Transcript

I will take you through some process bits before we start. A warm welcome to those attending this evening and those watching on the Council's YouTube channel. And for information, the cameras come this way, so the visibility is on those who've sat themselves at the front. Details of business were on the agenda as we published it. We're not expecting a fire drill, so if the alarm goes off, please follow our officers to the exit points of the building. I would ask, please, that mobiles and tablets are certainly switched to silent because somebody's guaranteed to go off somewhere during the meeting otherwise. I'll do some brief introductions and then I'll take you through how this works. I'm Councillor Eddie Lavery, the Cabinet Member for Community Environment. I have an officer team with me tonight, Sandra Taylor on the far end, the Corporate Director of Adult Social Care and Health, Carrie Whelan, Carrie Whelan, the Corporate Director for Place, Nicola Herbert. We have two up as Director of Environment, but Nicola Herbert has been our Acting Director of Environment for some time, and Steve Brown is our new Director of Environment, and I have Anissa Teji from Democratic Services who is taking the minutes tonight. Standard agenda from my perspective is declarations of interest. If there are any councillors in the hall, if you have a direct interest in this matter, other than as a councillor, you need to declare it, and I don't see any hands, so I'm assuming no. This is a public meeting, and I'll clarify that. It is a meeting held in public, not a public meeting, i.e. the rights to address this meeting are as set out in the councillor's constitution, and I will take you through that in a moment, and it's considered the report of the officers. There are two petitions I'm hearing tonight, and the petitions have five minutes each to address us. If you've ever done planning meetings, you'll understand the format. We run with a traffic light system. You're green for four minutes, you get amber for a minute, and when we get, when it goes red, that is done. And I will draw you gently to a close at that point. There are no, I haven't seen the world councillors in the room, so there are no other rights to address this meeting other than that. Normally, if you've done petitions in relation to traffic and other matters, the cabinet member hearing that petition would be the decision maker, and therefore has recommendations about making decisions. Tonight's report does not have that, because this is a decision to be made by the full cabinet, and therefore, whilst the report of tonight will go to the cabinet, it is not a decision I can make tonight. That is scheduled for the cabinet meeting on the 26th of June. I don't know which order people are speaking in. You put it, yeah, if you press the button on the right, I think from my memory, it should, if it lights up red, you've cracked it. If it doesn't light up red, you've not cracked it. Can you just, just for minutes taking purposes, can you just give your name before you start, and then we'll continue on. My name is Dominic Craddock. Hi. Before I start, I'd like to thank the council, Councillor Eddie Lavery, for inviting me to this petition hearing. I would also like to point out what I'm about to present is very brief. Throughout the presentation, I will refer to the Rural Activity Centre as the Rural Activity Centre or the Centre. I would like to begin by stating that it is extremely concerning that prior to the proposed closure announcement of the centre, there was no public consultation. Therefore, the council has not fulfilled its statutory and legal obligations. According to the local government association, it is best practice that there is an eight to twelve week consultation process. Although the, although it was not public, although the council did conduct a four week consult, however, the four, the council did conduct a four week consultation for charging for green waste collection in March 2025. In terms of the centre's closure, the council proposed an article entitled, Council announces plan to improve horticultural social care service. This article stated that the civic centre campus will offer a rich and varied learning and development. This is disingenuous to the centre and is wholly misleading. Over forty years, the Rural Activity Garden Centre's two-acre site has been lovingly created and tended. It includes a wooded area, ponds, topiary, a vegetable garden and fruit trees, ornamental planting and a woodcraft workshop, beehives, polytunnels and a garden centre. The centre's environment in terms of learning and development could not be more enriching. The centre also provides a unique opportunity for local schools, Uxbridge College and other groups to use the centre's facilities. In terms of the council's new proposal at the civic centre, only eight of the 34 people with additional needs will have provision, leaving 26 without any. There is no comparison with the current provision at the Rural Activities Garden Centre. The Rural Activities Garden Centre has been falsely presented by the council as a commercial garden centre. The council describes the centre as unable to compete with other garden centres, yet the centre is not set up to operate as such. The centre's remit was for it to be run as a social enterprise and not as a commercial business. The centre operates for a social and environmental purpose to support and care for people with additional needs. Over the years, the centre has faced obstacles and concerns in relation to its funding. The cafe at the centre, which was run by Hillingdon Autistic Care and Support, had its funding withdrawn by the council without any explanation. As early as April 2010, there were concerns raised over the centre's funding. In a letter from the council stated that plans were being developed to secure a firm financial foundation for the centre. Grants were applied for by the centre, but it was told to withdraw these. A post was to be created for someone to run and oversee paid courses, but this never materialised. In the past, when the council was approached about funding, it was met with a wall of silence. More recently, it is rumoured that Hillingdon Council have approached Buckinghamshire County Council to buy five acres of greenbelt land it owns at the back of the centre. If the centre was to close, and should Buckinghamshire County Council sell the five-acre greenbelt land, the Hillingdon Council would own seven acres. It is rumoured that it is the intention of the council