The West Ham Park Committee is scheduled to meet on Thursday 11 December 2025 to discuss the park's budget for 2026/27, receive an update on park maintenance and security, and review a proposal for a new grant funding model. Some of the meeting will be held in private because it relates to business under the remit of the Court of Common Council acting as charity trustee, and contains sensitive information.

Here are the key topics that the committee is expected to discuss:

Budget for 2026/27

The committee is scheduled to review and approve the proposed revenue and capital budgets for the West Ham Park charity for 2026/27, before they are submitted to the Finance Committee for approval.

The proposed draft revenue budgets for West Ham Park amount to £2.640m net expenditure. This represents an increase of £310k compared with the original budget for 2025/26 of £2.330m.

The report pack states that the proposed budget for 2026/27 has been prepared within the resource envelope allocated to each Chief Officer by the Resource Allocation Sub-Committee, including an inflationary increase of 3% as well as contingency funding relating to the pay award effective from July 2024 and increases in employer's national insurance. The charity's core grant for 2026/27 also includes funding for the transfer of support services staff at West Ham Park whose costs were previously met by the Directorate.

The report also reframes the proposed budget to show net expenditure as grant funding from City's Estate for 2026/27, broken down according to the individual elements of the grant (Core Grant, City Surveyor Works, Corporate Recharges and Support Services and Central Risk Expenditure).

The committee will also discuss the proposed Grant Funding Model principles and arrangements, which are presented in a separate paper.

Assistant Director's Report

The committee is scheduled to receive a report from Bill LoSasso, Assistant Director (Superintendent), North London Open Spaces, providing an update on matters relating to West Ham Park since the last committee meeting.

The report includes updates on:

• Park Maintenance: Recent and planned maintenance activities, including grass cutting, hedge trimming, lawn renovations, and bulb planting.
• London in Bloom Awards: West Ham Park achieved a Gold Award for the category of Large Park over 25 acres at the London in Bloom awards¹.
• Football Season: The football season is underway, with East London Ballers using the pitches as their home grounds.
• Cricket Pitches: Resurfacing works have been completed on three of the non-turf cricket pitches.
• Outdoor Gym: A new gate has been installed to prevent dogs from entering the outdoor gym.
• Community Engagement: Recent events organised by the Friends of West Ham Park² and the Learning Team, including a bat walk, a spooky autumn trail, and Newham's Biggest Leaf Pile.
• Learning Team Update: The school learning programme has continued to thrive, with 1,320 school students participating in sessions during September and October.
• SEND Project: The SEND³ project (for children with special educational needs and disabilities) continues to flourish, providing tailored, long-term, nature-based learning experiences. The report also addresses the issue of anti-social behaviour and criminal activity in the Park, and the measures that have been taken to address it.

Following an increase in anti-social behaviour and criminal activity in the Park, four additional security guards from Parkguard were appointed from 29 September. Additional guards were deployed in response to an increase in Class A drug dealing within the Park, which included dealers and users coming into the Park and openly buying, selling and using drugs there. As a result it was decided to temporarily close Margery Gate for a period of time, starting on Friday 3 October to discourage drug-related activity from establishing in the Park.

Officers met with Newham Council on 3 October and with CGL (Newham's Support Services) on 10 October to discuss the issues and ascertain if there was a reason for the recent spike in drug-related incidents. Officers were informed that trees/vegetation and sightlines were recently cleared from nearby Priory Park which Newham Council thinks may have pushed drug activity towards West Ham Park.

Natural Environment Charities Review

The committee will also discuss a report on the Natural Environment Charities Review, which includes a proposal for a new grant funding model. The details of this report are not available to the public.