before the budget reset at the new council year. It would leave us with less than the sum of this bid. So we'd be overspending the amount that has sort of hypothetically been allocated for this committee. We would not, there is no chance of us going to overspend today by my maths, which is not brilliant, it must be said. I understand. I did the same calculation, that is why. We would end up with, I think, about 70 grand to spend across two cycles, two bids, two meetings, that's what I was looking for, which is less than the sum of this bid in total. Okay. Would someone like to propose an alternative voting method or are we happy to vote for deferring to the next cycle? Agreed? Okay. Understood and grateful for that. Would you like to go onto your next bid next or would you like a break? Carry on. Wonderful. Thank you. And I appreciate that that's not an easy message to deliver back to residents. I'm happy to have conversations if that's helpful. Councillor Loeschinski, you have another bid on the Millhills Hounds Square Christmas tree and seating area, which, be assured, cannot be deferred. I understand where Christmas is, despite the fact that I don't celebrate it. I'm making a square that joins to the roadway, but that was done some years ago and we have some concrete benches and a couple of planters there at the moment. At Christmas time, we do have a Christmas tree. I've actually paid for it once or twice and the Northwest 7 Hub has paid for it as well. And last year we decided to go much greener and arranged with anti-tipping and that we could have a smaller Christmas tree that was planted, at least for the Christmas period. We've set up a community group which includes all of the local churches, synagogue and community groups, obviously, and Christmas has become quite a big thing. So the last couple of years we've had Christmas carol events and we also have a menorah in the square. So there are quite big Hanukkah celebrations and for the lighting of the first lamp, we usually get three or four hundred people coming into the square to celebrate. So there's a lot of activity around that time of year. We were offered the possibility of having a permanent Christmas tree from the Mill Hill Preservation Society and we then need to get it planted, which turns out to be much more complicated than anyone would expect. You need to check cables underneath the square and water and all sorts of other things and then dig holes. Anyway, that would be really nice. So the idea is that we have a permanent fir tree at the back of the square and that will still leave room for all kinds of Christmas celebrations and for the menorah to be placed, which is there for a couple of weeks during December as well. In following lots of discussions about how to do this, we understood from officers that it would be necessary to extend a power cable if there were to be Christmas lights and I understand that Paul Sears is responsible for that. He tells me that there would be an ongoing cost to this. So I have contacted Iceland, who have a store in Mill Hill Broadway, almost opposite the square. They have written to the head office and what I've asked for would they donate, would they commit to donating eight hundred pounds each December, which apparently is the cost of us providing the lights. And we're asking for a commitment of between three and five years, ideally five years, so that we really know. As I haven't heard back from Iceland before this meeting, I have approached another restaurant in the Broadway who's confirmed absolutely that he would be willing to support this initiative if Iceland can't. So there will be no ongoing costs. Additionally, we're asking for a couple of extra benches and some planters. We have a group again of people who volunteered to come and look after the plants if there is a water source. And one of our kind officers visited and said, yes, it's possible to provide water in the town square. The tree will be looked after by Andy going forward and the plants will be looked after, planters will be looked after by our volunteers. And it is used a lot. A lot of people there during lunch times. And I really I think I've put I've seen kids, but little kids with sort of tricycles and balance wheels and things like that and scooters because it's a nice square flat space. We're all using it now and we're just trying to make it more usable. Just a technical question first. Can we get that in writing that the other company will support? Yeah, definitely. Thank you. And just another very technical question for me about the revenue plan, which officers will need to be in place six weeks before the last date of installation, because there needs to be a lead in time for installing all of this stuff, which would be the 4th of October. So all of the paperwork needs to be sorted by then, which will have to be a condition of the funding. Absolutely. And otherwise, there's no point having Christmas tree for next year. Yes. So I just wanted to yeah, because otherwise it doesn't quite work in terms of making sure that the revenue and the costings of the lights and all of that sort of stuff is in place. So a small extension to this because I recognize it's not all in place. And clearly it's done a lot of work on the interfaith element of this as well, which speaks particularly nicely to those of us who don't actually celebrate Christmas. Does anyone have any questions about this application? Can I just quickly ask, you mentioned a male health preservation society. Would they help with the upkeep if the trees were dying or needed any kind of maintenance? Our tree people, they're going to plant it to make sure that it's planted in a way that they think is suitable and deep enough. And it's a big hole. So and it will have some kind of protective cage as well. So they're going to be totally responsible for the tree as part of the tree service in the borough. Thank you. I think the permanent Christmas is really innovative and really cool. And it's really nice. Do we have any questions on this? Just check the offices. I've covered off all of the relevant bits on. Can we ensure that an agreement is established that identifies the responsibilities of the group, including any insurances and risk management plans are in place, especially in relation to maintenance. For the square, which is held by Adam Morley of the Northwest 7 hub who holds the lease. Wonderful. If we could also get all that information in by October 4th and all those confirmations in place. Sorry, the personal injury lawyer in me goes from my workout that would need to be updated to include the tree, because I'm going to guess it does not include the Christmas tree and that would leave us open to liability. That's why we're needing to get the extra 800 for Paul Sears to come and do the lighting rather than letting volunteers or residents attempt to climb ladders. I was saying if there is a risk assessment for the square already, this is my lawyer hat on, it will not probably mention the tree, which means if something happens to the tree and someone gets injured and we have to disclose that, we would not be covered. So it would need to be updated to cover risks to do with the tree to make sure it's fully compliant and that we are. That would be for the health and safety officer. I can't give any further legal advice. The easiest way to formally note this is that on the papers at the lead officer review assessment and recommendation, there are a number of questions they would need to be completed and answered to the officer's satisfaction by the 4th of October. If no further questions, we are all happy to award funding fully on the conditions that I have pre-stated, that the lead officer questions in the assessment and review section of the papers are agreed, and that we note the implication to the ENSL budget by the 4th of October. Everyone happy? Please God the tree will be planted in time for Christmas. Lovely. Look forward to it. Finally, we have an item on children's centre toilets from Councillor Begg. Councillor Begg, you have three minutes. So we have a children's centre in Underhill Ward, which is used 52 weeks of the year by so many different members of the community. So we have babies, two pensioners coming there. We have groups such as speech and language, midwives, health visitors, mother and toddler groups, father groups, adult learning groups. So there's a huge usage of the children's centre. And this funding application is purely about the facilities used, particularly the toilets in the children's centre. There is a huge demand, obviously, with so many visitors using these toilets, but they are toilets that have kind of been left over from Underhill School. They stopped using those, passed them over to the children's centre, and they have been using these toilets. Currently, they are in a very dilapidated state, the toilets, and in particular, I am told that the smell of urine is upsetting everybody. People don't want to use it, particularly pregnant women are saying they actually feel sick going into the toilets in their current situation. In addition to that, there is no facilities for disabled people to use the toilets at all there, so that has also been brought to our attention. So I am asking for this application to be agreed to allow these toilet facilities to be improved. And I will take any questions. Thank you very much. Can you assure us that the toilets that would be put in would be fully accessible? What happens to the toilets whilst the toilets are being redone? Are we leaving pregnant women without toilets? Whilst the works are happening, are we leaving pregnant women without toilets? And is there any mitigation in place for whilst this work is... If the centre is open 52 weeks, ah, staff toilets, great. So the staff toilets will be open... mic, sorry. So the staff toilets will be used while the refurbishment is going on. Thank you. Councillor David, did you have a question? Does the Children's Centre have any funds to contribute? So that's always been the problem, why it's been so delayed, they don't have the funds and they never have had the funds to do the refurbishment. Councillor Weisel. Given your description of the toilets, which I don't really want to revisit, what is the cleaning and maintenance programme that will be in place once the toilets are repaired? So it's the school business manager who will be in charge of the maintenance for the whole facilities, in charge of the construction work while it's going on, and then will take over the maintenance programme. Okay, any further questions? Okay, in which case I suggest that we award funding with the conditions that there would be newly created disabled access and children access of the toilets, and that we note the implication to the ENSL funding budget. Is that agreed? Wonderful. That is all of the bids. Item 12, any other items that the chair decides are urgent, I deem no other items to either exist or be urgent, and therefore I am closing the meeting at 7.44. Thank you all. [BLANK_AUDIO]

Transcript

Good evening, I am Councillor Ella Rose, Chair of the North Area Committee. Thank you for attending our committee meeting this evening. Please note that meetings may be recorded and broadcast as allowed for in-law or by the Council. By attending either in person or online you may be picked up on recordings. Council recordings are covered by a privacy notice which can be found on the Barnet Council website and retained and made available online. Tonight I would like to welcome the Friends of Stonyfield Park, Tony Sabini to the meeting who will be presenting their bid this evening. Tony, you have three minutes to speak. There will then be an opportunity for members to ask questions of the speakers. Please can everyone ensure that after you finish speaking you press your microphone to ensure there is no feedback. I would like to welcome Councillor Baker to her first Council meeting following her successful by-election earlier in the summer. Welcome. I would also like to note that it is my understanding that tonight is the first all-female Councillor meeting potentially ever of Barnet Council. So congratulations to us. May we continue to smash glass ceilings. I'd also like to note that this is the anniversary of 9/11 and to commemorate and remember the lives lost that day and in all of the wars since. And I do note that it does not feel like the world is a safer place than those days and may the world become a safer place for us all in the coming years and months. Right, minutes of the previous meeting. Does anyone have any, I started very on-time, Councillor Cornelius, my apologies. Does anyone have any comments on the minutes of the previous meeting or can we approve those? Approved? Thank you very much. I will sign those. I have apologies for Councillor Tim Roberts who is being substituted by Councillor Begg. Do we have any other apologies? No? All good? Yes. Any declarations of members' interests, please? Councillor Simberg and I are both committee members of the Friends of Mill Hill Park. Thank you very much and the officers remind me that you will therefore still make your decisions without prejudice or interference. Thank you very much. To my knowledge there are no dispensations granted by the monitoring officer. Item 5, petitions. Petitions with signatures up to 500 will be dealt with by either the appropriate department or cabinet member. The petitions received thus far require response from the relevant cabinet member or officer. Responses to petitions will be covered on the e-petitions section of the website. Once an officer has responded, updates will be shared with committee members in due course. Item 6, residents issues. None. 7, deputations. None. 8, public questions and comments. None. 9, members items. None. Item 10, area committee grants, funding, ENSL and road safety and parking fund updates. We have two appendices on this item. I open the floor to any questions on said appendices. Councillor Weisel. Thank you, Chair. Just a couple of the bids that I've had earlier in this council have asked how they get their money. So if someone could drop me an email and I can direct them to the right place, that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Thank you. If officers could be in touch with Councillor Weisel to progress those bids. Keen to see all of the bids progress to their final statuses. Any other questions? No. Okay. In which case North Area committee members are asked to, number 1, note the community infrastructure levy sill funding available for the allocation 2425 as set out in paragraph 5.4 of this report and appendix 1. Number 2, note the sill amount and reallocated underspends and overspends in paragraph 1.6 of this report and appendix

1. And point 3, note the road safety and parking fund application available for allocation during 2425 in paragraph 5.8 and set out in appendix 2. Is everyone happy to note those three things? Agreed. Wonderful. Item 11. If everyone is happy, I'm just going to move them around slightly to allow our visitors to get home earlier. Therefore, I will take the Stonyfield's Park gym item first and I've had notice that Anthony is going to speak. So, Anthony, you have three minutes. You are welcome. I would like to thank the committee for this opportunity to buy their case from the friends of Stonyfield and the community of Stonyfield Park. They will be brief. Stonyfield Park is not a very large park, around 4 hexacres of lush green wooded areas, 2 large greens, has a substantial man-made lake with a path around it and a spectacular waterfall that feeds to the Silk Street. Within the area live a varied community of people from all nations and religions who have nothing in common but the love of their park. They bring their children to its playground and push their buggies and take their children to feed the ducks. Children will learn to ride their bikes, like mine many years ago, and then your grandchildren. There is a great love of our park, a small yet untapped community spirit, and why? Because there is nothing else which they have which will bring them together. We are all aware that exercise in any form is good for us. That is why so many people can be seen throughout the day jogging, walking with or without a dog around the lake. When the playground is empty, the equipment is used for exercise. The high bars for pull-ups and push-ups, the slides for sit-ups, park benches with footprints on show someone that has been doing step-ups. A gym in our park would not only be something for the health and well-being of a community of all ages and abilities, it has the potential to be a lot more. The gym would be a focus point in the community, a place where you would go to keep fit perhaps, or just get some mobility, or recover from an injury or operation. But while there, you might open up and talk to others about the weather or how to use the equipment and appreciate what has been provided. See someone there regular and make conversation, possibly a new friend. I ask the committee
2. no, ask is not the right word - I beg the committee, which would not only benefit the health and well-being of the community, but which has the possibility to be inclusive for the community. Thank you. Thank you very much. If you could just tap your microphone off, I'll call Councillor Wardle and then we'll open to questions for the both of you. I've not got too much to add on top of what Tony has just said, but this has been an application that's very much been led from a grassroots level, obviously by the Friends of Stonyfield Park. We have had a number of developments within the ward itself and for those of you who know Edgewood Burry, it doesn't necessarily have the facilities like other parts of the borough, it isn't as well connected. These green spaces really are the central focal points and Stonyfields Park in particular really does connect two parts of the communities together and I think everyone obviously got to grips more with their local area from Colbord, come up with a lot of ideas on how to better use their local areas and how they can be improved and really Tony set out very convincingly obviously all of the health and well-being benefits from this park. We've had a number of different meetings and sort of consultations about the content of it, the location, so I really would hope that it's fairly straightforward and members are happy to say yes to this one. Thank you and it should be noted the sheer amount of emails we've had on this. It is very clear the community support behind this and the work that you all have done in order to make this happen, so thank you for your engagement with the council and quite frankly stopping emailing us. Does anyone have any questions? I can see Councillor David and then Councillor Baker excited for your first question, Councillor Baker. Thank you, thank you chair. My question is has the community raised any other funding to support, do you have any other funds raised, so you've not done any kind of fundraising towards it? We've been a friends group now since 2001, we're a very new friends group, about 40 who we can call volunteers and call on, half a dozen who do litter pics or so. We are at the moment looking for some crowd funding, which has only just started. We're an infant in this, we're very young, we don't know what to do. I'm on various groups, I'm on Barnet Green Open Spaces, some of you might know VCFSC and Green Party and various other groups who advises the funding. Because we don't have a chair, secretary funding, we haven't had money come in, so there's very little reason to have that. We just organise ourselves on WhatsApp groups and Facebook and we come and do what we can in the park. We do a monthly litter pic, we prune branches etc when they overhang and they're dangerous, we clear leaves when they're slippery, we pester the park to do things we need doing. So really that's what we have going for us at the moment. I was just going to say, just to add to that, they're not necessarily set up in the same way as the other friends groups that we've got within the borough, such as the Friends of Mill Hill Park, but obviously if the questions around things like maintenance, obviously the application