to use the land for temporary housing for migrants. To conclude, the lack of public consultation did not occur because the council would be fully aware what the public reaction would be to its closure. Furthermore, the lack of engagement and transparency by the council in relation to the centre's variety of alternative funding streams is highly questionable. Finally, I would request that the London Borough of Hillingdon grant a minimum 18-month period of grace for the centre to create a social enterprise business plan. I have also been contacted this morning by Councillor Sadeel Punja, I hope I have pronounced that correctly, stating that we need an independent public consultation with equalities impact assessment and a feasibility assessment scoping on alternative options. The council call it a horticultural social care facility, and that in regard, it has been used as an integral part of social care learning as part of the Care Act 2014. £6 billion, £500, £500, £5 billion and £ GitHubio, £5 billion and £0, £100, £2 billion. ogue Cathy Bunlar and £ exposeồng-¬ com £5 billion. Thank you. Mr Scribbins, please. My name is John Scribbins. I'm here today to present this petition to stop the closure of the Rural Activities Garden Centre, an irreplaceable social care resource. By coincidence, next week is Learning Disability Week, which includes the theme, Do You See Me?, which is about those with learning disabilities being seen, heard and valued. Something I hope this petition helps with. The positive impact of the Rural Activities Garden Centre is huge, and my wife and I have personal experience of the way it uplifts the spirits of our son, Oliver, who has learning disabilities and mental health problems. He has been doing his supervised voluntary gardening work as part of his social care plan at RAGC for about 10 years. Like other users of the centre, he gets a great deal of satisfaction from his work there, but of equal importance is the social contact with other volunteers, staff and the wider community that the centre provides. Some of the public volunteers at RAGC have been there for 30 years or more, and I've spoken to a volunteer recently who remembers building the aviaries and sheds at RAGC in the early days of the centre. There is a real community atmosphere at this centre. It's like a family, and of course, it is the presence of all the gardeners, the volunteers and staff together in one place, which creates this magical atmosphere. Furthermore, it's not just the people on social care plans that the Rural Activities Garden Centre supports. It also helps students at a number of schools, such as Pilt Heath, Collin Manor and Douay Martyrs, as well as providing employment pathway opportunities for colleges such as Uxbridge and Orchard Hill College. In addition, a GP at the closure meeting on 30th May explained that patients that have been signposted to RAGC benefits by requiring less medical intervention. The benefits of RAGC are not confined to this borough, as its volunteers have worked with other organisations, such as Great Ormond Street Hospital, where they helped create roof gardens. And of course, RAGC has won a gold medal at the Royal Horticultural Society Gardener Show. This can only have enhanced the reputation of a borough. There is a long history of support for RAGC from senior members of the council, regardless of their political party. Hillington's website rightly describes RAGC as a hidden gem. I've also seen a video and photos of you, Councillor Lavery, helping promote the work of the centre during your visits with mayors. Unlike most social care facilities, RAGC is also used by thousands of members of the public each year, who come to buy their plants and have a chat. This is one reason why so many residents have such great affection for this centre, and have passionately supported the petition, contributing to the signatures, which now number over 5,500. The council's press release, the 30th of May, about the proposed closure, explains that the council wants to create, and I quote, a wider and more meaningful range of activities than they currently experience at the garden centre. Now, although gardening work and carpentry may not be very meaningful to the council, I can assure them that this amazing work done by volunteers over the past 40 years is meaningful to the volunteers, their families, the staff at the centre, and the public who buy plants and other products resulting from their endeavours. If the council had consulted with us, they would have known this. Even if you ignore the compassionate need to keep the centre open, it is surely a matter of common sense that destroying the happiness and well-being provided by the family-like support at RAGC will exacerbate the behavioural and mental health problems of some of the vulnerable people who benefit from the centre. This will surely require more intensive and expensive social care interventions, costing the council far more money in the longer term. According to the council's own documentation, as stated in a 2019 planning application, the RAGC is an integral part of the delivery of adult learning courses under the terms of the Care Act of 2014. In this instance, surely any significant deviation or closure there must be subject to a formal public consultation with an equality impact assessment, as part of the council's public sector equality duty and a feasibility assessment of alternative options. The absence of consultation with those vulnerable adults and their families who would be impacted by the closure of RAGC is unforgivable, bearing in mind the impact the closure would have on them. So on behalf of the petitioners, I will end by calling on the council to withdraw the closure plan now and start a proper public consultation, including with all those who use the centres, their families and professional carers, before any further decisions are made. Even better, please withdraw the closure altogether. My thanks to the petitioners for stating their views very quickly. Could you turn that one off? Otherwise, we'll end up with feedback in just a moment. Stating their views very carefully, which my colleagues in Democratic Services have noted, and obviously that is in addition to the petitions we have received. All of that information will now go forward to the Cabinet meeting. I don't know if any of the officers present want to add any additional comment before I move this forward. No? No? No? Okay. In which case, I will thank you all for your time and close the meeting at this point. Thank you.