Transcript

Good evening, welcome to the King George Field Charity Board meeting. We just can unfortunately adjourn for five minutes. Thank you. Okay, thank you and good afternoon to each and everyone of you. Shall we recommence our meeting? King George Field Charity Board, thank you, Mr Deputy Mayor for opening and adjourning the meeting. I was wondering later on another meeting, but we are here now. Okay, thank you. Great. Okay, any apologies for absence? We're a full house. No apologies. Oh, consensate. Sorry yet, consensate. Okay, let's note that declarations of interest in one. No declarations, great. Public benefit guidance is set out at pages 9 to 10. So when you make a decision, please bear that in mind, have a reflection on that. Okay, it's okay, minutes of the previous meeting, the 22nd of November, 2023, anything that you want to raise? If not, can we agree the minutes? Great. Okay, and restrict reports for consideration. We've got the terms of reference. King George Field Charity Trust Board, pages 15 to 18. It's usual, nothing is there. No changes yet. Okay, great, Jack. Yep, good. So can we agree those? Nope, that was anything there? We'll just have to amend the name of the lead member. Okay. Oh, yeah, sorry. So if I could ask, request the office associate. We've got three lead members. So Councillor LIK part is not here. Councillor Colby was saying it's not here. And Councillor, so look, it's not here. We've got Councillor Mustak, Ahmed, Councillor Campbell was saying and Shafi Ahmed, yeah, you haven't changed your name by any chance of you to child view or Talukdar, none of that. Okay, so you're still Shafi Ahmed. So, okay, we've got those. Great. Thank you, Deputy Mayor, you're awake today. Fantastic. Okay, can we now move on to 4.2? Oh, sorry, and a report is not here. So we're skipping that. That's not on table today. Okay, 4.3, King George Field Trust update on audit accounts to 21-22, current financial positions, governance update, activity update, allocation of fields, trust, fields in trust, grant funding. Simon, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Mr Mayor. This report provides an update on the annual Council submissions, the charity commission, and an overview of the charity's current financial position and the activities and achievements for 23-24. In addition, this report provides an update on the governance-related matters with an ongoing work being carried out by our legal services, and finally, this report asks the board to take a decision regarding allocation of grant funds for the fields in trust. I might just hand over to Councillor Neill at this point. Thank you, Simon. Good evening, board. The 21-22 audit accounts for King George Fields, my land charity have been audited and submitted to the charity commission, and thank you, board, you nominated me at the previous meeting to be the point of contact for the charity commission that's now set up. The 22-23 annual accounts, audit accounts, and reports are in the process of being audited. We are very close to completion, and my apologies to the board that are not available tonight. We will seek to arrange an extraordinary meeting for those to be considered by the board. The accounts are up-to-date for the King George's Field, Stephanie, Tredka Square, and charity. In terms of the financial position, although these aren't the finalised accounts for 23-24, we have provided the board with Appendix 1, which is an overview of the forecast that was provided earlier in this year, and the current final position for 23-24. There is a in-year deficit that has been recorded within the appendix. That is due to a number of key factors, not least that dated rent that was paid out of the accounts in 23-24, and additional pressures on repairs and maintenance. There will be a plan forthcoming to the board on how we longer term reduce that deficit, and some inroads have been made already in terms of forecasting for the financial year 24-25 as well. Are there any questions to the board on that particular point? Yes. In terms of income, we actually exceeded the forecast just slightly, and what we reported to the board in February in the papers, and the expenditure was over for the reasons outlined including the backdated rent. We are going to use some of the reserves in terms of reducing the deficit, which will give a negative balance of 112,931. In terms of how we reduce that, we are hoping to reduce that by £40,000 deficit in 24-25. Katherine, you can turn the mic off, please. Thank you. I have few comments. I will come back to it. Any colleagues, any comments on the gen diet and 4.3, and you have got three appendixes there. Generally, please tell them which paper you are talking to. Thank you. One of the reasons for overspending is the additional pressure on repairs and maintenance budget. I just want to understand, how was it last year in terms of repairs and maintenance? Is that something that is happening continuously, or is this one off? Thank you. We do get out of the blue expenses that come up. We try not to spend all the repairs and maintenance. That is our ideal position. The year prior, I think our repairs