states that actually the maintenance costs have been limited and already covered for within the sort of capital expenditure of green spaces. Councillor Baker. Hi, has there any thought gone into how, is there any costing for how the equipment's going to be maintained? Yeah, so I've just outlined that, so it's also within the report. So the maintenance of the equipment, although it's anticipated to be fairly low in terms of lifetime costs, that is already provided for within the budget for green spaces, so there is no further maintenance funding sought from the committee. Wonderful because we cannot do maintenance funding, so that's good to know. Any other questions on this item? Councillor Weisel. Thank you, Chair. Obviously I live near a gym in New Barnet, in the East Barnet in Victoria Park. A lot of the equipment is geared to adults, and you've said you wanted to be inclusive across ages. I don't know if this is a question for Councillor Ward and we'll be able to answer about how it's inclusive across ages from toddlers all the way up or, you know, what age range this will cover. I think if we can look at the example in other parks, there's actually quite a lot of children do use some of the adult equipment, and although there is already a play area within the park itself, so all ages will now be catered for, the range of equipment, sort of the step-ups, the pull-up bars can be sort of applicable for all ages. Any further questions? Are we happy to take it to a vote? Encouraging all ages to use the equipment safely and guided by what is said on the equipment. I think for me, due to the overwhelming community voice on this, I would suggest that we award funding fully. I don't believe we need to be attaching any conditions, but we do need to note the implication to the committee's ENSL budget for this, should we approve it. It is obviously quite a large item. Is everyone happy to agree to that? Great, wonderful, you have your budget. Feel free to send us a photo of people using it. Lovely. Councillor Justchinski, I think, are you going to be speaking on behalf of Councillor Simberg's application? Okay, in which case, the next one we are taking is the Millhill Park toddler's play area for £82,299.95. Councillor Justchinski, you have three minutes. This came about because in Millhill Park, near the children's play area and near the cafe, there is an enclosed area which used to be used for mini golf. And a long time ago, the cafe owner was prepared to organise the, I don't think it was renting, but lending out of the equipment. This then stopped. So this has just been an empty area for a very long time. So we were looking at it and thinking, well, it's already there. It's got some nice trees, so it's sheltered. It's completely enclosed with fencing. So it would be an incredibly useful place to have an area for our toddlers and parents and carers. There are a couple of benches and tables there at the moment. We've spent some time talking to groups of parents and carers who were sitting using this space and said, look, we're hoping to see if we could turn this into a dedicated toddler's area. How would that be? We got amazing feedback from different groups we've spoken to, including a group of nursery teachers who were there one day and suggested the kind of equipment would be the sort of things that you don't find in a normal playground, but experiential type equipment. And because we're talking about toddlers, things so that they can learn to balance and, yeah, that kind of thing, improve their motor skills, basically. So that's how this came about. Connected to that, we were with our green spaces team and having a look at the toilets, which are more or less opposite. And if I was a toddler, I'd be kind of pretty scared to go in there. It's not pleasant. And we were thinking that if we could bring the toddlers and the parents and carers into this space and really get use out of it, and we could improve the toilets at the same time, make something that was suitable for very small children, you know, like they have in primary schools, low wash basins, low toilets, things like that. There's no hot water in there at the moment. And they have, the officers said that they can connect pipes to a nearby boiler and bring, you know, we've got toddlers, babies, nappies, muddy children. It would be amazing if we could have that much more serviceable for the community who use it. So that's what this is about. We've looked at, with green spaces, some ideas for some really imaginative kinds of equipment to go in this space. And all it needs now is a really big sign saying dedicated toddlers area, no dogs. And I think this would be adding something quite special, quite different to a part of the community that's perhaps not very well served at the moment. Thank you. Councillor Baker. Sorry, I'm catching up on reading lots of papers at the moment. Has this area had any funding recently in terms of play provision or park provision? There have been massive problems with an area for older children's play equipment. There's not very much. Because of the topography of Mill Hill Park, it slopes down into that area. And we've had all sorts of problems with green spaces trying to come up with solutions to this. And we did manage to get a bid through a year or so ago to, instead of trying to fight the fact that it's muddy and wet most of the year, the idea was to start putting things like willow tunnels and willows in which would start mopping up some of the water so that it's much more usable most of the year. So that was a previous bid that we have had for the adult children's. It's not been possible, actually because of the state of the ground, to proceed with the plans yet. So we are still waiting. I believe the plans at the moment are that it will happen this autumn. So does that answer your question? Partially. Has there been any specific funding for any play equipment or park equipment? Not very much. Instead of going for dedicated play equipment for this area, there's going to be things like willow tunnels and rock boulders and things that kids can play on. But it won't matter if, I mean, they're going to get wet. It's going to be muddy. But it is trying to accommodate and include a few new things for the older kids to experience that. Thanks. Councillor Weiser, I saw a hand. Thank you, Chair. Just a follow-up on that. Can I just confirm, is that the bid that was from March this year for the play area, for the 30, I think it was 34,700? So that was within the last calendar year, because normally we don't, we've said to a lot of things that they can't revisit us for money within short periods of time. And a lot of bids have been, certainly bids I've made and bids other councillors have made, one of the big stipulations put on their bid is they're not going to come back for more money very soon after. And this is within six months of that bid, another bid for the park. So I'm just wondering why the totality wasn't brought together so that we could consider the whole park as one as a committee. Maybe, Chair, confirm if that is now part of the area committee rules. In a long time back when I was Chair, that was certainly never a condition of applications. If it is now, I'd be pleased to hear that. Not a condition per se, but I think there's a recognition that there is limited money and this park having had 35K, basically, only two meetings ago, I think there is certainly a feeling, I certainly feel that it's had a lot of money recently and therefore would the money be more fairly distributed amongst other bids as well, considering we are still quite early on, we have another two meetings to go in this cycle alone and low budgets. So we may have a conversation about, oh, Councillor might have come back, about deferring it to come back at a later stage. So for clarification, I was also talking about the fact that the application form that we as councillors have to fill out does ask that there's no ongoing revenue cost. Obviously this is park as a whole, this would be another revenue cost for that park. In the same way that I recently applied for money for the Rugby Club, we were doing quite a large renovation. If I were to come back and say, I know I asked for floodlights in, you know, earlier in July, can I now have pitches? I think the committee would look at me with quite a lot of scepticism. I've done two bids for Mill Hill for Darland, so this is more of a discussion to be had about how we fairly distribute the money. Going forward, I would also say that the issues with the older children's playground have been going on, I think we could check with Cassie, for probably about five years. And I know a group got together some time back and came up with some ideas on how to remedy the various problems with the muddiness and the flooding. They came up with some ideas which were very expensive and had to be put to one side. Certainly because this has been going on for a long time, we've reached a point now where it is finally being dealt with. And it's almost as though I think we've kind of put it to one side. Thank goodness, that's something that's now in the past and is being dealt with. The issue of the unused golf area came up at a meeting with Greenspaces quite recently, where we had a discussion that this is an area that's completely underused. What could we do? And these were the ideas that developed quite recently from those discussions, which is why I'm now in a position to kind of bring them forward to committee, to see if they can be considered here. I'm certainly amenable to the bid. I have a very close friend with a toddler and we go to that park a lot. I do understand the issues, I'm trying to make sure that we have equitable distribution of the funds, not only amongst different locations but different warts as well. And there are two bits coming from tonight. Councillor Waldo and then did Councillor Begg want to ask a question? Okay, no, she's answered it. Wonderful. I was just going to ask in terms of the split of the costs, obviously the weighting is more towards the restoration and the refurbishment of the toilets. Do you think that the toddler area works on its own or is one intrinsically linked with the other? There are some other works which I think that the toddler area and the toilets and the hot water would go together very well if we could, if we could reduce the costs and just get those parts done, then I think that would be a real benefit. I'll take Councillor David and then Councillor Begg, thank you. So am I right in thinking that the fund you had, Clear DC, that's not been utilised? Not yet, no. Right, so we have that in the report. We do, that's accounted for. Right. For the other work. And that funding is allocated specifically to that, yes, we can't change that now. Yeah, so which is priority now? Is it this work or the other work? Because what we did, what we did consider in East Burnet was when fund was allocated and we had similar thing, we needed to consider if we needed to prioritise and check which of them is more eminently needed so that we will go with that. Because when there's limited fund, unless you've got other funds, support coming from elsewhere, then what one does is to privatise and see which one is most needed. You're asking me to choose between older children and toddlers. We already have the allocation for the older children. I would like some additional funding for our toddlers. We cannot open the previous bid, which has been passed and supported. Councillor Begg. Just a very quick question to ask, how do you establish the demand and the need for the toilets to be used? It's already well two-place toilets in the middle of a park, but would they actually be used? That's a lot of money that's going to go in there to supply hot water supply. So I'm just wondering, how have you made that assumption? I don't know if I should come to Cassie at this point. I think the park is incredibly well used. We've got sports groups, we've got the bowling club, we've got a nursery, we've got all sorts of activities. We've got the children's playground, we've got a cafe. I would say there's a massive demand for public park toilets, yes, and particularly with the number of children that use the park, I would think good toilets and hot water would be a given. I was just wondering because there haven't been any toilets for so long, so people are managing, aren't they? Councillor Wessel. Thank you, Chair. On the toilets, I just want to check, because I'm looking at the photo, I think I'm looking at the right photo of the right toilets, because I know we've got two sets of toilets now. Are there just two cubicles in the toilets? So if one of them is lowered for children to use, how will that affect accessibility for disabled people or people with special needs? Because obviously that's quite limiting. A lot of adults, especially who have mobility problems, who may need to use the toilet more than other people, will find that very difficult to use, and it therefore cuts in half the number of toilets available for them in this block, and has that been considered in this bid and the redevelopment of the toilets? Yes, it has, and in the papers it does mention that the one way of dealing with this and accommodating the toddlers is to have a double toilet seat, so one is layered within. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but that's how the proposal has been put together. Sorry, because I'm just trying to understand if everything's been lowered, that's often the problem with people with mobility issues. I know this, my father recently had a stroke, that everything kind of has to be at a certain height, or he cannot get physically up or down from it. If it's been lowered, I don't know if he has - what do we know that double toilet seat will actually affect accessibility for people with mobility issues? Sorry, it sounds like there'll be a higher and lower within one stall. Is that correct? I don't know anything about this, without risking getting into a cultural war of toilets. I am hugely sympathetic to the needs of this. I have expressed my view about it being - about the money being shared, and also the agency of you two as councillors being on the committee and more bids coming from this park. Can I make the suggestion, and I appreciate that everyone might not vote for this, that we defer this application into the new cycle year, so that we retain some more budget for wards and for parks and locations that haven't had the opportunity to bid for funding yet? And I am sorry to have to do that, because I do know that work goes into this, but I'm keen to be fair and equitable going through this, and it would be assured of my support, certainly, later on. Is that - I'm going to
3. should I take a vote? Sorry. Can I just ask, do we actually have the budget in this committee? We do have the budget in this committee, but it would leave us very short the next two rounds before the budget reset at the new council, yeah. It would leave us with less than the sum of this bid. So we'd be overspending the amount that has sort of hypothetically been allocated for this committee? We would not - there is no chance of us going to overspend today by my maths, which is not brilliant, it must be said. I understand - I did the same calculation, that is why. We would end up with, I think, about 70 grand to spend across two cycles, two bids, two meetings, that's what I was looking for, which is less than the sum of this bid in total. Okay. Would someone like to propose an alternative voting method, or are we happy to vote for deferring to the next cycle? Agreed? Okay. Understood, and grateful for that. Would you like to go on to your next bid next, or would you like a break? Carry on. Wonderful, thank you, and I appreciate that that's not an easy message to deliver back to residents, so I'm happy to have conversations if that's helpful. Kaushal and Shinsky, you have another bid on the Millhills Hounds Square Christmas tree and seating area, which, be assured, cannot be deferred. I understand where Christmas is, despite the fact I don't celebrate it. I'm making a square that joins to the roadway. That was done some years ago, and we have some concrete benches and a couple of planters there at the moment. At Christmas time, we do have a Christmas tree. I've actually paid for it once or twice, and the Northwest Seven Hub has paid for it as well, and last year we decided to go much greener and arranged with anti-tipping and that we could have a smaller Christmas tree that was planted, at least for the Christmas period. We've set up a community group, which includes all of the local churches, synagogue and community groups, obviously, and Christmas has become quite a big thing, so the last couple of years we've had Christmas carol events, and we also have a menorah in the square, so there are quite big Hanukkah celebrations, and for the lighting of the first lamp, we usually get three or four hundred people coming into the square to celebrate, so there's a lot of activity around that time of year. We were offered the possibility of having a permanent Christmas tree from the Mill Hill Preservation Society, and we then need to get it planted, which turns out to be much more complicated than anyone would expect. You need to check cables underneath the square and water and all sorts of other things, and then dig holes. Anyway, that would be really nice, so the idea is that we have a permanent fir tree at the back of the square, and that will still leave room for all kind of Christmas celebrations and for the menorah to be placed, which is there for a couple of weeks during December as well. In following lots of discussions about how to do this, we understood from officers that it would be necessary to extend a power cable if there were to be Christmas lights, and I understand that Paul Sears is responsible for that. He tells me that there would be an ongoing cost to this, so I have contacted Iceland, who have a store in Mill Hill Broadway almost opposite the square. They have written to the head office, and what I've asked for, would they commit to donating £800 each December, which apparently is the cost of us providing the lights, and we're asking for a commitment of between three and five years, ideally five years, so that we really know. As I haven't heard back from Iceland before this meeting, I have approached another restaurant in the Broadway who's confirmed absolutely that he would be willing to support this initiative if Iceland can't, so there will be no ongoing costs. Additionally, we're asking for a couple of extra benches and some planters. We have a group again of people who volunteered to come and look after the plants if there is a water source, and one of our kind officers visited and said yes, it's possible to provide water in the town square. The tree will be looked after by Andy going forward, and the planters will be looked after by our volunteers, and it is used a lot. A lot of people there during lunch times, and I think I've seen kids, but little kids with tricycles and balance wheels and things like that and scooters, because it's a nice square flat space, we're all using it now, and we're just trying to make it more usable. Just a technical question first, can we get that in writing that the other company will support? Yeah, definitely. Wonderful, thank you. And just another very technical question from me about the revenue plan, which officers will need to be in place six weeks before the last date of installation, because there needs to be a lead-in time for installing all of this stuff, which would be the 4th of October, so all of the paperwork needs to be sorted by then, which will have to be a condition of the funding. Absolutely, otherwise there's no point having a Christmas tree for next year. Yes, so I just wanted to, because otherwise it doesn't quite work in terms of making sure that the revenue and the costings for the lights and all of that sort of stuff is in place, so a small extension to this, because I recognise it's not all in place, and clearly it's done a lot of work on the interfaith element of this as well, which speaks particularly nicely to those of us who don't actually celebrate