Minutes of meeting held in person
Present
| Hazel Glenister (chair) | Helen Goodsell | Paul Hurst | Cllr Liz Dixon |
| Gill Close (minutes) | Mark Cummins | Lia Colacicco | David McClements |
| Fitzroy Lee | Owen Plummer |
Apologies
| Cllr Tariq Dar | Francine Lawrence | Sajjad Dar | Bassil Elnaiem |
Actions are shown by initials in bold.
Approval of minutes
- Minutes approved.
Litter
- Trustees agreed to request replacement of broken bins and repositioning of bins if needed, but not to request additional or larger bins as funding is not currently available and Continental Landscapes is contracted to empty a fixed number of bins.
- Hazel to check with Sam Haines when the planned trial of collecting litter at 3.30pm every weekday plus alternating Saturdays and Sundays would start. Some weekend emptying was taking place, but it was not known whether this was on both days.
- Hazel to raise with Sam Haines that some bins were left unemptied when others were emptied.
- Helen said that the new Continental Landscapes officer was helpful with the litter pick.
- Helen has added litter pick dates for July and August and publicised them on the noticeboards and in the newsletter (Sat 22 June DHH, Sat 13 July Anson Road, Sun 25 August DHH). She has requested new litter pick leaders and wants to offer litter picks fortnightly instead of monthly.
- GC to ask FL if she has any remaining litter stickers and, if so, could stick them on any bins without stickers or with damaged stickers.
- Hazel to ask Sam Haines for the best method for the community to report uncollected litter. Trustees to keep a record of any future emails or complaints made to the council about litter not collected by Continental Landscapes. LD has asked for Continental Landscapes to be called to the scrutiny committee to be questioned about keeping to contractual requirements.
- Facebook statement to stress the message to take your litter home, state how to report to the council when litter has not been collected by Continental Landscapes and how to report individuals/groups breaching the PSPO by leaving litter. Publicity also to be via residents’ associations and WhatsApp groups. Those who book events through the parks service or filming in the park are contractually required to clear all litter and have to pay clear-up charges if they do not. Hazel to ask Sam Haines to follow up the litter left after unbooked sports events.
- Hazel to follow up with Sam Haines the progress on arranging with Keith from Network Rail to clear the litter alongside the railway lines.
- Trustees to circulate with a bag while groups are picnicking and speak to them about the need to take their litter home as litter is strewn around by foxes and often collected by volunteers. A bag can be handed to groups for them to use. If this is successful, it could be broadened.
- GC has already spoken about litter picks with headteachers from Crest Academy and Our Lady of Grace Infant School during tours of the park. GC to contact local schools to arrange litter picks.
- Helen reported that scouts had helped out with collecting park litter. Helen will contact them to request future litter picks.
Gladstone Centre
- LC showed a slide presentation about the attempts by the council to redevelop the Gladstone Centre, the interest shown by a GP group and permitted uses. Possible costs were £5 million. No funds were available but the council leader had agreed to support future community proposals. Progress had stalled while Cllr Mili Patel, the deputy leader and cabinet member for finance and resources, had been on maternity leave. Trustees agreed to invite Mili Patel to the next trustee meeting, where time could be devoted to discussing this in detail. Hazel to invite her.
- Trustees agreed on including a focus on making space for girls, keeping in contact with the GPs even though the main contact had now moved abroad, and needing the next generation of park users to lead on this. LC to put the women’s football club in contact with the women’s rugby club about access to changing rooms.
- Trustees agreed that the Gladstone Centre would be the focus of the next FoGP public meeting.
- Currently, the Gladstone Centre is not open for use by the community except for the basement gym and the rugby clubhouse. At the public meeting, community members wanted the space available for use now and one spoke of its use in World War II. It appears to have some areas where work is needed, including for damp. LD to contact property services to find out how access can be enabled until any redevelopment.
Public meetings
- Lower attendance on 20 April than on 13 January was thought to be due to the gap between meetings, similarity of focus and other options being available during good weather. Trustees decided to hold the next two meetings in September/October and January.
- Trustees agreed the Gladstone Centre as the topic for the next meeting.
Wildlife and maintenance
- DM shared the early prints of his copse booklet. He is looking for a grant for a longer print run.
- Natural England had requested photographs to support the local nature reserve application.
- DH is providing in-service training for Our Lady of Grace Infant School staff in July.
- Hazel to ask Sam Haines to ask Continental Landscapes not to cut hedgerows before 31 August as the breeding season is from 31 March to 31 August.
- DM and PH to assess what is needed where growth is affecting access from Mulgrave Road.
- Helen to complain again to Sam Haines and Kelly Eaton about lack of mowing of the pleasure grounds and inefficiency of the three narrow electric mowers to mow this and other areas.
- Hazel to meet again with Sam Haines, Leslie Williams and Vincent Nurse on 3 July to follow up their planned maintenance of the pond and surrounding land.
- Hazel to check with Sam Haines Thames Water’s actions on the Mulgrave Road flooding and progress on flushing of drains in other areas that flood (sculpture, wide path, along Kendal Road).
Constitutional matters
- The trustees unanimously voted in favour of the resolutions “The Friends of Gladstone Park trustees appoint Fitzroy Lee as a trustee of Friends of Gladstone Park” and “The Friends of Gladstone Park trustees appoint Owen Plummer as a trustee of Friends of Gladstone Park” so Fitzroy Lee and Owen Plummer were duly appointed as trustees. FL spoke of his commitment to inclusivity and the park’s importance for neurodiverse community members. OP wanted the park restored to its former glory as a focal point for the community and increased use of the park.
- Revision or clarification of matters agreed at the 6 February meeting was held over.
Focus of our work
- Discussion of our goals and who would lead on them was held over until next meeting.
Finance
- Treasurer’s report: balance £2,761.97, with insurance renewed but £200 for bulbs not claimed.
Actions for trustees from 11 April meeting not elsewhere on the agenda
- All items were carried forward as BE and FL were not at the meeting.
- BE offered to set up a Friends of Gladstone Park social media account.
- FL will print a small notice about StreetLink to fit into the noticeboards.
- FL to draft and circulate wording about FoGP and how to become a friend for a small notice to display on noticeboards.
- FL and GC to write wording for Facebook on how and why to report Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) breaches.
Any other business
- MC highlighted community concerns that the green bridge step had not yet been repaired. Tony Kennedy, the head of the council’s highways management, gave GC some Network Rail contact details that he said he had already been in touch with to report the need for the step repair. GC to follow them up and share them with trustees. If no response, trustees would share the contact details more widely.
- MC said that if the parks PSPO was due to expire in April 2025 we should already be thinking about amendments. GC said that she had been involved in the PSPO development and update process and would let trustees know when best to feed into the next amendments. (The council website contains contradictory dates. The parks PSPO is in fact in place until 31 January 2026.)
Date of next meeting
- 6.30pm to 8pm Tuesday 9 July 2024 at Pakistan Community Centre, Marley Walk NW2 4PU