and maintenance actually were within budget if not under. This year, we did have to undertake more repairs and maintenance. Obviously, we have got to maintain, particularly the assets that are leased out to a certain standard in order for them to remain hireable and desirable, including the arts and ecology pavilion, for example. There is the repairs and maintenance across the park itself as well that have to be considered. If you look at Paragraph 3.9, or the report, sets out that the deficit has been reduced in the circa of £40,000 for £24.25. That is by number of methods. One of them is obviously increasing the fees and charges going forward, also in more income generation generally from some of the bookings, etc. It is on the right track, and don't forget, we have COVID. It was a huge responsibility to have eaten into the income of the estate. We are beginning to turn the corner slowly and they have got a good forecast coming forward. Thank you. Anyone else? Councillor COBRIER AFRED. Sorry, just in line with COVID, if you can remind us how much of a detrimental impact it had during these lockdown periods in relation to income generation, and how difficult has it been to rebuild that business back up again after COVID, and where are we now in terms of bookings and streamlining our processes in terms of income generation? Thank you. I don't have exact figures to hand, so I have to generalise if that's okay. COVID-19, quite rightly, the Mayor pointed out, did have a negative impact on the ability to hire out the facilities, including Stephanie Green, Astroturf and the pavilions. We did do some work during that period, not least with the NHS, and supporting the NHS's response to COVID-19 and with food banks. We also were in receipt of an emergency COVID grant during that point, but actually, when we have done a deeper analysis more recently into the impact of COVID, we weren't able to profile the full impact over the full period of COVID, so there was a negative impact, but we think around 150,000 approximately, to the charities of direct result of COVID-19. In terms of bookings, it was slow to pick up. We had lots of people trying out different things, and are we in a digital world now? Whether we're not anymore, people are coming back, which is fantastic. We're starting to get up back to where we were, and we've seen bookings increase, in fact, the Stephanie Green, Astroturf did better than we'd forecasted, for example, which is great, and we hit the target minus 45 pounds, I think, for the pavilion. So we're doing well in terms of trying to increase bookings, and we have a separate paper where we talk about that in more detail and the fees and charges that we're proposing for this year. We're actively trying to broaden our reach as well, and obviously, any support we can get, we welcome any suggestions. Thank you, Catherine. Tala, please. Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Thank you, Catherine. Just a question on Appendix 3, where I think it's on Phil's interest, funding options, and it's an ultimate item on that table where it talks about CCTV at Wellington Green. So I just wanted to understand, it's 110,000 pounds spending on play equipment, CCTV and site access. I just wanted to understand what the sort of database or the evidence base was to propose installing CCTV. So we obviously take feedback from colleagues that we work with in terms of community safety, and the regular meetings that happen between the parks team with community safety, and sometimes the police attend as well, the neighbourhood police team. That park is, it's utilised for the fun fair, for example, and ad hoc use as all of our parks are. It came out of a wider review of parks and looking at whether there are areas we've identified could benefit from increased CCTV. It's by the canal as well, and that can have an impact in terms of antisocial behaviour at times. It's next to Beau Wharf as well, which can have two effects. It can have a benefit of more people being around, but also they have some night-time activity there, and so it can also have a negative impact on that site also. So just quickly, if you don't mind, you may not have the data to hand, but it will be useful just to understand complaints, data, incidents in that area, just to gather that intelligence piece. I'm sure it's available, it's just at some point, if we can go through that. I don't have that to hand, but certainly I can look into that, and that's a very valid question, and we can provide more information. Sir, please. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My question is related to client feedback and reviews. So essentially what process we have in place to gather client feedback and act upon them and to ensure that our clients' experiences are reflected in our service improvements. Thank you. Thank you. So I just took clarity. Is that regarding all activities across the estate? In general, if I may, Mr. Mayor, in general, particularly in relation to the bookings and services for the venues being hired. Thank you. Thank you. We obviously do have the residence survey, which includes Milan Park and other parks as part of it. Outside of that, we have consultations as part of any improvement works that we carry out. We also have the Milan collaborative, which is open to the public on a regular basis, and obviously, as we're there, people come and share their feedback, so that's a really good and informal way of capturing service user suggestions and feedback. There's also, of course, the corporate channels, which are the complaints process and inquiries process, and also the members inquiries, which are actioned and responded to. In terms of the bookings process, we have reviewed over the years how we can increase access and how we can profile and welcome different events there. We do get some complaints from some of the events that we hold there from residents regarding impact of parking, for example, the local area, and maybe activity people going to and from the pavilion, particularly the arts pavilion, which is closer to residential housing. We work proactively with our staff and it makes us part of our training program that we try and address any of those concerns. Generally, the bookings process, we try and respond as quickly as possible to inquiries. We have a subsidised rate as well, there's an application process for people or for community base groups, and that was approved and reviewed last year by the board. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? Come closer. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Catherine, how can you reduce the staffing cost at Stepping Green Askerog? Has this been reviewed, and if so, when was that? I've got a second question. What other options have been explored? To increase the revenue. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'll start with revenue, if that's okay. We've got a paper that's part of the pack that's coming up on fees and charges. For these and charges, we did have to liaise with the Football Foundation in terms of how those are applied. The fees and charges were nominally agreed by cabinet but need to be ratified through this group. In terms of the benchmark that we've done, we've tried to make sure that the facility at Stepping Green is comparable to other venues but also remains accessible for our residents. There is a residential rate which is lower, of course, than a non-resident rate. In terms of the costs of running the venue, I think honestly the efficiencies that can be made across every way in which services are run, there is an opportunity as part of a wider review of Astrata facilities across the borough to look at that in more detail as part of wider business planning. For example, we're seeking additional funding and investment into Stebingdale and the Isle of Dogs and also at King Edward Memorial Park, we'll be looking to put in an Astrata facilities. What we'll be looking for with colleagues across the service is how we can be more effective and cost-efficient in the way in which we maintain and manage those facilities. Thank you, I'm grateful. Anyone else? If not, I have one or two to see a clarification. Okay, I'm looking at Appendix 1, Catherine. I know you've told me this, I just want to understand. You know where it sets out donations of 363,000 last year and this year, 57, 7, 7, 8, 5. What, what, what does that come from? Right. Oh, okay, is it literal donations or is it fees and charges about the term destination? Right, okay. Okay, what I suggest for the future going forward, just have a bracket, just to a small narrative underneath how it's made up and break down the amounts, where, from what sources we get the rivers' money, so we know what it is, yeah? It's for public consumption, so people don't think, people just donating money to us, it's also the various sources that income, how we generate income. Is that okay? Yes, that's a very good suggestion. Thank you, that's noted. Yep, thank you very much. And can I ask you, so, so if you go lower down, the license fees, we didn't make a forecast for February, but the actuals were 37,000, just over 37,000, yet. See, if you go, so underneath car parks, there's license fees, so for other stuff, apart from two, we made forecasts, for that, we didn't make a forecast, but this is why actually, by May 24th, this is what we received, yeah, 37,000. For actually income from other trading activities, so for the car parks, it was forecasted at 18,000, we came just under at 17, 7, 3, 5, but then license fees weren't forecasted earlier in the year, because they came in later, so that's, and again, I'm taking on your point, Mr. Mayor, before we can rate that better in the future, the license fee relates to, for example, people doing works in parks, they might utilise a park, the park, license that area to deal with cladding, removal, would be one key example. Okay, keep eye on that, see what else we can do to drive it up, also advertising, I know it's not forecast, we've received, no, that's not, we don't receive, but that's expenditures, isn't it? Explain that to me, how's the expenditure? So, I'll ask spending, sorry, sorry, I thought we were advertising, making some income from advertising on our state, or on that state, no, it's income, I understand. Sorry, I