Christmas. Does anyone have any questions about this application? Can I just quickly ask, you mentioned the Mill Hill Preservation Society, would they help with the upkeep if the trees were dying or needed any kind of maintenance? No, but that would help. Our tree people, they're going to plant it to make sure that it's planted in a way that they think is suitable and deep enough, and it's a big hole, and it will have some kind of protective cage as well, so they're going to be totally responsible for the tree as part of the tree service in the borough. Thank you. I think the permanent Christmas tree is really innovative and really cool, and it's really nice. Do we have any questions on this? Can we ensure that an agreement is established that identifies the responsibilities of the group, including any insurances and risk management plans are in place, especially in relation to maintenance? For the square, which is held by Adam Morley of the Northwest 7 hub, who holds the lease. Wonderful. If we could also get all that information in by October 4th, and all those confirmations in place. Sorry, the personal injury lawyer in me goes, from my work out, that would need to be updated to include the tree, because I'm going to guess it does not include the Christmas tree, and that would leave us open to liability. That's why we're needing to get the extra 800 for Paul Sears to come and do the lighting, rather than letting volunteers or residents attempt to climb ladders. No, I was saying, if there is a risk assessment for the square already, this is my lawyer hat on, it will not probably mention the tree, which means if something happens to the tree and someone gets injured, and we have to disclose that, we would not be covered, so it would need to be updated to cover risks to do with the tree, to make sure it's fully compliant, and that we are... That would be for the health and safety officer, I can't give any further legal advice. The easiest way to formally note this, is that on the papers, at lead officer review assessment and recommendation, there are a number of questions, they would need to be completed and answered to the officer's satisfaction by the 4th of October. If no further questions, we are all happy to award funding fully on the conditions that I have pre-stated, that the lead officer questions in the assessment and review section of the papers are agreed, and that we note the implication to the NSIL budget by the 4th of October. Everyone happy? Please god the tree will be planted in time for Christmas. Lovely, look forward to it. Finally, we have an item on children's centre toilets from Councillor Begg. Councillor Begg, you have 3 minutes. So, we have a children's centre in Underhill Ward, which is used 52 weeks of the year by so many different members of the community. So, we have babies, 2 pensioners coming there, we have groups such as speech and language, midwives, house visitors, mother and toddler groups, father groups, adult learning groups. So, there's a huge usage of the children's centre, and this funding application is purely about the facilities used, particularly the toilets in the children's centre. There is a huge demand, obviously, with so many visitors using these toilets, but they are toilets that have kind of been left over from Underhill School. They stopped using those, passed them over to the children's centre, and they have been using these toilets. Currently, they are in a very dilapidated state, the toilets, and in particular, I am told that the smell of urine is upsetting everybody. People don't want to use it, particularly pregnant women are saying they actually feel sick going into the toilets in their current situation. In addition to that, there is no facilities for disabled people to use the toilets at all there, so that has also been brought to our attention. So, I am asking for this application to be agreed to allow these toilet facilities to be improved, and I will take any questions. Thank you very much. Can you assure us that the toilets that would be put in would be fully accessible? What happens to the toilets whilst the toilets are being redone? Are we leaving pregnant women without toilets? Whilst the works are happening, are we leaving pregnant women without toilets, and is there any mitigation in place? If the centre is open 52 weeks, the staff toilets will be used while the refurbishment is going on. Thank you. Councillor David, did you have a question? Does the Children's Centre have any funds to contribute? So that's always been the problem, why it's been so delayed, they don't have the funds and they never have had the funds to do the refurbishment. Councillor Weisel. Given your description of the toilets, which I don't really want to revisit, what is the cleaning and maintenance programme that will be in place once the toilets are repaired? So it's the school business manager who will be in charge of the maintenance for the whole facilities, in charge of the construction work while it's going on, and then we'll take over the maintenance programme. OK, any further questions? OK, in which case I suggest that we award funding with the conditions that there would be newly created disabled access and children access of the toilets, and that we note the implication to the ENSL funding budget. Is that agreed? Wonderful. That is all of the bids. Item 12, any other items that the chair decides are urgent? I deem no other items to either exist or be urgent, and therefore I am closing the meeting at 7.44. Thank you all.

Transcript

Good evening, I am Councillor Ella Rose, Chair of the North Area Committee. Thank you for attending our committee meeting this evening. Please note that meetings may be recorded and broadcast as allowed for in-law or by the Council. By attending either in person or online you may be picked up on recordings. Council recordings are covered by a privacy notice which can be found on the Barnet Council website and retained and made available online. Tonight I would like to welcome the Friends of Stonyfield Park, Tony Sabini to the meeting who will be presenting their bid this evening. Tony, you have three minutes to speak. There will then be an opportunity for members to ask questions of the speakers. Please can everyone ensure that after you finish speaking you press your microphone to ensure there is no feedback. I would like to welcome Councillor Baker to her first Council meeting following her successful by-election earlier in the summer. Welcome. I would also like to note that it is my understanding that tonight is the first all-female Councillor meeting potentially ever of Barnet Council. So congratulations to us. May we continue to smash glass ceilings. I'd also like to note that this is the anniversary of 9/11 and to commemorate and remember the lives lost that day and in all of the wars since. And I do note that it does not feel like the world is a safer place than those days and may the world become a safer place for us all in the coming years and months. Right, minutes of the previous meeting. Does anyone have any, I started very on-time, Councillor Cornelius, my apologies. Does anyone have any comments on the minutes of the previous meeting or can we approve those? Approved? Thank you very much. I will sign those. I have apologies for Councillor Tim Roberts who is being substituted by Councillor Begg. Do we have any other apologies? No? All good? Yes. Any declarations of members' interests, please? Councillor Simberg and I are both committee members of the Friends of Mill Hill Park. Thank you very much and the officers remind me that you will therefore still make your decisions without prejudice or interference. Thank you very much. To my knowledge there are no dispensations granted by the monitoring officer. Item 5, petitions. Petitions with signatures up to 500 will be dealt with by either the appropriate department or cabinet member. The petitions received thus far require response from the relevant cabinet member or officer. Responses to petitions will be covered on the e-petitions section of the website. Once an officer has responded, updates will be shared with committee members in due course. Item 6, residents issues. None. 7, deputations. None. 8, public questions and comments. None. 9, members items. None. Item 10, area committee grants, funding, ENSL and road safety and parking fund updates. We have two appendices on this item. I open the floor to any questions on said appendices. Councillor Weisel. Thank you, Chair. Just a couple of the bids that I've had earlier in this council have asked how they get their money. So if someone could drop me an email and I can direct them to the right place, that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Thank you. If officers could be in touch with Councillor Weisel to progress those bids. Keen to see all of the bids progress to their final statuses. Any other questions? No. Okay. In which case North Area committee members are asked to, number 1, note the community infrastructure levy sill funding available for the allocation 2425 as set out in paragraph 5.4 of this report and appendix 1. Number 2, note the sill amount and reallocated underspends and overspends in paragraph 1.6 of this report and appendix

1. And point 3, note the road safety and parking fund application available for allocation during 2425 in paragraph 5.8 and set out in appendix 2. Is everyone happy to note those three things? Agreed. Wonderful. Item 11. If everyone is happy, I'm just going to move them around slightly to allow our visitors to get home earlier. Therefore, I will take the Stonyfield's Park gym item first and I've had notice that Anthony is going to speak. So, Anthony, you have three minutes. You are welcome. I would like to thank the committee for this opportunity to buy their case from the friends of Stonyfield and the community of Stonyfield Park. They will be brief. Stonyfield Park is not a very large park, around 4 hexacres of lush green wooded areas, 2 large greens, has a substantial man-made lake with a path around it and a spectacular waterfall that feeds to the Silk Street. Within the area live a varied community of people from all nations and religions who have nothing in common but the love of their park. They bring their children to its playground and push their buggies and take their children to feed the ducks. Children will learn to ride their bikes, like mine many years ago, and then your grandchildren. There is a great love of our park, a small yet untapped community spirit, and why? Because there is nothing else which they have which will bring them together. We are all aware that exercise in any form is good for us. That is why so many people can be seen throughout the day jogging, walking with or without a dog around the lake. When the playground is empty, the equipment is used for exercise. The high bars for pull-ups and push-ups, the slides for sit-ups, park benches with footprints on show someone that has been doing step-ups. A gym in our park would not only be something for the health and well-being of a community of all ages and abilities, it has the potential to be a lot more. The gym would be a focus point in the community, a place where you would go to keep fit perhaps, or just get some mobility, or recover from an injury or operation. But while there, you might open up and talk to others about the weather or how to use the equipment and appreciate what has been provided. See someone there regular and make conversation, possibly a new friend. I ask the committee
2. no, ask is not the right word - I beg the committee, which would not only benefit the health and well-being of the community, but which has the possibility to be inclusive for the community. Thank you. Thank you very much. If you could just tap your microphone off, I'll call Councillor Wardle and then we'll open to questions for the both of you. I've not got too much to add on top of what Tony has just said, but this has been an application that's very much been led from a grassroots level, obviously by the Friends of Stonyfield Park. We have had a number of developments within the ward itself and for those of you who know Edgewood Burry, it doesn't necessarily have the facilities like other parts of the borough, it isn't as well connected. These green spaces really are the central focal points and Stonyfields Park in particular really does connect two parts of the communities together and I think everyone obviously got to grips more with their local area from Colbord, come up with a lot of ideas on how to better use their local areas and how they can be improved and really Tony set out very convincingly obviously all of the health and well-being benefits from this park. We've had a number of different meetings and sort of consultations about the content of it, the location, so I really would hope that it's fairly straightforward and members are happy to say yes to this one. Thank you and it should be noted the sheer amount of emails we've had on this. It is very clear the community support behind this and the work that you all have done in order to make this happen, so thank you for your engagement with the council and quite frankly stopping emailing us. Does anyone have any questions? I can see Councillor David and then Councillor Baker excited for your first question, Councillor Baker. Thank you, thank you chair. My question is has the community raised any other funding to support, do you have any other funds raised, so you've not done any kind of fundraising towards it? We've been a friends group now since 2001, we're a very new friends group, about 40 who we can call volunteers and call on, half a dozen who do litter pics or so. We are at the moment looking for some crowd funding, which has only just started. We're an infant in this, we're very young, we don't know what to do. I'm on various groups, I'm on Barnet Green Open Spaces, some of you might know VCFSC and Green Party and various other groups who advises the funding. Because we don't have a chair, secretary funding, we haven't had money come in, so there's very little reason to have that. We just organise ourselves on WhatsApp groups and Facebook and we come and do what we can in the park. We do a monthly litter pic, we prune branches etc when they overhang and they're dangerous, we clear leaves when they're slippery, we pester the park to do things we need doing. So really that's what we have going for us at the moment. I was just going to say, just to add to that, they're not necessarily set up in the same way as the other friends groups that we've got within the borough, such as the Friends of Mill Hill Park, but obviously if the questions around things like maintenance, obviously the application states that actually the maintenance costs have been limited and already covered for within the sort of capital expenditure of green spaces. Councillor Baker. Hi, has there any thought gone into how, is there any costing for how the equipment's going to be maintained? Yeah, so I've just outlined that, so it's also within the report. So the maintenance of the equipment, although it's anticipated to be fairly low in terms of lifetime costs, that is already provided for within the budget for green spaces, so there is no further maintenance funding sought from the committee. Wonderful because we cannot do maintenance funding, so that's good to know. Any other questions on this item? Councillor Weisel. Thank you, Chair. Obviously I live near a gym in New Barnet, in the East Barnet in Victoria Park. A lot of the equipment is geared to adults, and you've said you wanted to be inclusive across ages. I don't know if this is a question for Councillor Ward and we'll be able to answer about how it's inclusive across ages from toddlers all the way up or, you know, what age range this will cover. I think if we can look at the example in other parks, there's actually quite a lot of children do use some of the adult equipment, and although there is already a play area within the park itself, so all ages will now be catered for, the range of equipment, sort of the step-ups, the pull-up bars can be sort of applicable for all ages. Any further questions? Are we happy to take it to a vote? Encouraging all ages to use the equipment safely and guided by what is said on the equipment. I think for me, due to the overwhelming community voice on this, I would suggest that we award funding fully. I don't believe we need to be attaching any conditions, but we do need to note the implication to the committee's ENSL budget for this, should we approve it. It is obviously quite a large item. Is everyone happy to agree to that? Great, wonderful, you have your budget. Feel free to send us a photo of people using it. Lovely. Councillor Justchinski, I think, are you going to be speaking on behalf of Councillor Simberg's application? Okay, in which case, the next one we are taking is the Millhill Park toddler's play area for £82,299.95. Councillor Justchinski, you have three minutes. This came about because in Millhill Park, near the children's play area and near the cafe, there is an enclosed area which used to be used for mini golf. And a long time ago, the cafe owner was prepared to organise the, I don't think it was renting, but lending out of the equipment. This then stopped. So this has just been an empty area for a very long time. So we were looking at it and thinking, well, it's already there. It's got some nice trees, so it's sheltered. It's completely enclosed with fencing. So it would be an incredibly useful place to have an area for our toddlers and parents and carers. There are a couple of benches and tables there at the moment. We've spent some time talking to groups of parents and carers who were sitting using this space and said, look, we're hoping to see if we could turn this into a dedicated toddler's area. How would that be? We got amazing feedback from different groups we've spoken to, including a group of nursery teachers who were there one day and suggested the kind of equipment would be the sort of things that you don't find in a normal playground, but experiential type equipment. And because we're talking about toddlers, things so that they can learn to balance and, yeah, that kind of thing, improve their motor skills, basically. So that's how this came about. Connected to that, we were with our green spaces team and having a look at the toilets, which are more or less opposite. And if I was a toddler, I'd be kind of pretty scared to go in there. It's not pleasant. And we were thinking that if we could bring the toddlers and the parents and carers into this space and really get use out of it, and we could improve the toilets at the same time, make something that was suitable for very small children, you know, like they have in primary schools, low wash basins, low toilets, things like that. There's no hot water in there at the moment. And they have, the officers said that they can connect pipes to a nearby boiler and bring, you know, we've got toddlers, babies, nappies, muddy children. It would be amazing if we could have that much more serviceable for the community who use it. So that's what this is about. We've looked at, with green spaces, some ideas for some really imaginative kinds of equipment to go in this space. And all it needs now is a really big sign saying dedicated toddlers area, no dogs. And I think this would be adding something quite special, quite different to a part of the community that's perhaps not very well served at the moment. Thank you. Councillor Baker. Sorry, I'm catching up on reading lots of papers at the moment. Has this area had any funding recently in terms of play provision or park provision? There have been massive problems with an area for older children's play equipment. There's not very much. Because of the topography of Mill Hill Park, it slopes down into that area. And we've had all sorts of problems with green spaces trying to come up with solutions to this. And we did manage to get a bid through a year or so ago to, instead of trying to fight the fact that it's muddy and wet most of the year, the idea was to start putting things like willow tunnels and willows in which would start mopping up some of the water so that it's much more usable most of the year. So that was a previous bid that we have had for the adult children's. It's not been possible, actually because of the state of the ground, to proceed with the plans yet. So we are still waiting. I believe the plans at the moment are that it will happen this autumn. So does that answer your question? Partially. Has there been any specific funding for any play equipment or park equipment? Not very much. Instead of going for dedicated play equipment for this area, there's going to be things like willow tunnels and rock boulders and things that kids can play on. But it won't matter if, I mean, they're going to get wet. It's going to be muddy. But it is trying to accommodate and include a few new things for the older kids to experience that. Thanks. Councillor Weiser, I saw a hand. Thank you, Chair. Just a follow-up on that. Can I just confirm, is that the bid that was from March this year for the play area, for the 30, I think it was 34,700? So that was within the last calendar year, because normally we don't, we've said to a lot of things that they can't revisit us for money within short periods of time. And a lot of bids have been, certainly bids I've made and bids other councillors have made, one of the big stipulations put on their bid is they're not going to come back for more money very soon after. And this is within six months of that bid, another bid for the park. So I'm just wondering why the totality wasn't brought together so that we could consider the whole park as one as a committee. Maybe, Chair, confirm if that is now part of the area committee rules. In a long time back when I was Chair, that was certainly never a condition of applications. If it is now, I'd be pleased to hear that. Not a condition per se, but I think there's a recognition that there is limited money and this park having had 35K, basically, only two meetings ago, I think there is certainly a feeling, I certainly feel that it's had a lot of money recently and therefore would the money be more fairly distributed amongst other bids as well, considering we are still quite early on, we have another two meetings to go in this cycle alone and low budgets. So we may have a conversation about, oh, Councillor might have come back, about deferring it to come back at a later stage. So for clarification, I was also talking about the fact that the application form that we as councillors have to fill out does ask that there's no ongoing revenue cost. Obviously this is park as a whole, this would be another revenue cost for that park. In the same way that I recently applied for money for the Rugby Club, we were doing quite a large renovation. If I were to come back and say, I know I asked for floodlights in, you know, earlier in July, can I now have pitches? I think the committee would look at me with quite a lot of scepticism. I've done two bids for Mill Hill for Darland, so this is more of a discussion to be had about how we fairly distribute the money. Going forward, I would also say that the issues with the older children's playground have been going on, I think we could check with Cassie, for probably about five years. And I know a group got together some time back and came up with some ideas on how to remedy the various problems with the muddiness and the flooding. They came up with some ideas which were very expensive and had to be put to one side. Certainly because this has been going on for a long time, we've reached a point now where it is finally being dealt with. And it's almost as though I think we've kind of put it to one side. Thank goodness, that's something that's now in the past and is being dealt with. The issue of the unused golf area came up at a meeting with Greenspaces quite recently, where we had a discussion that this is an area that's completely underused. What could we do? And these were the ideas that developed quite recently from those discussions, which is why I'm now in a position to kind of bring them forward to committee, to see if they can be considered here. I'm certainly amenable to the bid. I have a very close friend with a toddler and we go to that park a lot. I do understand the issues, I'm trying to make sure that we have equitable distribution of the funds, not only amongst different locations but different warts as well. And there are two bits coming from tonight. Councillor Waldo and then did Councillor Begg want to ask a question? Okay, no, she's answered it. Wonderful. I was just going to ask in terms of the split of the costs, obviously the weighting is more towards the restoration and the refurbishment of the toilets. Do you think that the toddler area works on its own or is one intrinsically linked with the other? There are some other works which I think that the toddler area and the toilets and the hot water would go together very well if we could, if we could reduce the costs and just get those parts done, then I think that would be a real benefit. I'll take Councillor David and then Councillor Begg, thank you. So am I right in thinking that the fund you had, Clear DC, that's not been utilised? Not yet, no. Right, so we have that in the report. We do, that's accounted for. Right. For the other work. And that funding is allocated specifically to that, yes, we can't change that now. Yeah, so which is priority now? Is it this work or the other work? Because what we did, what we did consider in East Burnet was when fund was allocated and we had similar thing, we needed to consider if we needed to prioritise and check which of them is more eminently needed so that we will go with that. Because when there's limited fund, unless you've got other funds, support coming from elsewhere, then what one does is to privatise and see which one is most needed. You're asking me to choose between older children and toddlers. We already have the allocation for the older children. I would like some additional funding for our toddlers. We cannot open the previous bid, which has been passed and supported. Councillor Begg. Just a very quick question to ask, how do you establish the demand and the need for the toilets to be used? It's already well two-place toilets in the middle of a park, but would they actually be used? That's a lot of money that's going to go in there to supply hot water supply. So I'm just wondering, how have you made that assumption? I don't know if I should come to Cassie at this point. I think the park is incredibly well used. We've got sports groups, we've got the bowling club, we've got a nursery, we've got all sorts of activities. We've got the children's playground, we've got a cafe. I would say there's a massive demand for public park toilets, yes, and particularly with the number of children that use the park, I would think good toilets and hot water would be a given. I was just wondering because there haven't been any toilets for so long, so people are managing, aren't they? Councillor Wessel. Thank you, Chair. On the toilets, I just want to check, because I'm looking at the photo, I think I'm looking at the right photo of the right toilets, because I know we've got two sets of toilets now. Are there just two cubicles in the toilets? So if one of them is lowered for children to use, how will that affect accessibility for disabled people or people with special needs? Because obviously that's quite limiting. A lot of adults, especially who have mobility problems, who may need to use the toilet more than other people, will find that very difficult to use, and it therefore cuts in half the number of toilets available for them in this block, and has that been considered in this bid and the redevelopment of the toilets? Yes, it has, and in the papers it does mention that the one way of dealing with this and accommodating the toddlers is to have a double toilet seat, so one is layered within. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but that's how the proposal has been put together. Sorry, because I'm just trying to understand if everything's been lowered, that's often the problem with people with mobility issues. I know this, my father recently had a stroke, that everything kind of has to be at a certain height, or he cannot get physically up or down from it. If it's been lowered, I don't know if he has - what do we know that double toilet seat will actually affect accessibility for people with mobility issues? Sorry, it sounds like there'll be a higher and lower within one stall. Is that correct? I don't know anything about this, without risking getting into a cultural war of toilets. I am hugely sympathetic to the needs of this. I have expressed my view about it being - about the money being shared, and also the agency of you two as councillors being on the committee and more bids coming from this park. Can I make the suggestion, and I appreciate that everyone might not vote for this, that we defer this application into the new cycle year, so that we retain some more budget for wards and for parks and locations that haven't had the opportunity to bid for funding yet? And I am sorry to have to do that, because I do know that work goes into this, but I'm keen to be fair and equitable going through this, and it would be assured of my support, certainly, later on. Is that - I'm going to
3. should I take a vote? Sorry. Can I just ask, do we actually have the budget in this committee? We do have the budget in this committee, but it would leave us very short the next two rounds before the budget reset at the new council, yeah. It would leave us with less than the sum of this bid. So we'd be overspending the amount that has sort of hypothetically been allocated for this committee? We would not - there is no chance of us going to overspend today by my maths, which is not brilliant, it must be said. I understand - I did the same calculation, that is why. We would end up with, I think, about 70 grand to spend across two cycles, two bids, two meetings, that's what I was looking for, which is less than the sum of this bid in total. Okay. Would someone like to propose an alternative voting method, or are we happy to vote for deferring to the next cycle? Agreed? Okay. Understood, and grateful for that. Would you like to go on to your next bid next, or would you like a break? Carry on. Wonderful, thank you, and I appreciate that that's not an easy message to deliver back to residents, so I'm happy to have conversations if that's helpful. Kaushal and Shinsky, you have another bid on the Millhills Hounds Square Christmas tree and seating area, which, be assured, cannot be deferred. I understand where Christmas is, despite the fact I don't celebrate it. I'm making a square that joins to the roadway. That was done some years ago, and we have some concrete benches and a couple of planters there at the moment. At Christmas time, we do have a Christmas tree. I've actually paid for it once or twice, and the Northwest Seven Hub has paid for it as well, and last year we decided to go much greener and arranged with anti-tipping and that we could have a smaller Christmas tree that was planted, at least for the Christmas period. We've set up a community group, which includes all of the local churches, synagogue and community groups, obviously, and Christmas has become quite a big thing, so the last couple of years we've had Christmas carol events, and we also have a menorah in the square, so there are quite big Hanukkah celebrations, and for the lighting of the first lamp, we usually get three or four hundred people coming into the square to celebrate, so there's a lot of activity around that time of year. We were offered the possibility of having a permanent Christmas tree from the Mill Hill Preservation Society, and we then need to get it planted, which turns out to be much more complicated than anyone would expect. You need to check cables underneath the square and water and all sorts of other things, and then dig holes. Anyway, that would be really nice, so the idea is that we have a permanent fir tree at the back of the square, and that will still leave room for all kind of Christmas celebrations and for the menorah to be placed, which is there for a couple of weeks during December as well. In following lots of discussions about how to do this, we understood from officers that it would be necessary to extend a power cable if there were to be Christmas lights, and I understand that Paul Sears is responsible for that. He tells me that there would be an ongoing cost to this, so I have contacted Iceland, who have a store in Mill Hill Broadway almost opposite the square. They have written to the head office, and what I've asked for, would they commit to donating £800 each December, which apparently is the cost of us providing the lights, and we're asking for a commitment of between three and five years, ideally five years, so that we really know. As I haven't heard back from Iceland before this meeting, I have approached another restaurant in the Broadway who's confirmed absolutely that he would be willing to support this initiative if Iceland can't, so there will be no ongoing costs. Additionally, we're asking for a couple of extra benches and some planters. We have a group again of people who volunteered to come and look after the plants if there is a water source, and one of our kind officers visited and said yes, it's possible to provide water in the town square. The tree will be looked after by Andy going forward, and the planters will be looked after by our volunteers, and it is used a lot. A lot of people there during lunch times, and I think I've seen kids, but little kids with tricycles and balance wheels and things like that and scooters, because it's a nice square flat space, we're all using it now, and we're just trying to make it more usable. Just a technical question first, can we get that in writing that the other company will support? Yeah, definitely. Wonderful, thank you. And just another very technical question from me about the revenue plan, which officers will need to be in place six weeks before the last date of installation, because there needs to be a lead-in time for installing all of this stuff, which would be the 4th of October, so all of the paperwork needs to be sorted by then, which will have to be a condition of the funding. Absolutely, otherwise there's no point having a Christmas tree for next year. Yes, so I just wanted to, because otherwise it doesn't quite work in terms of making sure that the revenue and the costings for the lights and all of that sort of stuff is in place, so a small extension to this, because I recognise it's not all in place, and clearly it's done a lot of work on the interfaith element of this as well, which speaks particularly nicely to those of us who don't actually celebrate Christmas. Does anyone have any questions about this application? Can I just quickly ask, you mentioned the Mill Hill Preservation Society, would they help with the upkeep if the trees were dying or needed any kind of maintenance? No, but that would help. Our tree people, they're going to plant it to make sure that it's planted in a way that they think is suitable and deep enough, and it's a big hole, and it will have some kind of protective cage as well, so they're going to be totally responsible for the tree as part of the tree service in the borough. Thank you. I think the permanent Christmas tree is really innovative and really cool, and it's really nice. Do we have any questions on this? Can we ensure that an agreement is established that identifies the responsibilities of the group, including any insurances and risk management plans are in place, especially in relation to maintenance? For the square, which is held by Adam Morley of the Northwest 7 hub, who holds the lease. Wonderful. If we could also get all that information in by October 4th, and all those confirmations in place. Sorry, the personal injury lawyer in me goes, from my work out, that would need to be updated to include the tree, because I'm going to guess it does not include the Christmas tree, and that would leave us open to liability. That's why we're needing to get the extra 800 for Paul Sears to come and do the lighting, rather than letting volunteers or residents attempt to climb ladders. No, I was saying, if there is a risk assessment for the square already, this is my lawyer hat on, it will not probably mention the tree, which means if something happens to the tree and someone gets injured, and we have to disclose that, we would not be covered, so it would need to be updated to cover risks to do with the tree, to make sure it's fully compliant, and that we are... That would be for the health and safety officer, I can't give any further legal advice. The easiest way to formally note this, is that on the papers, at lead officer review assessment and recommendation, there are a number of questions, they would need to be completed and answered to the officer's satisfaction by the 4th of October. If no further questions, we are all happy to award funding fully on the conditions that I have pre-stated, that the lead officer questions in the assessment and review section of the papers are agreed, and that we note the implication to the NSIL budget by the 4th of October. Everyone happy? Please god the tree will be planted in time for Christmas. Lovely, look forward to it. Finally, we have an item on children's centre toilets from Councillor Begg. Councillor Begg, you have 3 minutes. So, we have a children's centre in Underhill Ward, which is used 52 weeks of the year by so many different members of the community. So, we have babies, 2 pensioners coming there, we have groups such as speech and language, midwives, house visitors, mother and toddler groups, father groups, adult learning groups. So, there's a huge usage of the children's centre, and this funding application is purely about the facilities used, particularly the toilets in the children's centre. There is a huge demand, obviously, with so many visitors using these toilets, but they are toilets that have kind of been left over from Underhill School. They stopped using those, passed them over to the children's centre, and they have been using these toilets. Currently, they are in a very dilapidated state, the toilets, and in particular, I am told that the smell of urine is upsetting everybody. People don't want to use it, particularly pregnant women are saying they actually feel sick going into the toilets in their current situation. In addition to that, there is no facilities for disabled people to use the toilets at all there, so that has also been brought to our attention. So, I am asking for this application to be agreed to allow these toilet facilities to be improved, and I will take any questions. Thank you very much. Can you assure us that the toilets that would be put in would be fully accessible? What happens to the toilets whilst the toilets are being redone? Are we leaving pregnant women without toilets? Whilst the works are happening, are we leaving pregnant women without toilets, and is there any mitigation in place? If the centre is open 52 weeks, the staff toilets will be used while the refurbishment is going on. Thank you. Councillor David, did you have a question? Does the Children's Centre have any funds to contribute? So that's always been the problem, why it's been so delayed, they don't have the funds and they never have had the funds to do the refurbishment. Councillor Weisel. Given your description of the toilets, which I don't really want to revisit, what is the cleaning and maintenance programme that will be in place once the toilets are repaired? So it's the school business manager who will be in charge of the maintenance for the whole facilities, in charge of the construction work while it's going on, and then we'll take over the maintenance programme. OK, any further questions? OK, in which case I suggest that we award funding with the conditions that there would be newly created disabled access and children access of the toilets, and that we note the implication to the ENSL funding budget. Is that agreed? Wonderful. That is all of the bids. Item 12, any other items that the chair decides are urgent? I deem no other items to either exist or be urgent, and therefore I am closing the meeting at 7.44. Thank you all.