know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I forgot the basics, I know. Okay, now that's understandable, that's that, on that, appendix 2, I don't have anything as such, and that is noted, appendix 3, I know how last touched on it, I want to make some go-free individuals, that's okay. So, the fields in trust grant funding options, which you've set up, set out. So, the match funding, or practice cricket nets at the park, open space 20k, you're suggesting, have we secured DAVA 20k, or are we in the process, why have we put the bid in for that? There's a wider piece of work been undertaken with the English cricket board and Middlesex cricket board across a number of assets across the borough, and that's not secured at the moment, that would be match funding, but the team are in the process of trying to secure that funding, and Johor Ali, our director, is working very closely with the team on that. Okay, great, if it happens, it's good, if it doesn't happen, that £20,000 will be stool in the kitty, okay. So, I'm going to say, okay to that, it is okay to remember this, go on, go on, give it a... Come in, I may have covered, if I don't cover it, you can come in, you say, okay, thank you. So, 20,000 set aside for that, yes, subject, obviously subject to match funding being available. Going on to now, Stepma Green asked her to have improvements, I know that park very well, and in fact, I don't know if you were here, my last term we spent money on that park, and also because of the work that, Elizabeth Crossrail, we got the astroturf sorted out, and we got other improvements in the farm, and in the surrounding parks from Crossrail money, whenever we got from that. I personally believe, Councillor Waihe, the old world councillor, you may be able to help me if I'm wrong, I believe the pedestrian entrance, and the associated spectator covered area, I think it's in a perfectly good condition. I don't believe it needs additional money, as such, at this stage, as people are using that park, people are using the astroturf every weekend, every evening, it's very busy, I pass by nearly every, every, every other night in that area, and it's been used, I don't think entrance coming in, coming out is a problem, I don't believe further £10,000 would be a good use of this money at this stage, so I'm going to, if members are okay, say no to that, if that's okay, comes okay, but is that what you're going to touch on, yeah, yeah, okay, so say no to that, can I also say the £8,500 to improve building security, I believe the building there, remember we went for the match with the staff, the building's there, it's fine, in five condition, low-respected officers, I don't believe at this stage the building or the security needs further work on it, for £8,500, I think that money could be used well somewhere else, so I'm going to say, if members are okay, say no to that, if that's okay, on the further £8,500, Catherine, to improve accessibility, so again, same comments as I made earlier on, on the entrance, etc, I think the access is fine, it's good, it's not hindrance to anyone, people are coming and going into the astra-turb in the back part generally, and again, I believe that money could be well used somewhere else, I'm going to say no to that £8,500, if colleagues are okay with that, yep, that's fine, I think a kiosk we can do with their kiosk and generate income from that park, because that park is used so much by residents during the weekends, weekdays and especially the astra-turb, a lot of people are coming and going, I think a kiosk hot beverage is, teas and coffees will be a good income generator for us, £20,000 does seem a lot of money, but if it's your professional views, I don't know how, it's going to be a process, certainly governor, tender process, securing, who's going to operate from that kiosk, I'm sure that the kiosk itself is going to cost us to put it up, £20,000, yep. And Ms Mer, that was an inductor cost put together several months ago actually, so we can revisit that again, what are the capital team within the council would take forward the project in terms of the works that need to be done to create the kiosk, and then we would work with colleagues in asset management to market it openly for people to put their interest in and their business plan to run it as a kiosk. Yeah, an open tender please, absolutely, but do just have a look at it, whether, do challenge our colleagues in assets, whether it's going to cost us £20,000 to put in a kiosk, but I can look at the capital cost, but I think kiosk is a good idea, so we will provision in £20,000, subject to proper vetting, why kiosk? Is that okay, yep, okay, great. Sorry? Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely, yeah, so eventually, eventually, it should wash itself, you know, make us profit. And the inductive £10,000, and that is inductive when we go out to the market place, hopefully there will be competition and we'll get a better return. I think given the location, I think we'll get a good deal from that area in terms of rent, it's a good, good place, and it's very busy, seven days a week, great, I mean, so we'll agree to that, if that's okay. The next one, the play equipment, I know, tell us, spoke about it, I think we need not to say no for now, but not going to agree it now, we need a proper report, options report from you, please, assignment from the officers, whether we can, if there are, are there any other spaces across the state where a play zone could be put in? Yeah, I know that here really well, it's not that used, I mean, sometimes the people, families that go to Regent's Lake Vancouver Hall, they're using it most of the time, who are visitors to our borough rather than residents, so that's one of my concern and second, the location is quite, you know, back off Milan Park, yeah, out of the way, if we can have any options paper from you, whether there's any other venues that we can put in a play zone, please, Catherine, and if it's, if you, and for this side, just some of the questions that Councillor Charles be raised, Abutala, on YCCTV, what the need is, because again, that area is used, because of the bow wolf, because of the car park, because of the banquet at all, it's quite, it's very much used and I do get a lot of issues about this also behavior across the borough, I've not had any from that area such, you know, I have come to know, I don't know you'd remember, so you can have just an update report on that for us, but I'm not on paper generally, is that okay? Thank you, Mr. Manchester, you mentioned play zones, but do you mean play equipment? Yeah, thank you. I get confidence to learn and get confidence to names and I surely it's the much, much, the younger generation knows all the terms I'm, let's do learning. You say okay, yeah, so I'm going to pause that for now, say okay? And Mr. Mather's one final aspect. Coming onto that, yeah, coming onto that, so we've got the match funding, yeah, here it is, tools, plays on schemes, upgrades to the artificial pitches at Milan Park. I think Milan Park does, the artificial pitches do need an upgrade, absolutely. Can I just ask, and I've said this, I've said it to your previous assignment before, I don't know if I've mentioned it to Catherine, the actual stadium and the grass, the football pitch, it's got potholes across it and it's dangerous, people can break their legs, you know, I want to match, or youngsters, when they, the inter-school football tournament, and I saw the pitch was in a really bad condition, so are there any suggestion to, to re, or upgrade, refer, refer, refurbish that football pitch at all, please? And within the stadium, I'd have to defer to my colleagues who aren't present tonight, we did concentrate on areas in the estate that are more publicly accessible, and at that time when this was produced as a report initially, Milan Stadium came under the GLL contract, which obviously it no longer does because it's in source, so we can pick that up again and come back to the board with more options around this. Yeah, if you can, because we want to look at how we generate more income from our parks, from open spaces, especially the Milan park is a jewel in the crown for us, one of the jewel in the crown for us, but that, that pitch is totally, is gone virtually, so can you look at, gradually said to what else we can do and how we can find the money, we freed up some money through this process, but this is not going to be able to be enough, but if we can use this towards match funding, yeah, to attract, leave room money from our site, can we explore that, please? Yeah, give us some options. Because, and just for clarity for the board, because the money's coming from Fields and Trust, anything the board decides to do, we'll need to be approved by Fields and Trust, so I would recommend that if we have an options paper between now and the next board meeting, we can also talk to Fields and Trust to get some feedback from them as well, on the proposed allocation. Please, yeah, that's fine, and just, so give me a second, sir, give me a second, just on the last one, 87-500, so it's going to contribute towards match funding, which will cover up to 75% of the costs, so other 25%, we're getting from an external source, can you please just tell us how confident are we that that we'll be able to leave her in additional money to spend this money and to upgrade the pictures, artificial pictures. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The Play Zones project is ongoing at the moment, and we've moved through to the next stage with London Sport. There will be feasibility studies that will influence the ultimate decision of the funders as to which sites are funded, so until we've gone through the full process, we can't give a guarantee. Certainly as a borough, I think we'll look to one favourably given our demographics. Thank you, Councillor CUMBERS. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, the report is says the pictures must be booked and would not be free of charge, but my understanding, the match funding is set by a criteria from the football foundation. How can we avoid no free time at all as it is a requirement of the funding? Thank you very much. That comment there can be updated to reflect the Play Zones conditions. Mine says that wouldn't impact on the funding we're receiving from Fields & Trust, but certainly we would review with them any of the conditions of the associated grant funding for the London Play Zones. My understanding is that there would be some free sessions offered as part of the Play Scheme, so that can be updated. I think again, this was produced at a time when we didn't have all the detail available, so we can update that and certainly go back to Fields & Trust just to resolve any matters. So, on that paper, we said yeses to some things, we said noes to something and we posed one of them, subject to further information. Is that okay? Jack, is that clear? Yes, thank you. And so, Mr. Mayor, just for clarification, we'll pull together a paper which will look at the various options around the Fields & Trust funding and then I would recommend that the entire amount is then brought back as a consolidated paper to this board to then make a decision as the board as to whether or not to proceed. Thank you. Do that, I will assess the contracts. Go on, say it, go on. So, just wanted an understanding. Within Council structures, we're reviewing multiple contracts and looking at best value and the most we can get out of it. So, two areas of interest here. One is, in relation to any works we're doing through this trust, are we getting best value out of those contracts and are we maximising on that? And the other is, with the leisure in sourcing program, as they're interconnected within Myland Park, for example, can we link up work so we get a better deal in terms of the works we get done, integrated work? Thank you very much, very good points. We will be looking for efficiencies and also we have to follow the procurement process for any works that are undertaken or committed to and depending on the value, they would then go through the appropriate procurement process. Depending on the type of work, so that if it's towards a bigger project, then of course, there'll be economies of scale. If there are similar works been carried out, then it might be that a procurement's done to combine those different works. That would obviously increase the overall value, which would then may increase the length of time it takes for the procurement to be carried out. So, it's weighing out the timeframe against the potential economies of scale that's something that'll be considered as part of the works program. Thank you. So, is that okay, Campbell? You're the lead member, I'm just taking as the chair. So, come back to recommendations. So, one, two, three, four, so one, we're noting two and three, we've reviewed it and noted or said that four, we noted the governance update and five is where we made those comments and five, six, we noted public benefits. Is that okay for the record? Thank you. So, Mr Mayor, just on the governance and some information from Richard Ward, who's online with us at the moment regarding the title deeds? Yeah. Okay, Richard. Thank you, Mr Mayor. Good afternoon to yourself and members. Just to update you, the title deeds over the years to the land held by the Trust are somewhat confusing. You need to be aware that there are over 600 title deeds that needed checking to make sure that they're in the name of the Trust rather than the Council and that we've got everything correctly, a portion to the correct authority because the land that belongs to the Trust, the title deeds need to say that it's held by the Lunderbara of Tower Hamlets as corporate trustee to the Trust. Now, my colleague Joanne Danielo who's on the call now, we've been through 600 title deeds and we've sent those off to the land registry and to make sure that everything is correctly noted. Now, the problem is that the moment is that the land registry have a couple of years backlog of work on work that's not sort of standard sort of conveyance in work and we won't know for some time that everything's been correctly done, but we have, I think, Joanne you're on the call, how many have we got left to do? We've submitted them all Richard, so they've all been sent off, so yeah, to the land registry. So everything should be in order, but we're not going to know that it is for many months and possibly a year or so. And we don't have any, I hope we don't have any adverse possession, Richard. No, we are, we are, occupation is under control. No one can come and say no, we on this. I certainly hope not. We are the custodians of each of the generations. Yes, yes, okay. Great, yes. Thank you, thank you very much Joanne, thank you Richard, thank you very much. This paper, yeah, thank you. Please, let's move on to 4.4, fees and charges review. Again, send Richard, sorry Simon, it's quite straightforward, gone. Thank you Mr Mayor. This sets out the Baldrigs asked to consider and approve posed increased charges for the use of bookable charitable assets from the 1st of April, 2024, including the arts and ecology, pavilion and astrophysics set in the green. This report also includes a new rate for corporate pavilion booking to town habits based charities and not-for-profit organisations to non-peak periods. Catherine, did you want to step in? Thank you Simon. Just to