Transcript

Good evening, I am Councillor Ella Rose, Chair of the North Area Committee. Thank you for attending our committee meeting this evening. Please note that meetings may be recorded and broadcast as allowed for in-law or by the Council. By attending either in person or online you may be picked up on recordings. Council recordings are covered by a privacy notice which can be found on the Barnet Council website and retained and made available online. Tonight I would like to welcome the Friends of Stonyfield Park, Tony Sabini to the meeting who will be presenting their bid this evening. Tony, you have three minutes to speak. There will then be an opportunity for members to ask questions of the speakers. Please can everyone ensure that after you finish speaking you press your microphone to ensure there is no feedback. I would like to welcome Councillor Baker to her first Council meeting following her successful by-election earlier in the summer. Welcome. I would also like to note that it is my understanding that tonight is the first all-female Councillor meeting potentially ever of Barnet Council. So congratulations to us. May we continue to smash glass ceilings. I'd also like to note that this is the anniversary of 9/11 and to commemorate and remember the lives lost that day and in all of the wars since. And I do note that it does not feel like the world is a safer place than those days and may the world become a safer place for us all in the coming years and months. Right, minutes of the previous meeting. Does anyone have any, I started very on-time, Councillor Cornelius, my apologies. Does anyone have any comments on the minutes of the previous meeting or can we approve those? Approved? Thank you very much. I will sign those. I have apologies for Councillor Tim Roberts who is being substituted by Councillor Begg. Do we have any other apologies? No? All good? Yes. Any declarations of members' interests, please? Councillor Simberg and I are both committee members of the Friends of Mill Hill Park. Thank you very much and the officers remind me that you will therefore still make your decisions without prejudice or interference. Thank you very much. To my knowledge there are no dispensations granted by the monitoring officer. Item 5, petitions. Petitions with signatures up to 500 will be dealt with by either the appropriate department or cabinet member. The petitions received thus far require response from the relevant cabinet member or officer. Responses to petitions will be covered on the e-petitions section of the website. Once an officer has responded, updates will be shared with committee members in due course. Item 6, residents issues. None. 7, deputations. None. 8, public questions and comments. None. 9, members items. None. Item 10, area committee grants, funding, ENSL and road safety and parking fund updates. We have two appendices on this item. I open the floor to any questions on said appendices. Councillor Weisel. Thank you, Chair. Just a couple of the bids that I've had earlier in this council have asked how they get their money. So if someone could drop me an email and I can direct them to the right place, that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Thank you. If officers could be in touch with Councillor Weisel to progress those bids. Keen to see all of the bids progress to their final statuses. Any other questions? No. Okay. In which case North Area committee members are asked to, number 1, note the community infrastructure levy sill funding available for the allocation 2425 as set out in paragraph 5.4 of this report and appendix 1. Number 2, note the sill amount and reallocated underspends and overspends in paragraph 1.6 of this report and appendix

1. And point 3, note the road safety and parking fund application available for allocation during 2425 in paragraph 5.8 and set out in appendix 2. Is everyone happy to note those three things? Agreed. Wonderful. Item 11. If everyone is happy, I'm just going to move them around slightly to allow our visitors to get home earlier. Therefore, I will take the Stonyfield's Park gym item first and I've had notice that Anthony is going to speak. So, Anthony, you have three minutes. You are welcome. I would like to thank the committee for this opportunity to buy their case from the friends of Stonyfield and the community of Stonyfield Park. They will be brief. Stonyfield Park is not a very large park, around 4 hexacres of lush green wooded areas, 2 large greens, has a substantial man-made lake with a path around it and a spectacular waterfall that feeds to the Silk Street. Within the area live a varied community of people from all nations and religions who have nothing in common but the love of their park. They bring their children to its playground and push their buggies and take their children to feed the ducks. Children will learn to ride their bikes, like mine many years ago, and then your grandchildren. There is a great love of our park, a small yet untapped community spirit, and why? Because there is nothing else which they have which will bring them together. We are all aware that exercise in any form is good for us. That is why so many people can be seen throughout the day jogging, walking with or without a dog around the lake. When the playground is empty, the equipment is used for exercise. The high bars for pull-ups and push-ups, the slides for sit-ups, park benches with footprints on show someone that has been doing step-ups. A gym in our park would not only be something for the health and well-being of a community of all ages and abilities, it has the potential to be a lot more. The gym would be a focus point in the community, a place where you would go to keep fit perhaps, or just get some mobility, or recover from an injury or operation. But while there, you might open up and talk to others about the weather or how to use the equipment and appreciate what has been provided. See someone there regular and make conversation, possibly a new friend. I ask the committee
2. no, ask is not the right word - I beg the committee, which would not only benefit the health and well-being of the community, but which has the possibility to be inclusive for the community. Thank you. Thank you very much. If you could just tap your microphone off, I'll call Councillor Wardle and then we'll open to questions for the both of you. I've not got too much to add on top of what Tony has just said, but this has been an application that's very much been led from a grassroots level, obviously by the Friends of Stonyfield Park. We have had a number of developments within the ward itself and for those of you who know Edgewood Burry, it doesn't necessarily have the facilities like other parts of the borough, it isn't as well connected. These green spaces really are the central focal points and Stonyfields Park in particular really does connect two parts of the communities together and I think everyone obviously got to grips more with their local area from Colbord, come up with a lot of ideas on how to better use their local areas and how they can be improved and really Tony set out very convincingly obviously all of the health and well-being benefits from this park. We've had a number of different meetings and sort of consultations about the content of it, the location, so I really would hope that it's fairly straightforward and members are happy to say yes to this one. Thank you and it should be noted the sheer amount of emails we've had on this. It is very clear the community support behind this and the work that you all have done in order to make this happen, so thank you for your engagement with the council and quite frankly stopping emailing us. Does anyone have any questions? I can see Councillor David and then Councillor Baker excited for your first question, Councillor Baker. Thank you, thank you chair. My question is has the community raised any other funding to support, do you have any other funds raised, so you've not done any kind of fundraising towards it? We've been a friends group now since 2001, we're a very new friends group, about 40 who we can call volunteers and call on, half a dozen who do litter pics or so. We are at the moment looking for some crowd funding, which has only just started. We're an infant in this, we're very young, we don't know what to do. I'm on various groups, I'm on Barnet Green Open Spaces, some of you might know VCFSC and Green Party and various other groups who advises the funding. Because we don't have a chair, secretary funding, we haven't had money come in, so there's very little reason to have that. We just organise ourselves on WhatsApp groups and Facebook and we come and do what we can in the park. We do a monthly litter pic, we prune branches etc when they overhang and they're dangerous, we clear leaves when they're slippery, we pester the park to do things we need doing. So really that's what we have going for us at the moment. I was just going to say, just to add to that, they're not necessarily set up in the same way as the other friends groups that we've got within the borough, such as the Friends of Mill Hill Park, but obviously if the questions around things like maintenance, obviously the application states that actually the maintenance costs have been limited and already covered for within the sort of capital expenditure of green spaces. Councillor Baker. Hi, has there any thought gone into how, is there any costing for how the equipment's going to be maintained? Yeah, so I've just outlined that, so it's also within the report. So the maintenance of the equipment, although it's anticipated to be fairly low in terms of lifetime costs, that is already provided for within the budget for green spaces, so there is no further maintenance funding sought from the committee. Wonderful because we cannot do maintenance funding, so that's good to know. Any other questions on this item? Councillor Weisel. Thank you, Chair. Obviously I live near a gym in New Barnet, in the East Barnet in Victoria Park. A lot of the equipment is geared to adults, and you've said you wanted to be inclusive across ages. I don't know if this is a question for Councillor Ward and we'll be able to answer about how it's inclusive across ages from toddlers all the way up or, you know, what age range this will cover. I think if we can look at the example in other parks, there's actually quite a lot of children do use some of the adult equipment, and although there is already a play area within the park itself, so all ages will now be catered for, the range of equipment, sort of the step-ups, the pull-up bars can be sort of applicable for all ages. Any further questions? Are we happy to take it to a vote? Encouraging all ages to use the equipment safely and guided by what is said on the equipment. I think for me, due to the overwhelming community voice on this, I would suggest that we award funding fully. I don't believe we need to be attaching any conditions, but we do need to note the implication to the committee's ENSL budget for this, should we approve it. It is obviously quite a large item. Is everyone happy to agree to that? Great, wonderful, you have your budget. Feel free to send us a photo of people using it. Lovely. Councillor Justchinski, I think, are you going to be speaking on behalf of Councillor Simberg's application? Okay, in which case, the next one we are taking is the Millhill Park toddler's play area for £82,299.95. Councillor Justchinski, you have three minutes. This came about because in Millhill Park, near the children's play area and near the cafe, there is an enclosed area which used to be used for mini golf. And a long time ago, the cafe owner was prepared to organise the, I don't think it was renting, but lending out of the equipment. This then stopped. So this has just been an empty area for a very long time. So we were looking at it and thinking, well, it's already there. It's got some nice trees, so it's sheltered. It's completely enclosed with fencing. So it would be an incredibly useful place to have an area for our toddlers and parents and carers. There are a couple of benches and tables there at the moment. We've spent some time talking to groups of parents and carers who were sitting using this space and said, look, we're hoping to see if we could turn this into a dedicated toddler's area. How would that be? We got amazing feedback from different groups we've spoken to, including a group of nursery teachers who were there one day and suggested the kind of equipment would be the sort of things that you don't find in a normal playground, but experiential type equipment. And because we're talking about toddlers, things so that they can learn to balance and, yeah, that kind of thing, improve their motor skills, basically. So that's how this came about. Connected to that, we were with our green spaces team and having a look at the toilets, which are more or less opposite. And if I was a toddler, I'd be kind of pretty scared to go in there. It's not pleasant. And we were thinking that if we could bring the toddlers and the parents and carers into this space and really get use out of it, and we could improve the toilets at the same time, make something that was suitable for very small children, you know, like they have in primary schools, low wash basins, low toilets, things like that. There's no hot water in there at the moment. And they have, the officers said that they can connect pipes to a nearby boiler and bring, you know, we've got toddlers, babies, nappies, muddy children. It would be amazing if we could have that much more serviceable for the community who use it. So that's what this is about. We've looked at, with green spaces, some ideas for some really imaginative kinds of equipment to go in this space. And all it needs now is a really big sign saying dedicated toddlers area, no dogs. And I think this would be adding something quite special, quite different to a part of the community that's perhaps not very well served at the moment. Thank you. Councillor Baker. Sorry, I'm catching up on reading lots of papers at the moment. Has this area had any funding recently in terms of play provision or park provision? There have been massive problems with an area for older children's play equipment. There's not very much. Because of the topography of Mill Hill Park, it slopes down into that area. And we've had all sorts of problems with green spaces trying to come up with solutions to this. And we did manage to get a bid through a year or so ago to, instead of trying to fight the fact that it's muddy and wet most of the year, the idea was to start putting things like willow tunnels and willows in which would start mopping up some of the water so that it's much more usable most of the year. So that was a previous bid that we have had for the adult children's. It's not been possible, actually because of the state of the ground, to proceed with the plans yet. So we are still waiting. I believe the plans at the moment are that it will happen this autumn. So does that answer your question? Partially. Has there been any specific funding for any play equipment or park equipment? Not very much. Instead of going for dedicated play equipment for this area, there's going to be things like willow tunnels and rock boulders and things that kids can play on. But it won't matter if, I mean, they're going to get wet. It's going to be muddy. But it is trying to accommodate and include a few new things for the older kids to experience that. Thanks. Councillor Weiser, I saw a hand. Thank you, Chair. Just a follow-up on that. Can I just confirm, is that the bid that was from March this year for the play area, for the 30, I think it was 34,700? So that was within the last calendar year, because normally we don't, we've said to a lot of things that they can't revisit us for money within short periods of time. And a lot of bids have been, certainly bids I've made and bids other councillors have made, one of the big stipulations put on their bid is they're not going to come back for more money very soon after. And this is within six months of that bid, another bid for the park. So I'm just wondering why the totality wasn't brought together so that we could consider the whole park as one as a committee. Maybe, Chair, confirm if that is now part of the area committee rules. In a long time back when I was Chair, that was certainly never a condition of applications. If it is now, I'd be pleased to hear that. Not a condition per se, but I think there's a recognition that there is limited money and this park having had 35K, basically, only two meetings ago, I think there is certainly a feeling, I certainly feel that it's had a lot of money recently and therefore would the money be more fairly distributed amongst other bids as well, considering we are still quite early on, we have another two meetings to go in this cycle alone and low budgets. So we may have a conversation about, oh, Councillor might have come back, about deferring it to come back at a later stage. So for clarification, I was also talking about the fact that the application form that we as councillors have to fill out does ask that there's no ongoing revenue cost. Obviously this is park as a whole, this would be another revenue cost for that park. In the same way that I recently applied for money for the Rugby Club, we were doing quite a large renovation. If I were to come back and say, I know I asked for floodlights in, you know, earlier in July, can I now have pitches? I think the committee would look at me with quite a lot of scepticism. I've done two bids for Mill Hill for Darland, so this is more of a discussion to be had about how we fairly distribute the money. Going forward, I would also say that the issues with the older children's playground have been going on, I think we could check with Cassie, for probably about five years. And I know a group got together some time back and came up with some ideas on how to remedy the various problems with the muddiness and the flooding. They came up with some ideas which were very expensive and had to be put to one side. Certainly because this has been going on for a long time, we've reached a point now where it is finally being dealt with. And it's almost as though I think we've kind of put it to one side. Thank goodness, that's something that's now in the past and is being dealt with. The issue of the unused golf area came up at a meeting with Greenspaces quite recently, where we had a discussion that this is an area that's completely underused. What could we do? And these were the ideas that developed quite recently from those discussions, which is why I'm now in a position to kind of bring them forward to committee, to see if they can be considered here. I'm certainly amenable to the bid. I have a very close friend with a toddler and we go to that park a lot. I do understand the issues, I'm trying to make sure that we have equitable distribution of the funds, not only amongst different locations but different warts as well. And there are two bits coming from tonight. Councillor Waldo and then did Councillor Begg want to ask a question? Okay, no, she's answered it. Wonderful. I was just going to ask in terms of the split of the costs, obviously the weighting is more towards the restoration and the refurbishment of the toilets. Do you think that the toddler area works on its own or is one intrinsically linked with the other? There are some other works which I think that the toddler area and the toilets and the hot water would go together very well if we could, if we could reduce the costs and just get those parts done, then I think that would be a real benefit. I'll take Councillor David and then Councillor Begg, thank you. So am I right in thinking that the fund you had, Clear DC, that's not been utilised? Not yet, no. Right, so we have that in the report. We do, that's accounted for. Right. For the other work. And that funding is allocated specifically to that, yes, we can't change that now. Yeah, so which is priority now? Is it this work or the other work? Because what we did, what we did consider in East Burnet was when fund was allocated and we had similar thing, we needed to consider if we needed to prioritise and check which of them is more eminently needed so that we will go with that. Because when there's limited fund, unless you've got other funds, support coming from elsewhere, then what one does is to privatise and see which one is most needed. You're asking me to choose between older children and toddlers. We already have the allocation for the older children. I would like some additional funding for our toddlers. We cannot open the previous bid, which has been passed and supported. Councillor Begg. Just a very quick question to ask, how do you establish the demand and the need for the toilets to be used? It's already well two-place toilets in the middle of a park, but would they actually be used? That's a lot of money that's going to go in there to supply hot water supply. So I'm just wondering, how have you made that assumption? I don't know if I should come to Cassie at this point. I think the park is incredibly well used. We've got sports groups, we've got the bowling club, we've got a nursery, we've got all sorts of activities. We've got the children's playground, we've got a cafe. I would say there's a massive demand for public park toilets, yes, and particularly with the number of children that use the park, I would think good toilets and hot water would be a given. I was just wondering because there haven't been any toilets for so long, so people are managing, aren't they? Councillor Wessel. Thank you, Chair. On the toilets, I just want to check, because I'm looking at the photo, I think I'm looking at the right photo of the right toilets, because I know we've got two sets of toilets now. Are there just two cubicles in the toilets? So if one of them is lowered for children to use, how will that affect accessibility for disabled people or people with special needs? Because obviously that's quite limiting. A lot of adults, especially who have mobility problems, who may need to use the toilet more than other people, will find that very difficult to use, and it therefore cuts in half the number of toilets available for them in this block, and has that been considered in this bid and the redevelopment of the toilets? Yes, it has, and in the papers it does mention that the one way of dealing with this and accommodating the toddlers is to have a double toilet seat, so one is layered within. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but that's how the proposal has been put together. Sorry, because I'm just trying to understand if everything's been lowered, that's often the problem with people with mobility issues. I know this, my father recently had a stroke, that everything kind of has to be at a certain height, or he cannot get physically up or down from it. If it's been lowered, I don't know if he has - what do we know that double toilet seat will actually affect accessibility for people with mobility issues? Sorry, it sounds like there'll be a higher and lower within one stall. Is that correct? I don't know anything about this, without risking getting into a cultural war of toilets. I am hugely sympathetic to the needs of this. I have expressed my view about it being - about the money being shared, and also the agency of you two as councillors being on the committee and more bids coming from this park. Can I make the suggestion, and I appreciate that everyone might not vote for this, that we defer this application into the new cycle year, so that we retain some more budget for wards and for parks and locations that haven't had the opportunity to bid for funding yet? And I am sorry to have to do that, because I do know that work goes into this, but I'm keen to be fair and equitable going through this, and it would be assured of my support, certainly, later on. Is that - I'm going to
3. should I take a vote? Sorry. Can I just ask, do we actually have the budget in this committee? We do have the budget in this committee, but it would leave us very short the next two rounds before the budget reset at the new council, yeah. It would leave us with less than the sum of this bid. So we'd be overspending the amount that has sort of hypothetically been allocated for this committee? We would not - there is no chance of us going to overspend today by my maths, which is not brilliant, it must be said. I understand - I did the same calculation, that is why. We would end up with, I think, about 70 grand to spend across two cycles, two bids, two meetings, that's what I was looking for, which is less than the sum of this bid in total. Okay. Would someone like to propose an alternative voting method, or are we happy to vote for deferring to the next cycle? Agreed? Okay. Understood, and grateful for that. Would you like to go on to your next bid next, or would you like a break? Carry on. Wonderful, thank you, and I appreciate that that's not an easy message to deliver back to residents, so I'm happy to have conversations if that's helpful. Kaushal and Shinsky, you have another bid on the Millhills Hounds Square Christmas tree and seating area, which, be assured, cannot be deferred. I understand where Christmas is, despite the fact I don't celebrate it. I'm making a square that joins to the roadway. That was done some years ago, and we have some concrete benches and a couple of planters there at the moment. At Christmas time, we do have a Christmas tree. I've actually paid for it once or twice, and the Northwest Seven Hub has paid for it as well, and last year we decided to go much greener and arranged with anti-tipping and that we could have a smaller Christmas tree that was planted, at least for the Christmas period. We've set up a community group, which includes all of the local churches, synagogue and community groups, obviously, and Christmas has become quite a big thing, so the last couple of years we've had Christmas carol events, and we also have a menorah in the square, so there are quite big Hanukkah celebrations, and for the lighting of the first lamp, we usually get three or four hundred people coming into the square to celebrate, so there's a lot of activity around that time of year. We were offered the possibility of having a permanent Christmas tree from the Mill Hill Preservation Society, and we then need to get it planted, which turns out to be much more complicated than anyone would expect. You need to check cables underneath the square and water and all sorts of other things, and then dig holes. Anyway, that would be really nice, so the idea is that we have a permanent fir tree at the back of the square, and that will still leave room for all kind of Christmas celebrations and for the menorah to be placed, which is there for a couple of weeks during December as well. In following lots of discussions about how to do this, we understood from officers that it would be necessary to extend a power cable if there were to be Christmas lights, and I understand that Paul Sears is responsible for that. He tells me that there would be an ongoing cost to this, so I have contacted Iceland, who have a store in Mill Hill Broadway almost opposite the square. They have written to the head office, and what I've asked for, would they commit to donating £800 each December, which apparently is the cost of us providing the lights, and we're asking for a commitment of between three and five years, ideally five years, so that we really know. As I haven't heard back from Iceland before this meeting, I have approached another restaurant in the Broadway who's confirmed absolutely that he would be willing to support this initiative if Iceland can't, so there will be no ongoing costs. Additionally, we're asking for a couple of extra benches and some planters. We have a group again of people who volunteered to come and look after the plants if there is a water source, and one of our kind officers visited and said yes, it's possible to provide water in the town square. The tree will be looked after by Andy going forward, and the planters will be looked after by our volunteers, and it is used a lot. A lot of people there during lunch times, and I think I've seen kids, but little kids with tricycles and balance wheels and things like that and scooters, because it's a nice square flat space, we're all using it now, and we're just trying to make it more usable. Just a technical question first, can we get that in writing that the other company will support? Yeah, definitely. Wonderful, thank you. And just another very technical question from me about the revenue plan, which officers will need to be in place six weeks before the last date of installation, because there needs to be a lead-in time for installing all of this stuff, which would be the 4th of October, so all of the paperwork needs to be sorted by then, which will have to be a condition of the funding. Absolutely, otherwise there's no point having a Christmas tree for next year. Yes, so I just wanted to, because otherwise it doesn't quite work in terms of making sure that the revenue and the costings for the lights and all of that sort of stuff is in place, so a small extension to this, because I recognise it's not all in place, and clearly it's done a lot of work on the interfaith element of this as well, which speaks particularly nicely to those of us who don't actually celebrate Christmas. Does anyone have any questions about this application? Can I just quickly ask, you mentioned the Mill Hill Preservation Society, would they help with the upkeep if the trees were dying or needed any kind of maintenance? No, but that would help. Our tree people, they're going to plant it to make sure that it's planted in a way that they think is suitable and deep enough, and it's a big hole, and it will have some kind of protective cage as well, so they're going to be totally responsible for the tree as part of the tree service in the borough. Thank you. I think the permanent Christmas tree is really innovative and really cool, and it's really nice. Do we have any questions on this? Can we ensure that an agreement is established that identifies the responsibilities of the group, including any insurances and risk management plans are in place, especially in relation to maintenance? For the square, which is held by Adam Morley of the Northwest 7 hub, who holds the lease. Wonderful. If we could also get all that information in by October 4th, and all those confirmations in place. Sorry, the personal injury lawyer in me goes, from my work out, that would need to be updated to include the tree, because I'm going to guess it does not include the Christmas tree, and that would leave us open to liability. That's why we're needing to get the extra 800 for Paul Sears to come and do the lighting, rather than letting volunteers or residents attempt to climb ladders. No, I was saying, if there is a risk assessment for the square already, this is my lawyer hat on, it will not probably mention the tree, which means if something happens to the tree and someone gets injured, and we have to disclose that, we would not be covered, so it would need to be updated to cover risks to do with the tree, to make sure it's fully compliant, and that we are... That would be for the health and safety officer, I can't give any further legal advice. The easiest way to formally note this, is that on the papers, at lead officer review assessment and recommendation, there are a number of questions, they would need to be completed and answered to the officer's satisfaction by the 4th of October. If no further questions, we are all happy to award funding fully on the conditions that I have pre-stated, that the lead officer questions in the assessment and review section of the papers are agreed, and that we note the implication to the NSIL budget by the 4th of October. Everyone happy? Please god the tree will be planted in time for Christmas. Lovely, look forward to it. Finally, we have an item on children's centre toilets from Councillor Begg. Councillor Begg, you have 3 minutes. So, we have a children's centre in Underhill Ward, which is used 52 weeks of the year by so many different members of the community. So, we have babies, 2 pensioners coming there, we have groups such as speech and language, midwives, house visitors, mother and toddler groups, father groups, adult learning groups. So, there's a huge usage of the children's centre, and this funding application is purely about the facilities used, particularly the toilets in the children's centre. There is a huge demand, obviously, with so many visitors using these toilets, but they are toilets that have kind of been left over from Underhill School. They stopped using those, passed them over to the children's centre, and they have been using these toilets. Currently, they are in a very dilapidated state, the toilets, and in particular, I am told that the smell of urine is upsetting everybody. People don't want to use it, particularly pregnant women are saying they actually feel sick going into the toilets in their current situation. In addition to that, there is no facilities for disabled people to use the toilets at all there, so that has also been brought to our attention. So, I am asking for this application to be agreed to allow these toilet facilities to be improved, and I will take any questions. Thank you very much. Can you assure us that the toilets that would be put in would be fully accessible? What happens to the toilets whilst the toilets are being redone? Are we leaving pregnant women without toilets? Whilst the works are happening, are we leaving pregnant women without toilets, and is there any mitigation in place? If the centre is open 52 weeks, the staff toilets will be used while the refurbishment is going on. Thank you. Councillor David, did you have a question? Does the Children's Centre have any funds to contribute? So that's always been the problem, why it's been so delayed, they don't have the funds and they never have had the funds to do the refurbishment. Councillor Weisel. Given your description of the toilets, which I don't really want to revisit, what is the cleaning and maintenance programme that will be in place once the toilets are repaired? So it's the school business manager who will be in charge of the maintenance for the whole facilities, in charge of the construction work while it's going on, and then we'll take over the maintenance programme. OK, any further questions? OK, in which case I suggest that we award funding with the conditions that there would be newly created disabled access and children access of the toilets, and that we note the implication to the ENSL funding budget. Is that agreed? Wonderful. That is all of the bids. Item 12, any other items that the chair decides are urgent? I deem no other items to either exist or be urgent, and therefore I am closing the meeting at 7.44. Thank you all.