clarify, sorry, that's my fault. I didn't update that note for Simon. It's actually, they'd be implemented from June. We had hoped to implement from April, but obviously we need the board to ratify the fees and charges before they can be implemented. But the fees and charges for the pavilions and Steppner Green Park are included and there's benchmarking that's been carried out as part of the process. The actual Steppner Green Park AstroTurf fees and charges were taken to cabinet as part of a wider fees and charges review earlier in the year, but they do need to be ratified by this board. With regards to the arts and ecology pavilions, we're recommending an increase of 11.4%, slightly rounded up depending on what that comes out at. Again, the benchmarking is included in the appendix. We're still, hopefully, an appealing destination in terms of our fees and charges being competitive, but obviously if we put them up too much, then we could price ourselves out of the marketplace. Those fees and charges also include proposed new corporate rates. Last time we talked to the board about how we might be able to expand and increase bookings, and we know that we have many weekend bookings, which is fantastic, but we can benefit from more midweek bookings. It's proposed that there is a 20% reduction on the standard rate for corporates during the week, during non-peak periods. That would be for conferences and events that aren't necessarily open to the public, but obviously it would still be a benefit to our residents. You might have things like NHS or educational institutes, for example, booking the space out during the week. That would hopefully mean that we would have more income coming into the charity. Staffing and equipment costs would still be incurred on top of that. Thank you, Catherine. Camberon, I know you're the lead member for this. Do you want to add anything to what's been said? No, thank you. Okay, great. Any comments from everyone? I'll make some comments after it's gone. Could we? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Catherine, just wanted to understand what's the current - I know you've given the overview of targets to generate income, and last year we had an excess of 230,000. But what I want to understand is what is the take-up rate, and we've got a 20% reduction for weekday bookings for corporates. Is this included within the forecast you're putting forward? And within that, what is the forecast in terms of booking take-up? And the second element of it is how are we reaching out to corporates in order to get those bookings in? Thank you very much. We are still catching up post-pandemic, so we've kept our targets for income at a steady, consistent level. We haven't trialled, obviously, a discounted rate for the corporates, so we're not sure until we implement that, whether or not that's going to have a significant impact. So we would need to review as part of the forecasting that we do throughout the year and adjust back to the board if we think those income targets will hopefully be exceeded as a result. But I'm not able to give you an indicative percentage increase at the moment. We'd need to implement it, promote it, and see how it runs in terms of pickup. We've noted that generally at the moment June has been a bit quieter, to be honest. I think the cost of living is impacting some of the private hires with people having to make decisions, difficult decisions about how they hold family celebrations. That's why we're keen to look at other corporate spheres as well in income streams. With the private bookings we have tried to increase our range. We've seen more Mendes and other types of celebrations, not just weddings come through to the pavilions as well. With regards to marketing, we do use some advertising that we do in terms of some of the formal channels, like Asian Bride and other known entities for advertising or venues. And we have our social media digital reach as well. I met recently with the Director of Comms to look across all of our assets and how we can increase promotion, and that would include the pavilions, for example. Certainly with the astroturf, when we have more astroturf across the borough, we can do more work around promoting our facilities and amenities, both to residents and non-residents. And certainly the arts and ecology pavilion, they are both destination venues, and we'll continue to promote them. Any support that we have, of course, from colleagues across the council in terms of your own networks has welcomed. So I just wanted to come in. So a couple of things. I know we do some ceremonies for awards and everything from the council. So one area is potential away days council departments have, and I know we go external places in order to pay them. So there could be an opportunity in relation to that. The other is possibly tapping into the schools as well as the housing associations. There's a number of housing associations and possibly tapping through to hoof in order to promote this particular venue, the ecology pavilion. It's lovely over there. So away from sort of more banqueting, and if we talk about sort of professional meetings and award ceremonies and training sessions, because it's quite a nice space, quite therapeutic as well.