Transcript

Good evening, I am Councillor Ella Rose, Chair of the North Area Committee. Thank you for attending our committee meeting this evening. Please note that meetings may be recorded and broadcast as allowed for in-law or by the Council. By attending either in person or online you may be picked up on recordings. Council recordings are covered by a privacy notice which can be found on the Barnet Council website and retained and made available online. Tonight I would like to welcome the Friends of Stonyfield Park, Tony Sabini to the meeting who will be presenting their bid this evening. Tony, you have three minutes to speak. There will then be an opportunity for members to ask questions of the speakers. Please can everyone ensure that after you finish speaking you press your microphone to ensure there is no feedback. I would like to welcome Councillor Baker to her first Council meeting following her successful by-election earlier in the summer. Welcome. I would also like to note that it is my understanding that tonight is the first all-female Councillor meeting potentially ever of Barnet Council. So congratulations to us. May we continue to smash glass ceilings. I'd also like to note that this is the anniversary of 9/11 and to commemorate and remember the lives lost that day and in all of the wars since. And I do note that it does not feel like the world is a safer place than those days and may the world become a safer place for us all in the coming years and months. Right, minutes of the previous meeting. Does anyone have any, I started very on-time, Councillor Cornelius, my apologies. Does anyone have any comments on the minutes of the previous meeting or can we approve those? Approved? Thank you very much. I will sign those. I have apologies for Councillor Tim Roberts who is being substituted by Councillor Begg. Do we have any other apologies? No? All good? Yes. Any declarations of members' interests, please? Councillor Simberg and I are both committee members of the Friends of Mill Hill Park. Thank you very much and the officers remind me that you will therefore still make your decisions without prejudice or interference. Thank you very much. To my knowledge there are no dispensations granted by the monitoring officer. Item 5, petitions. Petitions with signatures up to 500 will be dealt with by either the appropriate department or cabinet member. The petitions received thus far require response from the relevant cabinet member or officer. Responses to petitions will be covered on the e-petitions section of the website. Once an officer has responded, updates will be shared with committee members in due course. Item 6, residents issues. None. 7, deputations. None. 8, public questions and comments. None. 9, members items. None. Item 10, area committee grants, funding, ENSL and road safety and parking fund updates. We have two appendices on this item. I open the floor to any questions on said appendices. Councillor Weisel. Thank you, Chair. Just a couple of the bids that I've had earlier in this council have asked how they get their money. So if someone could drop me an email and I can direct them to the right place, that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Thank you. If officers could be in touch with Councillor Weisel to progress those bids. Keen to see all of the bids progress to their final statuses. Any other questions? No. Okay. In which case North Area committee members are asked to, number 1, note the community infrastructure levy sill funding available for the allocation 2425 as set out in paragraph 5.4 of this report and appendix 1. Number 2, note the sill amount and reallocated underspends and overspends in paragraph 1.6 of this report and appendix

1. And point 3, note the road safety and parking fund application available for allocation during 2425 in paragraph 5.8 and set out in appendix 2. Is everyone happy to note those three things? Agreed. Wonderful. Item 11. If everyone is happy, I'm just going to move them around slightly to allow our visitors to get home earlier. Therefore, I will take the Stonyfield's Park gym item first and I've had notice that Anthony is going to speak. So, Anthony, you have three minutes. You are welcome. I would like to thank the committee for this opportunity to buy their case from the friends of Stonyfield and the community of Stonyfield Park. They will be brief. Stonyfield Park is not a very large park, around 4 hexacres of lush green wooded areas, 2 large greens, has a substantial man-made lake with a path around it and a spectacular waterfall that feeds to the Silk Street. Within the area live a varied community of people from all nations and religions who have nothing in common but the love of their park. They bring their children to its playground and push their buggies and take their children to feed the ducks. Children will learn to ride their bikes, like mine many years ago, and then your grandchildren. There is a great love of our park, a small yet untapped community spirit, and why? Because there is nothing else which they have which will bring them together. We are all aware that exercise in any form is good for us. That is why so many people can be seen throughout the day jogging, walking with or without a dog around the lake. When the playground is empty, the equipment is used for exercise. The high bars for pull-ups and push-ups, the slides for sit-ups, park benches with footprints on show someone that has been doing step-ups. A gym in our park would not only be something for the health and well-being of a community of all ages and abilities, it has the potential to be a lot more. The gym would be a focus point in the community, a place where you would go to keep fit perhaps, or just get some mobility, or recover from an injury or operation. But while there, you might open up and talk to others about the weather or how to use the equipment and appreciate what has been provided. See someone there regular and make conversation, possibly a new friend. I ask the committee
2. no, ask is not the right word - I beg the committee, which would not only benefit the health and well-being of the community, but which has the possibility to be inclusive for the community. Thank you. Thank you very much. If you could just tap your microphone off, I'll call Councillor Wardle and then we'll open to questions for the both of you. I've not got too much to add on top of what Tony has just said, but this has been an application that's very much been led from a grassroots level, obviously by the Friends of Stonyfield Park. We have had a number of developments within the ward itself and for those of you who know Edgewood Burry, it doesn't necessarily have the facilities like other parts of the borough, it isn't as well connected. These green spaces really are the central focal points and Stonyfields Park in particular really does connect two parts of the communities together and I think everyone obviously got to grips more with their local area from Colbord, come up with a lot of ideas on how to better use their local areas and how they can be improved and really Tony set out very convincingly obviously all of the health and well-being benefits from this park. We've had a number of different meetings and sort of consultations about the content of it, the location, so I really would hope that it's fairly straightforward and members are happy to say yes to this one. Thank you and it should be noted the sheer amount of emails we've had on this. It is very clear the community support behind this and the work that you all have done in order to make this happen, so thank you for your engagement with the council and quite frankly stopping emailing us. Does anyone have any questions? I can see Councillor David and then Councillor Baker excited for your first question, Councillor Baker. Thank you, thank you chair. My question is has the community raised any other funding to support, do you have any other funds raised, so you've not done any kind of fundraising towards it? We've been a friends group now since 2001, we're a very new friends group, about 40 who we can call volunteers and call on, half a dozen who do litter pics or so. We are at the moment looking for some crowd funding, which has only just started. We're an infant in this, we're very young, we don't know what to do. I'm on various groups, I'm on Barnet Green Open Spaces, some of you might know VCFSC and Green Party and various other groups who advises the funding. Because we don't have a chair, secretary funding, we haven't had money come in, so there's very little reason to have that. We just organise ourselves on WhatsApp groups and Facebook and we come and do what we can in the park. We do a monthly litter pic, we prune branches etc when they overhang and they're dangerous, we clear leaves when they're slippery, we pester the park to do things we need doing. So really that's what we have going for us at the moment. I was just going to say, just to add to that, they're not necessarily set up in the same way as the other friends groups that we've got within the borough, such as the Friends of Mill Hill Park, but obviously if the questions around things like maintenance, obviously the application states that actually the maintenance costs have been limited and already covered for within the sort of capital expenditure of green spaces. Councillor Baker. Hi, has there any thought gone into how, is there any costing for how the equipment's going to be maintained? Yeah, so I've just outlined that, so it's also within the report. So the maintenance of the equipment, although it's anticipated to be fairly low in terms of lifetime costs, that is already provided for within the budget for green spaces, so there is no further maintenance funding sought from the committee. Wonderful because we cannot do maintenance funding, so that's good to know. Any other questions on this item? Councillor Weisel. Thank you, Chair. Obviously I live near a gym in New Barnet, in the East Barnet in Victoria Park. A lot of the equipment is geared to adults, and you've said you wanted to be inclusive across ages. I don't know if this is a question for Councillor Ward and we'll be able to answer about how it's inclusive across ages from toddlers all the way up or, you know, what age range this will cover. I think if we can look at the example in other parks, there's actually quite a lot of children do use some of the adult equipment, and although there is already a play area within the park itself, so all ages will now be catered for, the range of equipment, sort of the step-ups, the pull-up bars can be sort of applicable for all ages. Any further questions? Are we happy to take it to a vote? Encouraging all ages to use the equipment safely and guided by what is said on the equipment. I think for me, due to the overwhelming community voice on this, I would suggest that we award funding fully. I don't believe we need to be attaching any conditions, but we do need to note the implication to the committee's ENSL budget for this, should we approve it. It is obviously quite a large item. Is everyone happy to agree to that? Great, wonderful, you have your budget. Feel free to send us a photo of people using it. Lovely. Councillor Justchinski, I think, are you going to be speaking on behalf of Councillor Simberg's application? Okay, in which case, the next one we are taking is the Millhill Park toddler's play area for £82,299.95. Councillor Justchinski, you have three minutes. This came about because in Millhill Park, near the children's play area and near the cafe, there is an enclosed area which used to be used for mini golf. And a long time ago, the cafe owner was prepared to organise the, I don't think it was renting, but lending out of the equipment. This then stopped. So this has just been an empty area for a very long time. So we were looking at it and thinking, well, it's already there. It's got some nice trees, so it's sheltered. It's completely enclosed with fencing. So it would be an incredibly useful place to have an area for our toddlers and parents and carers. There are a couple of benches and tables there at the moment. We've spent some time talking to groups of parents and carers who were sitting using this space and said, look, we're hoping to see if we could turn this into a dedicated toddler's area. How would that be? We got amazing feedback from different groups we've spoken to, including a group of nursery teachers who were there one day and suggested the kind of equipment would be the sort of things that you don't find in a normal playground, but experiential type equipment. And because we're talking about toddlers, things so that they can learn to balance and, yeah, that kind of thing, improve their motor skills, basically. So that's how this came about. Connected to that, we were with our green spaces team and having a look at the toilets, which are more or less opposite. And if I was a toddler, I'd be kind of pretty scared to go in there. It's not pleasant. And we were thinking that if we could bring the toddlers and the parents and carers into this space and really get use out of it, and we could improve the toilets at the same time, make something that was suitable for very small children, you know, like they have in primary schools, low wash basins, low toilets, things like that. There's no hot water in there at the moment. And they have, the officers said that they can connect pipes to a nearby boiler and bring, you know, we've got toddlers, babies, nappies, muddy children. It would be amazing if we could have that much more serviceable for the community who use it. So that's what this is about. We've looked at, with green spaces, some ideas for some really imaginative kinds of equipment to go in this space. And all it needs now is a really big sign saying dedicated toddlers area, no dogs. And I think this would be adding something quite special, quite different to a part of the community that's perhaps not very well served at the moment. Thank you. Councillor Baker. Sorry, I'm catching up on reading lots of papers at the moment. Has this area had any funding recently in terms of play provision or park provision? There have been massive problems with an area for older children's play equipment. There's not very much. Because of the topography of Mill Hill Park, it slopes down into that area. And we've had all sorts of problems with green spaces trying to come up with solutions to this. And we did manage to get a bid through a year or so ago to, instead of trying to fight the fact that it's muddy and wet most of the year, the idea was to start putting things like willow tunnels and willows in which would start mopping up some of the water so that it's much more usable most of the year. So that was a previous bid that we have had for the adult children's. It's not been possible, actually because of the state of the ground, to proceed with the plans yet. So we are still waiting. I believe the plans at the moment are that it will happen this autumn. So does that answer your question? Partially. Has there been any specific funding for any play equipment or park equipment? Not very much. Instead of going for dedicated play equipment for this area, there's going to be things like willow tunnels and rock boulders and things that kids can play on. But it won't matter if, I mean, they're going to get wet. It's going to be muddy. But it is trying to accommodate and include a few new things for the older kids to experience that. Thanks. Councillor Weiser, I saw a hand. Thank you, Chair. Just a follow-up on that. Can I just confirm, is that the bid that was from March this year for the play area, for the 30, I think it was 34,700? So that was within the last calendar year, because normally we don't, we've said to a lot of things that they can't revisit us for money within short periods of time. And a lot of bids have been, certainly bids I've made and bids other councillors have made, one of the big stipulations put on their bid is they're not going to come back for more money very soon after. And this is within six months of that bid, another bid for the park. So I'm just wondering why the totality wasn't brought together so that we could consider the whole park as one as a committee. Maybe, Chair, confirm if that is now part of the area committee rules. In a long time back when I was Chair, that was certainly never a condition of applications. If it is now, I'd be pleased to hear that. Not a condition per se, but I think there's a recognition that there is limited money and this park having had 35K, basically, only two meetings ago, I think there is certainly a feeling, I certainly feel that it's had a lot of money recently and therefore would the money be more fairly distributed amongst other bids as well, considering we are still quite early on, we have another two meetings to go in this cycle alone and low budgets. So we may have a conversation about, oh, Councillor might have come back, about deferring it to come back at a later stage. So for clarification, I was also talking about the fact that the application form that we as councillors have to fill out does ask that there's no ongoing revenue cost. Obviously this is park as a whole, this would be another revenue cost for that park. In the same way that I recently applied for money for the Rugby Club, we were doing quite a large renovation. If I were to come back and say, I know I asked for floodlights in, you know, earlier in July, can I now have pitches? I think the