Thank you. Anyone else? Mustakwe. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. It depends whether excuse my ignorance. If there is already online booking and payment system is in place, and if not, then can I just ask if there is in place? Then I'll be. I'll have a question if not. So at the moment we have to, we still have to deal with clients directly through email to take payments. A lot of our private bookings do pay by credit card, for example, with organizations and corporates, they of course need purchase orders or invoices raised rather. So that's a slightly different payment system. It comes to our business support team. So there are online booking forms, but the payments at the moment are not done online. That is something that's being reviewed as part of a wider review of the commercial activity across the council's assets. >> Thank you. Just to follow up on that, how soon could we expect the implementation of the online payment system particularly, and what level of impact we anticipate from having that kind of system? Thank you. >> Was part of the commercialization meeting that I mentioned I had with the director of comms. We're going to pick up the conversations around payments and how we can make those more streamlined for all council assets within our portfolio. I don't have a time scale for that. It depends obviously on the back end of the finance as well and the ICT. But we would love to simplify all the processes as much as we can to obviously make it easier for our clients and customers and increased bookings. But we would need to report back to the board without a further date. >> Great. Thank you. I'm just going to say that we agree with the increase I believe is competitive and we have to keep in line with inflation. We have no choice. We have to do so and the increase is reasonable. If you look at it and the benchmarking is set up, thank you very helpful. Can I ask Simon and Catherine, can I have a I really might want to look at the commercialization and the marketing strategy for those sites, especially the ecology and arts of opinion. They are truly wonderful vendors when they were created, built and even now I believe they are there's nothing else in the way else in sound embarrassed. But I do believe they are underused to be fair. And I think there's a huge potential to generate more income. I'll give you an example. Not many people within the Bangladeshi community, a lot of respect, know about the arts and ecology pavilion. So when my daughter's Mende, I said it, her Mende was out there. She knew about it and she booked it and she took advantage of it. But other youngsters, they are going to other venues and most of them are going outside of Thailand. Less nicer venues than ecology and arts. And for small events like birthdays, Mende's small celebration reception, those venues are fantastic. But I don't think the youngsters, the kids know about that venue, they should have no more their parents. So I very much can I ask Simon that if you could arrange a meeting, I think Jubeir would be very good. It's very good, it can connect you with the local media, local F&M media. Kiran is very good to both of them. And Andrea, let's have Andrea's, ourselves and Jubeir and Kiran. Let's see what else we can do together to promote these two facilities and other facilities in the community as a whole. So we get bookings, you know, so people are completing for those bookings rather than governing the empty sometimes. So, okay. Of course, that's a fantastic idea. So we can add, I will very much want to paper back to the board for you to look at. Just for the purposes of the minutes, alongside agreeing the increases to the fees and charges and whether or not the board is willing to agree the reduced rate for the corporate bookings during the midweek non-peak hours. So I want to put a hold on that until we have had that marketing meeting with Andrea, Jubeir and Kiran. Yep, it's quite important yet because those facilities were created for the people of this borough. You know, yet I understand we've got to generate income, we have responsibility and we need to maximize the benefits for the people of this borough, a more income, a more benefit. So, however, we can't be at the expense of local residents. So I want to have that meeting first. Is that okay? Yep, please. Yes, Mr. State, thank you. Thank you. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANKAUDIO] [BLANKAUDIO] Coming, yes, Mr. Mayor, I just want to suggest obviously with this report that the main report is public and obviously all the tenants are named as tenant A, B, C and D. And their appendency is restricted, which has all the names and the details of it. Obviously, if you want to talk a bit more openly about each of the tenants, then I would advise that someone proposes in seconds the motion for item five on the agenda, and we're going to a private session where we'll get rid of the general public and we'll stop the recording. Yep. All proposed, do you have a private session? Okay, for obvious reasons. Is that okay? Yep.