committee would look at me with quite a lot of scepticism. I've done two bids for Mill Hill for Darland, so this is more of a discussion to be had about how we fairly distribute the money. Going forward, I would also say that the issues with the older children's playground have been going on, I think we could check with Cassie, for probably about five years. And I know a group got together some time back and came up with some ideas on how to remedy the various problems with the muddiness and the flooding. They came up with some ideas which were very expensive and had to be put to one side. Certainly because this has been going on for a long time, we've reached a point now where it is finally being dealt with. And it's almost as though I think we've kind of put it to one side. Thank goodness, that's something that's now in the past and is being dealt with. The issue of the unused golf area came up at a meeting with Greenspaces quite recently, where we had a discussion that this is an area that's completely underused. What could we do? And these were the ideas that developed quite recently from those discussions, which is why I'm now in a position to kind of bring them forward to committee, to see if they can be considered here. I'm certainly amenable to the bid. I have a very close friend with a toddler and we go to that park a lot. I do understand the issues, I'm trying to make sure that we have equitable distribution of the funds, not only amongst different locations but different warts as well. And there are two bits coming from tonight. Councillor Waldo and then did Councillor Begg want to ask a question? Okay, no, she's answered it. Wonderful. I was just going to ask in terms of the split of the costs, obviously the weighting is more towards the restoration and the refurbishment of the toilets. Do you think that the toddler area works on its own or is one intrinsically linked with the other? There are some other works which I think that the toddler area and the toilets and the hot water would go together very well if we could, if we could reduce the costs and just get those parts done, then I think that would be a real benefit. I'll take Councillor David and then Councillor Begg, thank you. So am I right in thinking that the fund you had, Clear DC, that's not been utilised? Not yet, no. Right, so we have that in the report. We do, that's accounted for. Right. For the other work. And that funding is allocated specifically to that, yes, we can't change that now. Yeah, so which is priority now? Is it this work or the other work? Because what we did, what we did consider in East Burnet was when fund was allocated and we had similar thing, we needed to consider if we needed to prioritise and check which of them is more eminently needed so that we will go with that. Because when there's limited fund, unless you've got other funds, support coming from elsewhere, then what one does is to privatise and see which one is most needed. You're asking me to choose between older children and toddlers. We already have the allocation for the older children. I would like some additional funding for our toddlers. We cannot open the previous bid, which has been passed and supported. Councillor Begg. Just a very quick question to ask, how do you establish the demand and the need for the toilets to be used? It's already well two-place toilets in the middle of a park, but would they actually be used? That's a lot of money that's going to go in there to supply hot water supply. So I'm just wondering, how have you made that assumption? I don't know if I should come to Cassie at this point. I think the park is incredibly well used. We've got sports groups, we've got the bowling club, we've got a nursery, we've got all sorts of activities. We've got the children's playground, we've got a cafe. I would say there's a massive demand for public park toilets, yes, and particularly with the number of children that use the park, I would think good toilets and hot water would be a given. I was just wondering because there haven't been any toilets for so long, so people are managing, aren't they? Councillor Wessel. Thank you, Chair. On the toilets, I just want to check, because I'm looking at the photo, I think I'm looking at the right photo of the right toilets, because I know we've got two sets of toilets now. Are there just two cubicles in the toilets? So if one of them is lowered for children to use, how will that affect accessibility for disabled people or people with special needs? Because obviously that's quite limiting. A lot of adults, especially who have mobility problems, who may need to use the toilet more than other people, will find that very difficult to use, and it therefore cuts in half the number of toilets available for them in this block, and has that been considered in this bid and the redevelopment of the toilets? Yes, it has, and in the papers it does mention that the one way of dealing with this and accommodating the toddlers is to have a double toilet seat, so one is layered within. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but that's how the proposal has been put together. Sorry, because I'm just trying to understand if everything's been lowered, that's often the problem with people with mobility issues. I know this, my father recently had a stroke, that everything kind of has to be at a certain height, or he cannot get physically up or down from it. If it's been lowered, I don't know if he has - what do we know that double toilet seat will actually affect accessibility for people with mobility issues? Sorry, it sounds like there'll be a higher and lower within one stall. Is that correct? I don't know anything about this, without risking getting into a cultural war of toilets. I am hugely sympathetic to the needs of this. I have expressed my view about it being - about the money being shared, and also the agency of you two as councillors being on the committee and more bids coming from this park. Can I make the suggestion, and I appreciate that everyone might not vote for this, that we defer this application into the new cycle year, so that we retain some more budget for wards and for parks and locations that haven't had the opportunity to bid for funding yet? And I am sorry to have to do that, because I do know that work goes into this, but I'm keen to be fair and equitable going through this, and it would be assured of my support, certainly, later on. Is that - I'm going to
3. should I take a vote? Sorry. Can I just ask, do we actually have the budget in this committee? We do have the budget in this committee, but it would leave us very short the next two rounds before the budget reset at the new council, yeah. It would leave us with less than the sum of this bid. So we'd be overspending the amount that has sort of hypothetically been allocated for this committee? We would not - there is no chance of us going to overspend today by my maths, which is not brilliant, it must be said. I understand - I did the same calculation, that is why. We would end up with, I think, about 70 grand to spend across two cycles, two bids, two meetings, that's what I was looking for, which is less than the sum of this bid in total. Okay. Would someone like to propose an alternative voting method, or are we happy to vote for deferring to the next cycle? Agreed? Okay. Understood, and grateful for that. Would you like to go on to your next bid next, or would you like a break? Carry on. Wonderful, thank you, and I appreciate that that's not an easy message to deliver back to residents, so I'm happy to have conversations if that's helpful. Kaushal and Shinsky, you have another bid on the Millhills Hounds Square Christmas tree and seating area, which, be assured, cannot be deferred. I understand where Christmas is, despite the fact I don't celebrate it. I'm making a square that joins to the roadway. That was done some years ago, and we have some concrete benches and a couple of planters there at the moment. At Christmas time, we do have a Christmas tree. I've actually paid for it once or twice, and the Northwest Seven Hub has paid for it as well, and last year we decided to go much greener and arranged with anti-tipping and that we could have a smaller Christmas tree that was planted, at least for the Christmas period. We've set up a community group, which includes all of the local churches, synagogue and community groups, obviously, and Christmas has become quite a big thing, so the last couple of years we've had Christmas carol events, and we also have a menorah in the square, so there are quite big Hanukkah celebrations, and for the lighting of the first lamp, we usually get three or four hundred people coming into the square to celebrate, so there's a lot of activity around that time of year. We were offered the possibility of having a permanent Christmas tree from the Mill Hill Preservation Society, and we then need to get it planted, which turns out to be much more complicated than anyone would expect. You need to check cables underneath the square and water and all sorts of other things, and then dig holes. Anyway, that would be really nice, so the idea is that we have a permanent fir tree at the back of the square, and that will still leave room for all kind of Christmas celebrations and for the menorah to be placed, which is there for a couple of weeks during December as well. In following lots of discussions about how to do this, we understood from officers that it would be necessary to extend a power cable if there were to be Christmas lights, and I understand that Paul Sears is responsible for that. He tells me that there would be an ongoing cost to this, so I have contacted Iceland, who have a store in Mill Hill Broadway almost opposite the square. They have written to the head office, and what I've asked for, would they commit to donating £800 each December, which apparently is the cost of us providing the lights, and we're asking for a commitment of between three and five years, ideally five years, so that we really know. As I haven't heard back from Iceland before this meeting, I have approached another restaurant in the Broadway who's confirmed absolutely that he would be willing to support this initiative if Iceland can't, so there will be no ongoing costs. Additionally, we're asking for a couple of extra benches and some planters. We have a group again of people who volunteered to come and look after the plants if there is a water source, and one of our kind officers visited and said yes, it's possible to provide water in the town square. The tree will be looked after by Andy going forward, and the planters will be looked after by our volunteers, and it is used a lot. A lot of people there during lunch times, and I think I've seen kids, but little kids with tricycles and balance wheels and things like that and scooters, because it's a nice square flat space, we're all using it now, and we're just trying to make it more usable. Just a technical question first, can we get that in writing that the other company will support? Yeah, definitely. Wonderful, thank you. And just another very technical question from me about the revenue plan, which officers will need to be in place six weeks before the last date of installation, because there needs to be a lead-in time for installing all of this stuff, which would be the 4th of October, so all of the paperwork needs to be sorted by then, which will have to be a condition of the funding. Absolutely, otherwise there's no point having a Christmas tree for next year. Yes, so I just wanted to, because otherwise it doesn't quite work in terms of making sure that the revenue and the costings for the lights and all of that sort of stuff is in place, so a small extension to this, because I recognise it's not all in place, and clearly it's done a lot of work on the interfaith element of this as well, which speaks particularly nicely to those of us who don't actually celebrate Christmas. Does anyone have any questions about this application? Can I just quickly ask, you mentioned the Mill Hill Preservation Society, would they help with the upkeep if the trees were dying or needed any kind of maintenance? No, but that would help. Our tree people, they're going to plant it to make sure that it's planted in a way that they think is suitable and deep enough, and it's a big hole, and it will have some kind of protective cage as well, so they're going to be totally responsible for the tree as part of the tree service in the borough. Thank you. I think the permanent Christmas tree is really innovative and really cool, and it's really nice. Do we have any questions on this? Can we ensure that an agreement is established that identifies the responsibilities of the group, including any insurances and risk management plans are in place, especially in relation to maintenance? For the square, which is held by Adam Morley of the Northwest 7 hub, who holds the lease. Wonderful. If we could also get all that information in by October 4th, and all those confirmations in place. Sorry, the personal injury lawyer in me goes, from my work out, that would need to be updated to include the tree, because I'm going to guess it does not include the Christmas tree, and that would leave us open to liability. That's why we're needing to get the extra 800 for Paul Sears to come and do the lighting, rather than letting volunteers or residents attempt to climb ladders. No, I was saying, if there is a risk assessment for the square already, this is my lawyer hat on, it will not probably mention the tree, which means if something happens to the tree and someone gets injured, and we have to disclose that, we would not be covered, so it would need to be updated to cover risks to do with the tree, to make sure it's fully compliant, and that we are... That would be for the health and safety officer, I can't give any further legal advice. The easiest way to formally note this, is that on the papers, at lead officer review assessment and recommendation, there are a number of questions, they would need to be completed and answered to the officer's satisfaction by the 4th of October. If no further questions, we are all happy to award funding fully on the conditions that I have pre-stated, that the lead officer questions in the assessment and review section of the papers are agreed, and that we note the implication to the NSIL budget by the 4th of October. Everyone happy? Please god the tree will be planted in time for Christmas. Lovely, look forward to it. Finally, we have an item on children's centre toilets from Councillor Begg. Councillor Begg, you have 3 minutes. So, we have a children's centre in Underhill Ward, which is used 52 weeks of the year by so many different members of the community. So, we have babies, 2 pensioners coming there, we have groups such as speech and language, midwives, house visitors, mother and toddler groups, father groups, adult learning groups. So, there's a huge usage of the children's centre, and this funding application is purely about the facilities used, particularly the toilets in the children's centre. There is a huge demand, obviously, with so many visitors using these toilets, but they are toilets that have kind of been left over from Underhill School. They stopped using those, passed them over to the children's centre, and they have been using these toilets. Currently, they are in a very dilapidated state, the toilets, and in particular, I am told that the smell of urine is upsetting everybody. People don't want to use it, particularly pregnant women are saying they actually feel sick going into the toilets in their current situation. In addition to that, there is no facilities for disabled people to use the toilets at all there, so that has also been brought to our attention. So, I am asking for this application to be agreed to allow these toilet facilities to be improved, and I will take any questions. Thank you very much. Can you assure us that the toilets that would be put in would be fully accessible? What happens to the toilets whilst the toilets are being redone? Are we leaving pregnant women without toilets? Whilst the works are happening, are we leaving pregnant women without toilets, and is there any mitigation in place? If the centre is open 52 weeks, the staff toilets will be used while the refurbishment is going on. Thank you. Councillor David, did you have a question? Does the Children's Centre have any funds to contribute? So that's always been the problem, why it's been so delayed, they don't have the funds and they never have had the funds to do the refurbishment. Councillor Weisel. Given your description of the toilets, which I don't really want to revisit, what is the cleaning and maintenance programme that will be in place once the toilets are repaired? So it's the school business manager who will be in charge of the maintenance for the whole facilities, in charge of the construction work while it's going on, and then we'll take over the maintenance programme. OK, any further questions? OK, in which case I suggest that we award funding with the conditions that there would be newly created disabled access and children access of the toilets, and that we note the implication to the ENSL funding budget. Is that agreed? Wonderful. That is all of the bids. Item 12, any other items that the chair decides are urgent? I deem no other items to either exist or be urgent, and therefore I am closing the meeting at 7.44. Thank you all.

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